The INSAS is an assault rifle of Indian origin. It was developed in the 1980's to replace the FAL in Indian service. INSAS stands for Indian National Small Arms System. It was designed to be a cheap and effective weapon. However the design is too complex for low cost production and limited production quality has resulted in reduced reliability. First batches were delivered to the Indian Army in the early 1990's.
The design has been inspired by the FNC and Kalashnikov system. The front end of the weapon and the long stroke gas piston resemble the FNC. The receiver is similar to Kalashnikov designs. The stock, pistol grip and forearm are made out of plastics. Over the years a variety of derivatives were developed from the baseline INSAS of which only the light machine gun version was put in production.
The INSAS fires a slightly modified 5.56x45mm NATO round from 20 or 30 round translucent magazines. It is a select fire rifle with a cyclic rate of fire of 650 rpm. The maximum effective is about 400 meters. The accuracy is claimed to be good. Reliability is rather limited due to sloppy manufacturing and low quality materials.