On the 9th of August 2020 the ministry of defence released a list of 101 weapon systems that will no longer be purchased from abroad and will be produced indigenously within India, amongst the first set of items for which imports will be stopped from December 2020 are 155mm guns of all calibres and types. In many ways this can be seen as an official acknowledgement of the immense progress made in indigenization efforts undertaken by the Regiment of Artillery since it’s raising. The fact is the Artillery of the Indian Army has led indigenization efforts since independence and it is only because of the unwavering support to indigenization efforts by the Regiment of Artillery that today India is a nation that has successfully developed Light, Medium and Heavy guns while also developing Field artillery tractors and rocket artillery indigenously. The story of indigenization of artillery in the Indian army deserves to be told, both to break misconceptions that the Army is an import dependent force and to recognize the contributions of the pioneers who set us on a solid footing.

The Early Years:

In 1947 the Royal Indian Artillery regiments were divided up between India and Pakistan with 18.5 of the 29 regiments’ extant then going to the Indian Army and the rest to Pakistan. The Artillery then was armed primarily with the Royal Ordnance factory 25 pounder as the basic field gun. Nicknamed ‘Old Faithful’ the Gun provided very good service in the four wars up to 1971. India also had the 3.7-inch Howitzer, 4.2-inch mortar and the 5.5-inch Medium Gun in smaller numbers. These early capabilities served India well in the 1948 War over Kashmir. Even as the first troops of 1 SIKH landed on Srinagar airfield in Dakotas they were followed by a few 3.7 Howitzers of 13 Field Regiment on 27 October 1947. These guns played a crucial role in the operations of 1 SIKH and helped keep invaders at bay with accurately directed artillery fire.

The Pakistan Army also got much of the same equipment in 1947. However, Pakistani Artillery was rapidly modernized by inducting 155mm guns and self-propelled Howitzers after they joined the US led western bloc during the cold war and by 1965 Pakistani Artillery had numerical and qualitative superiority in comparison to India. India having chosen to be nonaligned had no benefactors who would provide modern artillery at cheap “friendship” prices and the nation then didn’t have the financial heft to import artillery in bulk. The only way out for the Indian Army was indigenization. The Indian Army, having faced difficulties in the deployment of artillery on the heights, during the 1962 conflict with China first looked to develop a light mountain Gun. This program led by Brigadier Gurdayal singh delivered quick results and by 1963 the first prototypes of the 75/24 mountain pack howitzer had been developed. It is testament to the success of this initial design that the 75/24 gun saw service as recently as Kargil as well.

The next phase of indigenization of artillery in India began with a project assigned to Major General Ranjit Lal Jetley in 1976 to use the British 105mm L37 gun from the Abbot Self-propelled gun (SPG) as a base to develop a towed howitzer for the Indian Army. This Project was handled by Maj Gen Jetley via the ARDE and led to the development of the venerable 105mm Indian Field Gun (IFG) and the 105mm Light Field Gun (LFG). This was also the first-time ballistic Steel for artillery guns was developed in India as the steel for the 105mm came from the Steel plant in Durgapur, West Bengal. The Indian Army finally had the basic ingredients to build an indigenous artillery force as both domestic steel and a successful indigenous design was available. The 105mm IFG Gun was rapidly put into mass production at the Gun Carriage Factory in Jabalpur and it has become one of India’s biggest indigenous defense equipment success stories with over 2400 guns inducted till date.

The most notable feature of the 105 IFG/LFG is its large range which at 17.4 km is longer than that of contemporary guns of similar calibre. Apart from this superlative ballistic performance the gun can also be easily disassembled and transported through mules and light vehicles which makes it the weapon of choice for Artillery deployed on the Himalayas. It can airlifted by almost all the helicopters in the Indian army and towed by almost all the trucks. It can be broken down and air dropped too with easy reassembly on the field. All these attributes combined with indigenous production and a relatively low cost has led to this gun turning into the backbone of Indian Army artillery since 1980.

Growth pangs:

