When two artillery shells were fired at a distant target from two high-caliber guns on November 9, 2018 at the firing range in Deolali at Nasik, history was scripted in golden words for the Indian Army. As the shells landed on the designated targets situated on a nearby hillock, the Indian Army’s Artillery Regiment breathed a sigh of relief. For both the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bipin Rawat and the Director General of the Regiment of Artillery – Lt Gen PK Srivastava, it was a momentous day. The Artillery Regiment, one of the Army’s lead combat arm, was receiving the maiden artillery guns after almost three decades of wait. It indeed was the rise a new dawn for the Artillery Corps.
The artillery arm, with its unique capabilities of providing sustained firepower, guarantees commanders with options to pulverize enemy locations, effectively degrading their war waging. In a combined battlefield scenario, this exponentially eases the task of the forward deployed ground assault troops.
The Army has traditionally tasked the artillery arm with surveillance, target acquisition, target degradation and also post damage assessment missions. The artillery, thus, not only helps in degradation of the battlefield; but also effectively helps in attaining unmatched battlefield transparency.
The towed guns and the medium gun regiments, around which the Artillery’s fighting capabilities are built, form the core business end of any full fledged offensive operations. Packed with unmatched firepower and through their capabilities of providing sustained precision strikes, these guns are crucial to break the back of the enemy.
There is no greater time that calls for the Artillery’s modernisation than the present security scenario, where India’s hostilities with its neighbours are rapidly spreading higher and deeper into the mountain ranges. With conflicts in the future, which the Army expects to be swift yet intense, expected to be fought based on offensive and punitive firepower, the importance of the artillery has only been redeemed further.
The political mandate of the NDA-led coalition Government, headed by PM Narendra Modi, promised rapid modernisation of the country’s armed forces. The Government soon after taking the reins ordered an exhaustive review of the forces and requested for a priority list from each of the services.
When the then Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh Suhag put forward a detailed presentation in front of the Government, modernisation of the artillery and infantry arms toped his priority list. Realising that both of these arms were crucial for India’s war-waging capabilities, the Government ordered the MoD to draft out a well calibrated acquisition model for catering the demands of these arms.
While the infantry arm had witnessed acquisitions on a regular basics, the artillery regiment had failed to receive even a single howitzers, which forms the core fighting capability of the arm, for the past three decades. The infamous Bofors Ghost, which took life following the Bofors Scandal, had forced successive Governments to cancel several of the arm’s acquisition programs. This had left modernisation programs of the arm in a limbo.
Under the Field Artillery Rationalisation Program (FARP), the Army had drawn plans to acquire more than 2,820 howitzers at an estimated cost outlay of INR 25,000. These guns are designed to meet the requirements of the Army from the scouring Thar Desert, to the plains in the Punjab and onwards to the demanding mountain terrain in the North and Norther Eastern theatres.
In FARP, a bulk of the procurement would be under the ‘towed artillery gun’ system category, which are essential force multipliers in the plains and the foothills, where a large part of India’s conflicts have been fought. The Army has set course for procuring at least 1,510 towed guns under the ‘Buy and Make’ category. This massive requirement arose almost three decades ago, following the scuttling of the Bofors deal mid-way, after corruption charges arose even as the deal for 1,500+ guns was being executed by the OEM.
The Army has unsuccessfully floated tenders for this program on at least three different occasions. While the first tender floated in 2001 was scuttled in 2007, following the undesirable performance of weapon systems on offer, the 2008 tender was withdrawn mid-way after the MoD ran into a single vendor scenario.
The latest tender which was floated in 2011 has also made little headway. Even though French based Nexter in partnership with L&T and Israel-based Soltam System (a subsidiary of Elbit) in partnership with Bharat Forge have offered their guns, decision in concluding the tender has not been forthcoming. The subsequent allegations against Soltam systems, which was never proved, had left the tender in an abyss. The tender, however, is now making progress with the Army HQ pushing for it again with Government.
Of the 1,510 guns, the army had initially planned to procure at least 400 systems off-the-shelf, while the remaining 1, 100 guns would have been manufactured locally in India. This decision of the Army is however now being reviewed by the ministry. Any changes at this stage will delay the conclusion of the tender further.
Through this entire muddle, the Army has received a glimmer of hope as the indigenously developed Dhanush program surging forward. Developed by the state-run OFB (Ordnance Factory Board), Dhanush is 155mm/45-cal towed gun system. Having been designed around the proven Bofors howitzers, these guns are being projected as a replacement to the field units as well as to the Bofors themselves.
After extensive trials and following multiple design modifications, the Dhanush is on the verge of being inducted into the Artillery arm. OFB’s Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) situated in Jabalpur, which is producing these guns, has already received a confirmed order for 114 of these guns. The MoD recently awarded clearance for bulk production of these guns. The recent issuance of quality assurance certificate by the Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) has cleared the final hurdles for Dhanush.
Well informed sources with the OFB have indicated that the Army is currently contemplating of ordering at least 400 more Dhanush howitzers.
The Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) is another solution from an Indian consortium, which for the maiden time consists of both DRDO and the country’s untapped private sector, which also promises to meet the requirements for the towed systems . DRDO working in partnership with Tata SED and Bharat Forge has successfully developed a 155mm/52-cal towed gun systems, which has currently been cherished the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS).
