Negev LMG day sight contract awarded to BEL as Meprolight MEPRO X6 chosen for Indian Army's 41,000-gun fleet

The Negev LMG day sight selection is complete. The Indian Army has formally chosen Israeli optics manufacturer Meprolight's MEPRO X6 telescopic sight as the dedicated daytime optic for its NEGEV 7.62x51mm light machine gun fleet, with Bharat Electronics Limited winning the Army tender and deliveries scheduled to begin before the close of this fiscal year.

The contract marks the latest step in a years-long process to arm the Army's expanding NEGEV inventory with purpose-built optics. In August 2024, the Army placed an order for 41,000 NEGEVs, intended to replace the ageing 5.56x45mm INSAS light machine gun that had been in service for decades. That order alone gives a sense of the scale of this optics requirement.

What BEL has won and how the supply chain works

Bharat Electronics Limited is the prime contractor to the Indian Army under the programme. But the sights will not come out of a BEL factory. Under an arrangement that threads together the Army's indigenisation requirements with the technology realities of the deal, Israeli firm Meprolight has signed a Transfer of Technology agreement with Indian private sector company RRP Defence. RRP Defence will manufacture the MEPRO X6 sights in India and supply them to BEL, which will then deliver to the Army.

The Army's specification called for a daytime optic with an effective range of 800 metres. That requirement drove the selection process, which Meprolight senior vice-president Golan Kalimi told ThePrint included extensive user assessments and rigorous environmental testing, evaluated on reliability, durability, accuracy and ease of operation.

Kalimi was direct about what the contract means for his company's footprint in India. "It is a very prestigious order for us because it is part of our growth process in India where we have been for decades. We are hoping that the orders will go up since the actual number of NEGEVs in use is higher than this order," he said.

The Indian Army's relationship with Meprolight predates this contract by some margin. The company already supplies the Mepro Mor, GLS, MCO and X6 sights to Indian forces, giving the Army's evaluation teams prior experience with the manufacturer's build quality and after-sales support.

The MEPRO X6: a fixed 6x sight built for demanding conditions

The MEPRO X6 is a fixed 6x magnification telescopic sight. Meprolight describes it as designed for assault rifles, light machine guns and other weapon systems where precision, ruggedness and optical performance all need to sit in the same package. It provides enhanced target identification and acquisition, a wide field of view, and is rated for demanding environmental and operational conditions.

Fixed magnification is a deliberate design choice for a general-purpose LMG optic. Variable-power scopes add weight, mechanical complexity and cost. At 6x, the MEPRO X6 sits at a magnification level suited to the typical engagement ranges the NEGEV would be used at, without the trade-offs that come with a zoom turret. The 800-metre range specification the Army set is well within what a 6x telescopic sight of this class can deliver.

For the NEGEV specifically, this optic upgrade matters. The gun entered Indian Army service in meaningful numbers from 2020, when 16,479 units were delivered through fast-track procurement on an emergency basis. Those deliveries have all been completed. The NEGEV had been arriving without dedicated telescopic day sights. This contract closes that gap.

Negev LMG day sight: the procurement trail

The NEGEV's journey into Indian Army inventory stretches back to the period when IWI was producing the weapon in Israel. Though designed and built by Israel Weapon Industries, the gun is now manufactured in India at the Adani Group's facility in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. The group acquired PLR Systems, IWI's local partner for small arms manufacturing in India since 2016, and turned it into a subsidiary. Domestic production of the weapon system was itself a step toward the broader indigenisation goals the Army has been pursuing across its infantry equipment portfolio.

The Transfer of Technology route chosen for the MEPRO X6 optics follows the same logic. Rather than import finished sights, the Army and Meprolight have structured the deal so that manufacturing capability transfers to India. RRP Defence gets the knowledge, processes and manufacturing capabilities required for full production of the MEPRO X6 in India. Over time, that means the domestic industrial base gains expertise in precision optics manufacturing, a domain where India has historically relied on imports.

This is the model that the broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat push has been trying to embed in defence procurement: not just buying foreign technology, but pulling the manufacturing onshore and building Indian capacity in the process. The SMPP drone indigeneity debate that has run parallel in Indian defence procurement circles illustrates how scrutinised these ToT structures have become. On this contract, the ToT is with a private Indian company and the scope covers full production, which is a cleaner arrangement than some others that have drawn scrutiny. You can read IDW's coverage of the drone indigeneity debate here.

Meprolight within the SK Group structure

Meprolight is part of the SK Group, a conglomerate whose portfolio covers a range of Israeli defence and security companies: IWI, Meprolight, Camero-Tech, ELVO, Israel Shipyards, IsraelShipyards Port, Uni-Scope Optical Solutions and Oshira. The connection to IWI within the same group matters in this context. IWI is the original designer and manufacturer of the NEGEV. Meprolight, as a sister company, is therefore supplying optics for a weapon that IWI created, via a domestic manufacturing arrangement in India that mirrors how the gun itself is now produced.

That structural coherence is not accidental. Israeli defence industry exports to India have grown substantially over the past decade, and the companies within the SK Group have pursued India as a priority market, both through direct supply and through manufacturing partnerships with Indian firms.

What comes next

Kalimi flagged that the scale of the current order may not represent the ceiling of demand. The Army's total NEGEV inventory is larger than the 41,000-gun August 2024 order alone, which means the number of sights eventually required could exceed what is covered by this initial BEL contract. Whether follow-on orders come through BEL and RRP Defence under the same arrangement, or through a fresh tender process, will become clearer as the programme matures.

For now, deliveries are expected to begin before the end of the current fiscal year. RRP Defence will be manufacturing on the ToT, BEL will handle the prime contract management, and the Army's NEGEV gunners will, before long, have a purpose-built 6x telescopic sight on their weapons rather than improvised alternatives.

The broader context for this kind of infantry optics investment has been the Army's experience in high-altitude operations, where target identification at range can be the difference between effective fire and wasted ammunition. The NEGEV's employment in such terrain, documented in open-source imagery from exercises, has made the case for a dedicated telescopic sight more visible. The Army evidently agreed.

India's small arms modernisation over the past five years has moved at a pace that would have seemed ambitious a decade ago: new assault rifles, new LMGs, and now a purpose-built optic for those LMGs delivered through a domestic manufacturing route. The Defence Procurement Seminar this month, which walked MSMEs and start-ups through the iDEX and DAP frameworks, is part of the same ecosystem effort to build the industrial base that makes these supply chains viable over the long term. IDW's coverage of that seminar is available here. The Army Uniforms 2026 pamphlet, which modernised dress regulations and introduced tri-service numbering, is another data point in the same pattern of institutional modernisation the Army has been undertaking across multiple domains. That story is here.

About the NEGEV in Indian Army service

The NEGEV 7.62x51mm LMG replaced 5.56x45mm INSAS LMGs that had been in service since the 1990s. The calibre upgrade to 7.62x51mm NATO gives the weapon substantially greater range and terminal effect compared to the INSAS. India's fast-track procurement of 16,479 units in 2020 was driven by operational urgency following the Galwan confrontation in eastern Ladakh. The 2024 order for 41,000 units represents the planned, sustained follow-on that turns an emergency procurement into a programme of record. Adani's Gwalior facility is now the domestic production line for the weapon, with IWI technology at the core and Indian manufacturing on the shop floor.