Homemade, upgraded artillery guns to be inducted this month

LUCKNOW: The Indian Army is preparing to induct upgraded artillery guns named Sharang by the end of the month to boost its firepower, with a symbolic handing over ceremony to be held at Defexpo-2020 on Friday, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chairman Hari Mohan said on Thursday.

The Jabalpur-based Gun Carriage Factory, a unit of the OFB, is upgrading the army’s vintage Soviet-origin 130mm M-46 towed artillery pieces to 155 mm 45-calibre standard. (155 mm denotes the diameter of the shell and calibre relates to barrel length.)

The OFB is the country’s main producer of military arsenal and controls 41 ordnance factories engaged in the production of artillery guns, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, bombs, rockets, anti-aircraft guns, parachutes and small arms.

Mohan said the upgraded guns have an enhanced range — up from 27km to 37km — and better terminal effectiveness. The OFB was awarded a contract to upgrade 300 of the 130 mm artillery guns in October 2018.

The board will supply the first batch of 12 upgraded guns to the army by February-end, while the remaining ones will be delivered in batches by 2022-end, said Lieutenant General A Mukherjee (retd), a consultant to the OFB and a former director general of the army’s artillery directorate.

The OFB has showcased an upgraded gun at Defexpo, which is being attended by more than 1,000 Indian and foreign defence firms. “Apart from enhanced range, the upgraded guns stand out for ease of handling due to automation of loading of ammunition. The weapon has great export potential. The upgraded Sharang guns use the same ammunition as Dhanush and feature the same barrel,” he said.

The army’s newest 155mm 45-calibre Dhanush towed artillery gun is also an OFB product and the force has placed an order for 114 guns. Mohan said the board has delivered six Dhanush guns to the army and will supply another 12 by early next year. The defence ministry said the weapon is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced in India and a ‘Make in India’ success story.

Artillery modernisation is a top priority for the army and the force plans to order 300 more Dhanush guns, a senior officer said.

The army has also begun inducting 155mm/52-calibre tracked self-propelled K9 VAJRA-T guns, being manufactured in India by private sector defence major Larsen & Toubro and South Korea’s Hanwha Techwin.

The army has inducted 50 of the 100 K9 VAJRA-T guns it ordered in 2017. It is also raising seven regiments that will be equipped with M-777 ultra-light howitzers for accurate artillery fire support in mountainous terrain.