While the 80’s began with great promise for the Artillery which had a new indigenous 105mm gun and a sympathetic Prime Minister who wanted to boost the strength of the Indian Military, the end wasn’t as pleasant. The mid 80’s saw the BOFORS 155mm artillery deal being signed in 1986, this deal was the product of a plan spearheaded by the indomitable Gen. Sundarji for modernization of the artillery with 155mm guns as the older 5.5-inch guns were phased out. The plan was to buy 410 BOFORS howitzers off the shelf from Sweden along with a comprehensive technology transfer required to build further guns in India. It was a brilliant plan which if executed would’ve seen the Indian Army leave Pakistan and China far behind as far as modern artillery was concerned. Alas a corruption scandal involving the BOFORS guns put that dream to rest and the plan to produce this artillery was shelved.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s saw the Indian army acquire and induct large numbers of Ex-Soviet army M-46 and D-30 guns at throwaway prices in a bid to boost numbers of medium regiments. That said the two decades between 1990-2010 were lost as both indigenous and foreign bids to modernize artillery kept getting stymied due to corruption allegations. First to suffer was the BHIM Self Propelled Howitzer (SPH) program. This program planned to mate the DENEL T6-52 155/52 gun and turret onto the Arjun Tank hull to develop an indigenous tracked Self Propelled Howitzer for mass production in India. A parallel Truck mounted artillery gun called the T5-52 Condor was also developed by DENEL in 2002 for the Indian Army. The T5-52 would be mounted on the modified 8x8 Tatra T815 WN truck chassis manufactured in India by BEML under license. This chassis is powered by a turbocharged diesel engine, developing 355 hp. Maximum range of fire achieved in trials was 42.5 km with rocket assisted projectile and 55 km with a Denel V-LAP or velocity enhanced projectile. The T5-52 is capable of MRSI or multiple round simultaneous impact firing. A number of trials were successfully carried out and orders were on the verge of finalization when disaster struck. The South African firm DENEL which supplied the T6-52 turret and the 155/52 gun for the BHIM SPH was accused of indulgence in unsavory practices in a totally unrelated Anti material rifle deal and was blacklisted by the defence ministry, with that blacklisting the development process of the BHIM SPH program too met an untimely end. Another failure was the much-vaunted Field Artillery Rationalization plan or FARP first started in 2005 with an intention of acquiring nearly 2500 tracked, wheeled, mounted and towed 155/52 artillery guns. This plan finally ran out of steam in 2013 when all competitors except BAE had been blacklisted on one charge or another. The Artillery modernization plan was well and truly stuck in a logjam.

Success at last:

The frustrating FARP logjam however had a silver lining as it finally led was later refined and promulgated by the Indian Army as Arty Profile 2027 with two successful 155mm guns also being developed on the indigenous artillery front. The Dhaunsh project was started when Defense ministry faced with the prospect of not being able to acquire any new artillery finally allowed the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to use the blueprints of the BOFORS howitzer acquired in 1986 under the original Bofors contract to develop an indigenous gun based on the same design. The history of the Bofors scam had so far prevented any effort towards using the same, despite the superlative performance of the BOFORS guns in the Kargil war. The OFB went one step ahead and improved the original Swedish designs for a 155/39-caliber howitzer into a 155/45-caliber gun with a 23-litre chamber as opposed to the 19-litre chamber on the original gun, it also modernized the design with a modern Fire control system and ballistic computer. The indigenous DHANUSH 155/45 Artillery Gun passed all the tests of the Indian army in late 2018. An order for 114 DHANUSH guns has been released in early 2019 with an indicated requirement for another 300 guns. The OFB has also developed a truck mounted version of the DHANUSH which is currently in trials. Meanwhile the DRDO was running its own program to develop a futuristic indigenous artillery gun. This gun called the advanced technology artillery gun system or ATAGS was developed by DRDO along with industry partners TATA SED and BHARAT FORGE. This state of the art indigenous 155/52 howitzer has a 25-litre chamber and is capable of futuristic concepts like Multiple round simultaneous impact (MRSI) and Rapid fire. In trials this gun outranged every known artillery 155/52 gun by firing shells to 47.2km and limited series production of 150 guns is on the anvil. In a third welcome development the OFB managed to develop an indigenous up-gunning package for the Soviet M-46 howitzer. This package CALLED “SHARANG” is currently being used to up gun some 300 M46 guns to 155/45 standards indigenously at Kanpur. It must be pointed out here that the Indian Army has already upgraded another 180 M46 to the same standards using kits from Soltam of Israel.

A further positive development that has taken place in recent years is that the government has now allowed privately owned firms to develop and offer tube artillery solutions to the Indian Army. A large number of firms have now started to offer indigenous and licensed versions of foreign artillery systems to the IA. Premier amongst these firms has been KSSL or Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited which has developed everything from a soft recoil 105mm howitzer to a full-fledged 155/52gun and a two different versions (truck mounted and towed) of a 155/39 Ultra-Light Weight Howitzer or ULWH for the Indian Army. This firm has also been granted clearance to export its 155/52 howitzer design to friendly nations with trials of the KSSL 155/52 expected in Saudi Arabia shortly. Other firms such as Mahindra, Tata Group and L&T have tied up with global artillery manufacturers to offer their wares to the Indian military. Mahindra is currently working with BAE to assemble and deliver 145 pieces of M777 155/39 ULWH to the Indian Army. These guns are being assembled at a Mahindra facility in Haryana. Simultaneously L&T is also working with Hanwha land systems of South Korea at a purpose-built factory in Hazira Gujarat to assemble and deliver 100 units of the K-9 155/52 SPH to the Indian Army as well. This factory has already delivered more than 50 SPH there are expectations that the initial 100 guns will be followed up with a tranche of another 180 SPH. L&T has also worked with Hanwha to indigenize key systems and as per reports more than 50% of the components for the system are being manufactured locally as on date.

