Army begins process for wheeled artillery acquisition for 3rd time

Facing the critical problem of an obsolete artillery inventory, the Indian Army has began the process of acquiring self-propelled wheeled guns for the fourth time, after its earlier attempts ended in a naught due to corruption allegations. 

Zuzana gun

 

The Indian Army aims to procure 180 units of the self propelled guns aimed to be deployed under five regiments in the plains of Punjab and Rajasthan against Pakistan. A self-propelled gun is armoured and mobile giving teeth to the Indian Army’s firepower by giving it capability to shoot and scoot or for carrying out sustained, intense and burst firing. The tender would be around $ 1 billion.

The latest Request for Information sent by the Indian Army has sought broad specifications from Original Equipment Manufacturers by Sept 20. With Bofors and Rheinmetall blacklisted it remains to be seen who all will respond to the Army’s RFI, which specifies nothing about qualitative requirements of the howitzers. The RFI only states that the requirement is for a 155 mm 45/52 calibre gun.

The procurement process for the guns mounted on six or eight wheeled vehicles was called off in 2011 after the Defence Ministry received complaints of deviation in the field trials conducted in 2010. The Army had submitted its trial evaluation report about Rheimetall Wheeled Gun and Slovakia’s ShKH Zuzana-A1 in 2010. Defence Minister AK Antony received a complaint about technical snag in the Slovakian gun as its barrel allegedly burst during trials. Swedish firm Rhienmetall was later blacklisted by the Indian government earlier this year crippling the Army’s artillery modernization plan.

Slovakian Konštrukta SpGH Zuzana 2, Nexter CAESAR, Rheinmetall RWG-52 and BAE-Bofors FH77 BW L52 Archer are likely to be the prospective respondents to the RFI, which was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in June 2006.

Presently, the Indian Army’s Artillery wing operates Soviet-vintage D-30 122mm guns, the locally designed and built 105mm Indian Field Guns (IFG) and its Light Field Gun (LFG) derivative and Soviet-vintage 130mm M46 towed field guns. The FH-77 155mm/ 39 caliber Bofors howitzers, 410 of which were imported from 1986 onwards, now reduced to half their original number due to the non-availability of spares and their ensuing cannabalisation, and 180 M46s —retrofitted by Israel’s Soltam to 155mm/45 cal standards.

Most of these artillery systems in the Indian Army are decade old – a lacunae red-flagged by the former Indian Army chief  General VK Singh - and the changing spectrum of military warfare makes it imperative for the Army to induct the new guns. The artillery modernization programme has been jinxed with Swedish Bofors, South African Denel, Singapore Kinetics and Swedish Rhienmetall being banned by the Indian Defence Ministry over corruption charges.