Indian Army to revive Bofors howitzers

[Lankan Ranger]

Indian Army to revive Bofors howitzers

Indian Army wants to resurrect its long-dormant AB Bofors FH-77B 155mm/39-calibre towed howitzer programme, which was suspended in the late 1980s after allegations of corruption involving senior government officials that are still being investigated in the courts.

The army acquired 410 FH-77B howitzers in 1987 from Sweden's AB Bofors, later known as SWS Defense AB Bofors, which also transferred the blueprints and other technical details to India's state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) under a licence-bulding arrangement. No units have been manufactured.

Senior military officials told Jane's that army headquarters, beset by setbacks over the past decade in acquiring new howitzers, had approached the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in September to request that the OFB begin manufacturing the FH-77B at its factory unit in Jabalpur, central India.

It wants the OFB to build six prototypes by the end of 2013: two basic FH-77B 155 mm/39-calibre guns, two with upgraded onboard computers and two upgraded 155 mm/45-calibre howitzers.

Defence Security Report

 

[Lankan Ranger]

Can anyone post pictures of Bofors howitzers

 

[vikrams]

More Indigenous stuff From OFB. good for India.

 

[Major Shaitan Singh]

Bofors howitzers is now integrated with a 6x6 all terrain vehicle making it an extremely powerful, highly mobile artillery system.

The self- propelled howitzer is equipped with fully automatic magazines for 20 complete rounds.

There are ammunition boxes on the gun for additional 20 rounds. The gun has a range of more than 40 km.

It can fire 20 rounds automatically in 2½ minutes with a rate of 9 rounds per minute.

Archer has its own land navigation system, own ballistic computer and own muzzle velocity radar giving the gun full autonomy on the battlefield

FH77BW L52 is an ideal artillery system of the next generation of self-propelled gun due to:
• good transportability in terrain, on country roads, by rail or air;
• excellent protection for the relatively small crew;
• very high weapon performance regarding range, precision and effect;
• new methods for effective fire are introduced, e.g. MRSI;
• interoperable with western artillery standards;
• and very low operational and maintenance costs compared with other existing artillery systems.

PERFORMANCE
Salvo: 3 rounds in15 seconds
• Intensive fire: 20 rounds (a full magazine) in 2.5 minutes
• Continuous fire: 75 rounds an hour
• Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact, MRSI, up to 6 rounds
• Direct-sighting for ranges up to 2,000 metres
• Secondary weaponry: Grenade launcher or machine gun
• Mobility in snow up to 100 cm
• Maximum road speed: 70 km/h
• Transportable by rail in accordance with the European profile
• Transportable by air with, among others, A 400 M
• Armouring equivalent to a tracked armoured vehicle, re-enforced min protec¬tion and NBC protection for the crew
• Integrated command, fire control and communication system with internal fire control.

 

[Veeru]

Can anyone post pictures of Bofors howitzers

 

[angeldemon_007]

Itsn old news...already posted a few a thread in different thread.

 

[nomi007]

bofor scandal