Indian Army’s Artillery modernisation Plans limping back to normalcy
Published June 19, 2015 | By
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SOURCE: IDRW NEWS NETWORK (INN)
India army boost of 264 artillery regiments. but most of them are equipped with 70’s era 105mm Indian field Gun which are complemented by 130mm M-46 howitzer guns Supplied by the Soviet union in 60’s while these howitzer guns have been upgraded to 155 mm standard now. but this upgraded equipment simply cannot compete with modern Computer aided artillery howitzer guns in today’s modern warfare.
Indian Army’s long-term plan to replace these with 155 mm howitzers recently got a major boost after OFB developed 155mm Howitzers based on specification and manufacturing know how received under Transfer of Technology (TOT) decades ago from Bofors of Sweden, were cleared for production after extended field trials in Sikkim and Rajasthan .
Army will order 114 155mm,45-Calibre Howitzer ” Dhanush ” which will equip a number of medium artillery regiments, the Initial order will be later followed up with 300 Plus more Dhanush guns. idrw.org already has confirmed tha
t later batches of OFB manufactured Dhanush Howitzer will get upgraded 52 caliber barrels from DRDO’s ATAG Program, which will provide better range over existing 45-Calibre barrel.
Advance Towed Artillery Guns System (ATAGS) program
DRDO is also developing a new lightweight 155mm,52 Calibre Howitzers under Advance Towed Artillery Guns System (ATAGS) program which will have an effective shooting range of 60 kilometers while weighing only 12 tonnes. DRDO currently invited Private players like Bharat-forge, L&T, Tata Power SED and Punj-Lloyd to participate in the ATAGS program.
DRDO plans to start working on the first prototype of New Gun from Next year on-wards once sourcing of components is done. DRDO already has frozen design aspect of the gun and plans to offer it for trails by 2018-19 .
M777 155mm/39 towed guns
Defence Acquisition council also recently cleared long delayed ultra light howitzer requirements of Indian Army, when BAE agreed to Produce their M777 155mm/39 towed guns in India after entering into a partnership with an Indian firm. India initially will place orders for 145 guns which later expanded with follow-up repeat orders over a period of time. BAE systems also offered to make India Global center for assembly, integration and testing (AIT) and Sources of Spares for current operators of the gun.
M777 155mm/39 towed guns weighing only 4.2 tonnes compared to conventional 14-16 tonnes of 155mm howitzers are essentially for Mountain warfare and can be ferried under-slung by (Chinook) heavy lift helicopters that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is buying. it will be equipped with proposed XVII Mountain strike Corps especially to be raised for China front for deployment in Mountain terrain.