Indigenously developed Artillery guns 'Dhanush' handed over to Indian Army

Bhopal (PTI) : Completely indigenously developed 155 mm ‘Dhanush‘ artillery guns made by Jabalpur based ‘Gun Carriage Factory’ (GCE) have been handed over to Indian Army. These artillery guns are capable of striking the target at a range of 38 km. Border security trails will be boosted due to these guns.

These 155 mm guns ‘Dhanush’ are of howitzer grade. Development of these guns has been completed. GCE‘s Director and Public Relations Officer Sanjay Srivastava informed that these guns are now handed over to Army for trails. Along with these very soon three more guns will be handed over to Army.

“Army had demanded six howitzers guns following successful summer and winter trails of these GCE artillery guns. During these trails around 2,000 rounds were being successfully fired from the guns in different climatic conditions like snowy and desert areas”, said Srivastava.

In current scenario, the Army requirement is for 114 Dhanush guns from GCE. The Indian Army is in need of a huge number of howitzers of different types and Indian firms with the help of some foreign manufactures are trying to fulfill the demand. India has made these guns at a cost of 14 crore rupees a piece and is comparable to most current generation weapon systems which are in use by different countries. Recently, the Government allowed defence area for 100% Foreign Direct Investment. Due to this hike in full percent investment in this area, it is expected that defence material development will be charged up. Dependency of defence material on other countries will be reduced with the help of efforts taken under the ‘Make In India’ campaign.

Strike rate of these GCE guns has been increased by up to 11 km as compared to current Bofors in Army having strike rate of 27 km.

At present Army requires large numbers of guns to replace current guns with the developed new ones, for which efforts are being made. Army had stationed a special team of officers to monitor these guns development. Along with monitoring the 506 Army Base Workshop committee is looking after other things.

Past 10 years Indian Army has awaited for new guns. Four years ago ‘Defence Acquisition Board’ had asked Ordinance Factory Board (OFD) to manufacture Howitzer guns in our own country. After that on 155 mm gun manufacturing was passed on 22nd Sept 2012 and its manufacturing started.

Meanwhile, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has developed 155 mm integrated towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) to enhance and strengthen Indian Army’s artillery. These guns are capable of targeting up to 40 km target. Next year these guns will be ready for Army trails. But before these ‘Dhanush’ guns are ready for army tests.