Gunners Shot

In Sep 2020, I gave a presentation to the Colours of Glory Foundation. The topic was INDIAN ARTILLERY : YESTERDAY TODAY AND TOMORROW. This presentation was made when the face off with China was at its peak in Eastern Ladakh. I am re-posting it since it answers a few fundamental questions which have come up during the ongoing Ukrainian crisis and posits a few more which need answers. The Video is an edited version of the full event. 

The full event can be viewed on this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAB26xAAgw0&t=11s . The presentation is not slick since it was in the early days of Webinars when we were all on the learning curve. Apart from that you will get an idea of the journey of Indian Artillery.   

First. There is hardly anyone who does not understand that India must be Atmanirbhar in Defense. However, there is national and international skepticism whether it can be achieved.

 A few days back I had written an article in which I outlined the story of the Atmanirbharta journey of Indian Artillery. The story is :  “ In the 70s, Indian Artillery, like the rest of the Armed Forces was largely made up of Russian equipment. The 100mm Gun, the 130mm M46 and Grad BM21 MBRL made up the bulk of Indian Artillery as the second world war vintage British weapons like the 25 Pr, 5.5 inch and the 7.2-inch Guns were phased out of service. In the late 80s, India also acquired 122 mm Guns from Russia. Around that time, we had three Indigenously designed guns in the form of the 75/24 mm Howitzer, the 105mm Indian Field Gun and the 105mm Light Field Gun. In the 80s, we went in for the Swedish 155mm Bofors on a TOT basis to produce our own medium Guns. However, the ‘Bofors Khand’ and the ensuing investigations put us on a backfoot and all indigenization plans in cold storage. Design, development, or procurement of guns could not progress for over three decades. We could not modernize despite all efforts. For some strange reason, even the indigenous 105 mm gun production line was closed! The Pinaka MBRL program was stagnating.  That forced us to seek the Russian Smerch, long range rocket system early in the century. The nadir was 2010, when we were reduced to a state where we even considered importing second hand 130 mm guns from East European countries in sheer desperation. We were short of artillery ammunition.  We could not wean ourselves away from Russia. Things turned around due to determination, sustained, single-minded and clear-headed effort. Today, exactly 12 years later, we are inducting four new 155mm gun systems (Vajra, M777, Dhanush and Sarang) and a long-range guided rocket system (Pinaka). Our 105 mm Gun production line is going strong. All our new systems are not only non-Russian but are mostly indigenous and of latest technology. Where the equipment is procured from outside, the spares are mostly indigenous (M777 and Vajra). Most of our ammunition including that of Russian origin guns is now indigenous. We have already started discarding vintage Russian guns which cannot be upgraded indigenously. With the Dhanush having cleared endurance trials, Indian Artillery is at present 90% ‘Swadesi’ as well as a model for Atmanirbharta. Very soon we will be a 100% Atmanirbhar Artillery.  This is a model which needs emulation. Very clearly, India can reduce its dependence on Russia through Atmanirbharta. I have no doubts. I can vouch for it since I was fortunate enough to be part of the effort to build our potent and fast-modernizing Artillery”. 

This presentation amplifies this story in detail. Notwithstanding this, there was still some scepticism in the air which prompted some one to ask me the question : “We might be producing the guns but do we have the ammunition? Fair question. The answers to such doubts are also answered in this video. The larger issue is that we have a model of successful  Atmanirbahrta which can be achieved in about a decade. We need to suitably tweak it to other situations. we also need to take into consideration the model of Indian Navy in achieving a degree of Atmanirbharta in ship building.