Advertisement The Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced that the Indian Army and the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have jointly developed India’s first indigenous 9 mm machine pistol. An MoD statement released on January 14 noted, “Infantry School, Mhow and DRDO’s Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune have designed and developed this weapon using their respective expertise in the complementary areas.” Describing the development of “Asmi” – as the new personal defense weapon has been christened – the MoD said: “The weapon has been developed in a record time of four months. The Machine Pistol fires the in-service 9mm ammunition and sports an upper receiver made from aircraft grade Aluminium and lower receiver from carbon fibre.”