Ministry of Defence must push for an Indian gun

[shrivatsa]

^^^^^^^read it
ARDE:Index

 

[nietzche]

Gogbot -- Rifled gun is an import from Germany -- From Rhinemetal (i dont know the spell -- but basically the leopard gun).

Rifled gun is one of the most complex guns in gun making industry -- i would be surprised if DRDO managed to make these on their own.

The Leopards have smoothbore guns. The only modern tanks that have rifled guns are the Arjun and the Challenger. Smoothbores are better if for longer ranges one is to fire ATGMs like LAHAT and for shorter ranges normal tank shells. Of course that does not mean that one cant use a rifled gun for the same purpose. It requires a change in design of the ATGM. But one does get greater accuracy with rifled guns and dumb shells. It may imply that the Arjuns primary munitions are UGMs and therefore it may carry a greater proportion of those. Of course all this does not imply that Rheinmetall was not consulted during the gun design along with the primary consultant Krauss Maffei. The Leopards designed by Krauss Maffei have always had smoothbore guns (L44/L55) and even the T72s and T90s have smoothbore guns. It is interesting that DRDO decided to go down this route.

Coming back to topic it is good that the MOD / Army will be forced into going in for an indigenous weapon.Though this is not at all certain at this point at least the right noises are being made. India's last 105mm IFG was a success and there is no reason why this proposed project should fail. The MI complex has the skill and the tech to make one along with private participation in mass production. When it comes to artillery I guess the more the better and the one with the last shell will emerge alive. During the siege of Berlin the Red Army amassed more than 21000 guns to rain destruction down on the citadel. The Russians during the great war had good artillery right from the beginning even if they didn't have the tanks/skills to match the Wehrmacht.Buying these sort of relatively low tech items with big budgets when the option to exercise the "develop+make" route exists is a criminal waste and under-utilization of resources. Bofors may yet be a good word in the Indian politico-military lexicon.

 

[marcos98]

meanwhile........

India May Turn To Sweden For Howitzers
India may strike a deal with Sweden to purchase 155-mm, towed howitzers for its army, AVIATION WEEK has learned.

Controversy and delays have swirled around India’s effort to buy the guns. Trials were delayed a year as vendor ST Kinetics came under an ethics cloud. The company has been vying with BAE Land Systems to build the guns.

“It is time to bite the bullet,” an Indian official says. “The army needs the guns and we cannot wait for another three to four years for the decision to be made.”

Still, New Delhi is mindful not to repeat the Bofors gun scandal of the 1980s, during which then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors for a contract to supply India with howitzers.

Meanwhile, the Indian defense ministry is planning to issue another request for proposals (RFP) for the gun requirement, following the release of an RFI last week. This would be the fourth RFP release since 2002. An Indian army spokesman confirms that the retraction of the third RFP was sent a day ago “by post.”

ST Kinetics has confirmed they will reply to the RFI. There was no official response yet from BAE whether it has responded or plans to.

 

[anathema]

^^ Thanks -- I was under the impression that Rhinemetal provided us with guns -- Great achievement by DRDO -- If we can make TANK guns then we sure can make howitzers !!

But please lets cut the crap and order some guns for our jawans.

 

[sudhir007]

LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: Bofors In The Wilderness

Just received this picture of what appears to be the BAE-Bofors FH77-B05-L52 towed gun in Leh, Jammu & Kashmir. On July 28, the MoD officially gave Parliament a list of vendors that have been recommended recently for a blacklist, and it reads like a roll-call of modern gun makers. ST Kinetics and Rheinmetall join the hallowed company of Soltam and Denel.

 

[!!craft!!]

its about time we start get moterized spa ..our chinese and pakistani counterparts have equipments ,good one to deal with counter artilarry shelling.. we dont want to be sitting ducks that time would we..

 

[Kinetic]

Do anything - Get these God damn Guns in hands of Soldiers , what are they waiting for . Are they expecting us to reply the 155mm gun firing from across border with Assault Rifle .

These bloody morons need another Kargil like slap on their faces to realize , a strong defence is more imp than their Vote banks .

Sir, the babus need some punches on their back. I don't understand every time the purchase is canceled their must be some people from MoD behind that then why none of them get punished??

Yeah and if Indigenous Gun is delayed like other - Arjun,LCA,NAG etc.........

We better be ready for two front war with only 200 155mm -Bofors guns

I also think same. Let the DRDO develop the gun, at the mean time we should buy some as well, specially SPG. Something like Denel G6 is good.