Thanks to a recent leak exclusively to The Firearm Blog, we have now become aware of a new tender for rifles issued by the Pakistani government. According to the tender document, the Pakistani Army is looking for 75,000 “modern 7.62x39mm caliber weapons”, presumably as part of the program to replace their aging fleet of G3 and Type 56 assault rifles. The specifications for the tender are given below:

The document that we have is not actually a raw tender, rather it is a manufacturer’s reply to a tender. As such, the document is divided into two parts. On the left of every sheet are the requirements as disseminated by the Pakistani government. On the right are the characteristics of the rifle from the company that is being solicited, according to its manufacturer. Essentially, on the left we have the solicitation, and on the right the reply.

Based on the characteristics of the rifle as listed on the right side of the document, it seems we are looking at either Česká Zbrojovka’s (CZ) or Beretta’s submission, with me leaning towards the former. We know that at least five companies are courting this Pakistani contract: FN, Kalashnikov Concern, CZ, Beretta, and Zastava. We can eliminate FN, as they have so far only offered the SCAR-H in 7.62x51mm. Zastava’s and Kalashnikov Concern’s offerings (the M21 and AK-103) do not meet the overall length criteria given by the manufacturer on page 1. That leaves Beretta and CZ as possibles. However, up till now Beretta has only offered their 7.62x51mm ARX-200, not their 7.62x39mm ARX-160A3, and it is also not obvious that Beretta offers a magazine with round counter for the latter rifle. This leaves CZ with their 7.62x39mm 806 Bren 2 as the most likely company for the rifle on the right.