Marred by constant corruption charges and subsequent
blacklisting of foreign vendors, the Indian Army’s artillery modernisation
programme got a major boost as the “indigenously designed and manufactured”
155mm x 45mm calibre artillery gun, Dhanush (literally meaning Arrow)
successfully completed its summer and winter trials. (The first time it was
reported by me in 2012 that the Indian Army is going indigenous route to meet
its artillery requirements.Read it here)
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| File Photo |
The guns were first tested in 2012 in Pokhran, Rajasthan.
The gun is being manufactured by Ordnance Factor Board and is based on the
designed transferred along with Bofors guns in 1986. However, the corruption
taint associated with the Swedish artillery manufacturer meant that the designs
remained unused for decades. Even now, the ghost of Bofors means that the
establishment is reluctant to have any association with the name. Also it is an
upgraded version of earlier Bofors. (Timeline of the indigenous Artillery guns development).
The repeated attempts of the Indian Army to acquire the guns
have met a dead end with company after company got blacklisted owing to
corruption charges and the defence tenders kept on being cancelled. At present
four foreign vendors – Bofors (Swedish), Denel (South African), Rhienmetall
(German) and Singapore Kinetics (Singaporean) firm are in the blacklist of the
defence establishment. Also the last artillery gun that the Indian Army
inducted was nearly three decades old.
The news of the successful completion of summer and winter
trials of Dhanush was given by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to Members of
Parliament of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry.
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