It takes a few pieces of scrap metal to make a desi katta, the country-made pistol. It’s a grey area in the Indian firearms scene, but is clearly popular enough to warrant YouTube tutorials on how to make one.
This, though, is not the ‘Make in India’ that SSS Defence believes in.
THE WEEK went to the manufacturer’s facility in Bengaluru’s Jigani to find out what its idea of domestic weaponry looks like. The high walls, security guards and the barbed wire were clues of what lay inside, though the facility itself was another concrete box in an area with other factories, warehouses and IT firms.
After a thorough security check, we headed inside to meet Dinesh Shivanna, the co-founder and chief technology officer. He took us to a conference room which, on its walls, had a collection of pistols, machine guns and sniper rifles displayed proudly, like a parent would put up their toddler’s drawings. Each of these weapons had been designed, built and manufactured in this facility.
The pride in Shivanna stems from a deep sense of patriotism. He said he wanted to build a small-arms ecosystem in the country, a space he said had been destroyed by the British, especially after the revolt of 1857. “India did not have a well-defined small-arms industry,” he said. “We had the ordnance factories that were recycling old weapon systems. The British, after the mutiny, stopped all kinds of weapons manufacturing in India. They closed down all the armouries and casting foundries. Even though we had built traditional guns for 500 years before, the British systematically destroyed everything. Post independence, our government set up ordnance factories and these factories started collaborating with certain countries. But none of the weapons were locally made and made for India.”
And so, Shivanna joined hands with Vivek Krishnan, current CEO, and Satish Machani, managing director, to set up SSS Defence in 2017. It is an independent entity under the Stumpp Schuele and Somappa Group—an established player with a portfolio spanning automobile components, manufacturing, defence and aerospace. Started as a joint venture between German and Indian partners, SSS Group became fully Indian-owned in 2007.
Shivanna, Krishnan and Machani were concerned that though countries were willing to enter defence partnerships, there was no transfer of technology happening. “We got an arms and ammunition licence in 2017 and wanted to build everything in India,” said Shivanna. “Any country would give transfer of technology in the form of assembling the weapons, just as a screw driver to assemble them. Our parent company is 70 years old with about 20 manufacturing centres all over India. We have a long legacy in manufacturing and especially a tradition of mass manufacturing. We wanted to leverage the expertise of our parent company to realise our dreams.”
There are Indian companies that have deals with foreign original equipment manufacturers, but they just assemble the parts in India. “In case of a war, there won’t be any supply chain and you will have to depend on them, which might not be possible,” said Shivanna, holding up one of the assault rifles. “If it is completely manufactured in India, one can deal with any situation and scale up the production without depending on anyone outside the country.”
SSS Defence has close to 200 specialists who design and format the weapons to suit Indian requirements, taking into account soldiers’ physique and other such parameters. The company has sourced several items needed in production, like aluminium, from its parent company, and has made products that adhere to industry standards (mostly European).
“One should understand that when one makes in India, it does not make the armaments any way inexpensive as it takes the same kind of time and the same kind of man hours to manufacture them,” said Shivanna. “The only major difference is the cost of labour.”
SSS Defence has an array of products, the most interesting of which are the sniper rifles. These are long-range precision weapons chambered in the 7.62×51mm NATO and .338 Lapua Magnum calibres. The latter can hit a target as far as 1.5km and is seen as the gold standard among rifles. The ones SSS Defence makes, it claims, are powerful, have night vision and can work in any terrain and weather conditions.
The company has everything from a pistol to a sub machine gun, an assault rifle and two sniper rifles. Going forward, it wants to have a remote-controlled weapon station, which is used to counter drones.
SSS Defence also has an ammunition production unit that started operations in 2024, and is gearing up for expansion. It is currently one of the few private sector firms in India with self-owned, proprietary designs and process intellectual property. The company has investments of over $20 million in organic research and development, production equipment and specialised infrastructure.
Shivanna said that when they started working on their weapons systems, they did not compare them with other rifles. The work has been on for seven years, and is still ongoing. “The development cycle continues and we are constantly adding better processes and metallurgy,” said Shivanna. “Today, we consider ourselves on par with the best in the world and sometimes even better than some of the well-known names. We have trialled these rifles on the best testing ranges of the world. We can proudly say that we have built one of the best guns in the world.”
My colleague Bhanu and I got to test a sniper and an assault rifle in the advanced underground facility. But we were no experts. One man who has, in fact, seen the company’s sniper rifle up close is Brigadier (retd) B.M. Cariappa. In 2022, when he was the force commander of the National Security Guard, he was entrusted to conduct trials of .338 calibre sniper rifles for possible induction into the NSG. Among the firms that had submitted its weapons for evaluation was SSS Defence.
“Past experience had shown that things could go wrong if the process wasn’t closely monitored,” said Cariappa. “So, I made it a point to be physically present for all trials to observe, guide and ensure the team followed the process.”
The Saber sniper rifle from SSS Defence didn’t do too well during the first set of trials. “My team made several technical observations and the rifle didn’t qualify,” said Cariappa. “The NSG, since its inception, has had some of the best weapons in its inventory sourced from all over the globe. But with the increasing focus on Make in India, we began facing a new problem: lack of spares. Many excellent weapons were lying unserviceable because of small, basic issues, something as simple as a missing pin or a loose rivet.”
He said he saw promise in Shivanna and Krishnan, and felt that the young Indian company was serious about building complete weapons systems. He said they were willing to listen, learn and improve, and realised that if they were helped to refine their rifle, they could help the NSG get some of their non-functional weapons back into working condition.
“I suggested SSS apply for a no-cost, no-commitment trial,” said Cariappa. “We conducted rigorous testing on the Saber, provided detailed feedback and SSS worked diligently to rectify each issue. In parallel, they helped us get around 109 weapons back into serviceable condition, which was a huge boost for us. Every time SSS brought the Saber back for trials, it was better than before. Slowly, it started earning the confidence of our firing team. By the end of 2024, after multiple iterations, we were confident in its performance. We had seen its improvement first-hand.”
At the same time, the All India Police Commando Competition was coming up. This included a standalone sniper firing competition, with participation from police units across the country. Cariappa requested Shivanna to send them two Sabers for the competition.
“While we already had the .338 Barrett rifles from the US, I wanted our snipers to have a choice,” said Cariappa. “During the training phase, I would often visit the firing range and speak to our ace shooters. It didn’t surprise me when they told me that they now preferred the Saber over the Barrett. That said a lot. So, we decided to use the Saber in the competition. Several teams competed using Barretts and other top-end sniper rifles from around the world. However, the NSG team with the Saber won the first place.”
SSS Defence can currently make around 15,000 rifles a year at its plant in Bengaluru. “We do not want to make and keep, we want orders,” said Shivanna. “India has a long process of procurement and the complete process can sometimes take around five years for each weapons system. So we keep our regular manufacturing happening as we have other markets to cater to. Compared with India, international procurement cycles are a little faster. We currently supply rifles to our neighbourhood. The sniper rifles are generally supplied to the special forces, but general infantry also uses them. Even some paramilitary forces use them.”
The company began small arms development around seven years ago, while the focus on sniper rifles was as recent as 2020. Four years later, it started exporting. It has recently started exporting rifles to three countries in Central Europe and is planning to enter two Asian countries.