All the aforementioned firms are also in competition for an ongoing requirement for 814 truck mounted 155/52 guns that the DENEL T5-52 was originally designated to fill. While DENEL has now joined forces with Tata Group to offer its T5-52 once again it now faces intense competition from the Larsen & Toubro offer of the French Caesar, the Bharat forge offer of the ATMOS 2000 and a homegrown competitor in the TATRA mounted 155/52 version of the Dhanush by OFB. This intense competition by domestic firms is illustrative of the deep inroads artillery development has made into Indian industry. Here it is worth noting that from having only one public sector artillery factory in 2010 India today has no less than six different factories involved in the production of Tube artillery with only two of these being under the Public sector.

The Rocket men:

The Rocket artillery originally equipped with Soviet BM-21 Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRLs) began its own indigenization program way back in 1983 when the Army finalized its General Service Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) for an indigenous MBRL with plans to induct one regiment of launchers per annum from 1994. That said the defense ministry finally granted sanction to this project in 1986. The ARDE went to work designing and developing a world class MBRL. Their efforts bore fruit in the shape of the PINAKA which was a completely indigenous 214mm rocket system capable of deploying up to twelve rockets in one salvo, the maximum range achievable for this initial version was 40km which was double the 20km range of the BM-21 GRAD it was supposed to replace. MBRL PINAKA could be brought into action within three minutes and its complement of 12 rockets could completely neutralize an area of 1000x800metres. After numerous trials this system was finally put into production in 1998 with the first regiment being raised in February 2000. As on date the Indian Army has committed to inducting ten regiments of PINAKA by 2022 and twenty-two regiments by 2028 making the PINAKA one of India’s most successful indigenous weapons development programs. 

Further developments in Rocket artillery programs remain in development which include a 122mm ER round for the BM-21 and 90km ranged guided extended range rockets for the 214mm PINAKA. The Indian Army is also undertaking an upgrade of the legacy BM-21 rocket platforms in coordination with L&T which will see the launchers being installed onto a new Ashok Leyland chassis with a redundant power source for the launcher and advanced suspension lock systems for the chassis.

Missile Artillery is another area where India has made rapid progress with the indigenous PRAHAAR Tactical Ballistic Missile being developed as a 150km ranged artillery solution to fill the gap of a battlefield missile between the SMERCH MBRL and the PRITHVI SRBM. India has also worked with Russia to develop the BRAHMOS LACM which remains the fastest 500km ranged LACM in service with any military. This Ramjet powered LACM has become a mainstay of the missile artillery units and whereas there was only one Brahmos regiment deployed as recently as 2010 five regiments of Brahmos are already in service as of today while a sixth is being raised. These systems today give the Indian Army Artillery greater reach than it has ever exercised in its storied history. Futuristic iterations of the BRAHMOS in development include a version with 800km range and a hypersonic version as well. These systems once inducted will increase the striking reach and firepower of our tactical missile forces manifold.

Support Arms:

The indigenization of support equipment for artillery has also made a lot of progress. The American and Israeli WLRs (Weapon Locating Radars) of the Kargil era have now made way for the indigenous SWATHI WLR which has been ordered in bulk. These Artillery support radars will serve as key elements of the indigenous ACCS (Artillery Command and Control System) which will tie together feed from Recon units on ground, Artillery locating radars, Indian and Israeli origin drones and Satellite data to give Artillery commanders a bird’s eye view of the battlefield they have to dominate. Logistics too has made significant progress and the old KRAZ & SCANIA field Artillery tractors are now being phased out rapidly in favor of indigenous 6x6 Super Stallion FATs from Ashok Leyland. The Soviet era Zil chassis of the BM-21MBRL is also being replaced with a modern Ashok Leyland unit. Privately defence firms too have pitched in to help build indigenous support infrastructure for Artillery systems. While SMPP has come out with Modular charges for 155guns KSSL is offering a variety of precision guidance kits for artillery which it has developed with its Israeli partner ELBIT. NAMMO from Norway has also set up shop in India and is offering its latest design of long range Ramjet propelled artillery shells to the Indian Army as well. A team from IIT Madras led by Lt Gen (Retd) Palepur Ravi Shankar has also made substantial progress with indigenous ramjet powered artillery shells and rockets which once perfected will vastly increase the reach of both tube and rocket artillery units.

The Artillery corps has certainly come a long way since the dark days of the sixties when it defended India despite being outgunned by our foes. The Artillery profile 2027 plan to acquire and induct 2500 new artillery pieces has made good progress with the towed howitzer, ULWH and Tracked SPH portions of the plan well underway. While the requirement for 814 truck mounted 155/52 guns has yet to make substantial progress. We can look forward to a bright indigenous future for the Regiment of Artillery which will be armed in the near future by a completely new set of 155-39/45/52 self-propelled, mounted and towed guns and ever longer ranged rocket artillery. What will make this future even brighter is the fact that these systems will be manufactured in India by Indian Gun manufacturers using 155 Artillery grade steel developed and being produced at SAIL Durgapur. The future is bright indeed for Indian gunners.

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