Indian Army Announces Mounted Gun Competition

[thestringshredder]

In the latest of the Army's long and tragicomic endeavour to give its artillery regiments new guns -- the first in 25 years since the Bofors scandal -- it has now officially announced interest [PDF] in a new 155mm/52cal mounted gun system, a gun mounted on a wheeled vehicle. The Army is known to need at least 814 of this type of gun, a requirement that has twisted and turned between struggling life and sudden death for more than a decade. As expected, the Army has also made it clear that the systems contending for the contract need to fielded by Indian vendors. Among a host of systems likely to be fielded by companies like L&T, Bharat Force and Mahindra Land Systems, the Tata SED mounted gun system (first revealed by colleague Sandeep Unnithan last year) will also participate.

Link - Livefist: Indian Army Announces Mounted Gun Competition

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Loursen and toubro and nexter CAESAR are almost sure favourites for this one.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Loursen and toubro and nexter CAESAR are almost sure favourites for this one.

What makes you say that? And what truck would L&T months the Nexter system to- do you know?

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

What makes you say that? And what truck would L&T months the Nexter system to- do you know?

Caesar's fire control and targeting systems are possibly among the best..possibly matched only by rheinmetall[now blacklisted] and BAE archer derivative ,but biggest advantAge is extremely light weight of 17.7 tonnes compared to 20-30 tonnes for the other aircarft,which makes it very useful in terms of aerial mobility.Something IA is looking at in the china border.

 

[Gessler]

Caesar's fire control and targeting systems are possibly among the best..possibly matched only by rheinmetall[now blacklisted] and BAE archer derivative ,but biggest advantAge is extremely light weight of 17.7 tonnes compared to 20-30 tonnes for the other aircarft,which makes it very useful in terms of aerial mobility.Something IA is looking at in the china border.

I've heard Caesar can be carried by C-130Js. Can the others be carried like that too?

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

I've heard Caesar can be carried by C-130Js. Can the others be carried like that too?

Depends on who are left after blacklisting.Anything over 25 tonnes is problem to be carried.Even mi-26 on the other hand can carry caesar.Globemaster can carry a small battery of 4.

 

[Gessler]

Depends on who are left after blacklisting.Anything over 25 tonnes is problem to be carried.Even mi-26 on the other hand can carry caesar.Globemaster can carry a small battery of 4.

Can 4 x Caesars fit into a single C17?

I'm talking about dimensions, not weight.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Can 4 x Caesars fit into a single C17?

I'm talking about dimensions, not weight.

I think more reasonable will be 3 caesars with all their ammo.

 

[Gessler]

I think more reasonable will be 3 caesars with all their ammo.

Even that seems quite difficult. We will need some expert knowledge for this bit.
@sancho your views mate?

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Even that seems quite difficult. We will need some expert knowledge for this bit.
@sancho your views mate?

Ok i checked,the cargo hold is 88 feet long.Caesars are 32 feet long.So 2 caesars only.But plenty of space and weight left for ammo ,shells or supplies.
c-130 super herc has 41 feet long cargo load and can easily take a caesar.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

The BAE archer on the other hand weighs 30 tonnes and length 46 feet,so can't be carried on a c-130 and only 1 on a c-17.

 

[IND151]

Livefist: Indian Army Announces Mounted Gun Competition

 

[sancho]

The Ceasar is light weight and highly mobile, which is it's main advantage, but that's it. It carries only very few ammo, which requires additional ammo trucks to be carried too. So a C17 might carry only 1 x Ceasar + 1 x Ammo truck. Also the howitzer needs many people to operate it and has only a narrow fire angle, which means the whole truck would be re-located to fire to different targets. Another point is, that L&T most likely will licence produce the French truck as well, which adds costs and makes it to a fully foreign offer, which might have an effect to the selection as well.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Hey, this is interesting:

From 21 to 23 July 2011, the CAESAR Artillery sub-battle group (SGTA) was deployed for an artillery exercise in the area of ​​responsibility of the Indian battalion.

Most of this support mission was conducted for the benefit of the Indian battalion. The exercise was designed to present to the IndiaBatt the capabilities of the FCR Artillery and to conduct a training on firing procedures (position, fire orders &#8230.

Franco-Indian Artillery Exercise with the CAESAR | Military In the Middle East

+ what I don't understand is how can TATA POWER SED take part when their offer is from Denal which has been blacklisted.
@sancho what do you think/know?

 

[sancho]

+ what I don't understand is how can TATA POWER SED take part when their offer is from Denal which has been blacklisted.
@sancho what do you think/know?

Depends on if JV's or co-developments would still be allowed, we have seen pics of Rheinmetals howitzer on a Denel vehicle during trials in India too, although both companies seperately are black listed. Similarly, if they wouldn't be allowed, Tata's offer for FICV, could never had been in the competition either.