The prototypes of the indigenously manufactured gun, which are undergoing trials, have successfully set several world records, thus proving the prowess of the system. Several officers who have witnessed the gun in action remain optimistic about the gun beating its global contemporaries with a healthy margin. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has recently awarded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procuring 150 of these guns at cost of INR 3,365 crores. The successful development and induction of these indigenous products is expected to turn around the tables of the Artillery arm on the ever fluid battlefield.
Besides the tender for towed gun systems, the army is also actively pursuing a program for inducting guns under the Mounted Gun System (MGS) category. In this configuration, a 155mm howitzer will be mounted on to a highly mobile and independent platform. Having shorter turning radius than the towed guns, these systems are crucial in the mountains, where manoeuvrability is extremely difficult. Being independent platforms, these systems also have a high-level of autonomy and shoot-and-scout capability.
The Army has drawn up plans to acquire 814 of these systems, in which 100 will be acquired off-the-shelf, with the remaining 714 being manufactured in India. DAC’s approvals for this tender was accorded in 2014 and ever since the Army is known to have been in conversation with the several global OEMs.
For the INR 15,000+ crore tender, the BAE system and Mahindra and Mahindra consortium fielded FH-77 BW L52 Archer system is competing with Nexter and L&T fielded Ceaser gun. Indian giant Tata SED has also jumped into the fray with its own system, which the company claims to feature close to 52% of indigenous components. With the current catapult systems being rapidly outdated from the battlefield, it imperative that the Government pushes ahead with this tender.
The Nexter field Ceaser gun, which has seen extensive action as part of the coalition forces fighting against terrorism in the Middle East and Afghanistan, leads the fray with its battle proven capabilities. Nexter’s stakes in the tender received a shot-in-the-arm after it’s partner L&T clinched orders for producing the K-9 Vajras locally in India. L&T currently remains to be the sole private artillery gun supplier to the Indian Army.
The Army’s requirement for tracked self-propelled howitzers and Ultra Light Weight (ULH) howitzers have now been met as the Hanwa – L&T K-9 Vajra and the BAE manufactured M777 ULH systems are being inducted into the ranks of the Indian Army. The induction of these systems promises to induce some much awaited life into the artillery arm. While the 100 of the K-9 Vajra will go on to aid the strike formations of the Mechanized Forces (MF), the 145 pieces of the M777 ULH will arm the mountain strike corps being raised along the Northern and Eastern theatres. The induction of both these systems are expected to be completed by 2021.
The Artillery regiment also operates missiles and rockets, which acts as force multipliers on the battlefield. The indigenously developed Pinaka Mk-1 Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) systems remain to be the mainstay of the regiment. DRDO is also developing a more advanced version of the Pinaka, which will be a guided rocket with a range of over 40 kilometres. Trials have established that the system can fire at least 12 rockets in less than 44 seconds in a single salvo.
The true force multipliers for the Artillery are the deadly BrahMos cruise missiles, which have been developed with Russia. BrahMos, which its developers have time and again termed as the world’s only true supersonic missile, is a lethal system which can target systems up to 300 kilometres away with pin-point accuracy. In addition to the three regiments which have been in service with the Army since 2007, the Army will receive a fourth regiment of the BrahMos. Missiles being inducted in this current batch will be far more advanced than its predecessors, according to the manufacturer. With proven loitering and steep-dive capabilities, these missiles will crucial for the Army along the Northern and Eastern fronts.
For the effective operation of these filed units, the most important factor is battlefield transparency, which can be acquired only through sustained surveillance and reconnaissance missions. In charge of this crucial role is the Artillery’s SATA (Surveillance And Target Acquisition)regiment. Armed with UAVs and Radar systems, the SATA units have been proving their effectiveness on the battlefield for decades.
The current long range capabilities of the SATA units are composed around the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Range) and Heron drones. For shorter range missions, the arm is operating the imported Search series of UAVs and also the indigenously manufactured Nishant UAV systems. The dismal state of the Aviation Corps calls for urgent up-gradation of the UAV fleet. Also, there is an on-going debate about arming these units with UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles) in the future.
Another sector of the SATA units that is calling for fastened procurement is the Radar technology. It is these ultra-modern systems that help in detecting and also in guiding the shells on to an enemy location. While the Artillery is operating the Israeli-origin Medium Range Battlefield Surveillance Radars (MRBFSR) for battlefield surveillance, the US-origin ANTQP-37 Radars coupled with the indigenously designed Swati system are deployed in WLR (Weapon Locating Radar) role. Increased push of the enemy deeper and higher into the mountains is necessitating the rapid induction these systems to effectively guide the ammunitions with pin-point accuracy.
Army’s push for Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has mandated the fusion of technology with field assets. As the Army steadily surges towards realizing the C4I2 doctrine, it is crucial that the Artillery is also equipped with state-of-the-art combat effective communications and control system. The Artillery is currently being equipped with the Shakti Artillery Combat Command and Control System (ACCS), which has been indigenously designed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
The addition of these systems will gradually increase the capability of the Arm to rapidly acquire process and disseminate battlefield information, which in turn will promise the arm with capabilities to deliver crushing blows. It also provides the Artillery with a system to automate and integrate artillery functions, which will provide the Commanders with unmatched decision support at all levels.
As India’s conflicts actively treads towards the treacherous mountainous terrain it is critical that the country’s armed forces are equipped with a combat-ready force that can inflict punitive strike against enemies with pin-point precision. It is thus imperative that the Artillery, which has for years provided the country’s ground-based troops with reliable fire support, is upgraded and armed to meet the growing operational requirements at both the tactical and operational levels.
