India artillery upgrade stuck, Pak gets howitzers from US

[abdulrafi]

( from asian defence blog )

India artillery upgrade stuck, Pak gets howitzers from US
By Manu Pubby

India’s artillery modernisation has been stuck due to scam scares ever since the Bofors scandal but Pakistan has gone ahead, equipping its army with the latest guns that now threaten to give it an edge over the Indian Army.

While India has not received even a single new artillery gun in the last two decades, Pakistan recently received a batch of 67 self-propelled artillery guns from the US using War against Terror funds granted by Washington.

Latest United Nations data reveal that delivery of the M-109 A5 self-propelled artillery guns took place last year. The guns were transferred under the US Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programme that was granted to Pakistan for the fight against militant groups on its border with Afghanistan.

Experts say these M-109 A5 155 mm howitzers give Pakistan a definite conventional edge over the Indian Army that is years away from induction of similar systems. The most modern guns in the Indian Army are the Bofors that were procured in the 1980s.

“While the Indian Army modernisation is getting nowhere, Pakistan is steadily modernising not only its artillery but other arms and services as well. This will lead to erosion in India’s conventional superiority if not checked immediately,” said Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal, a former artillery officer, who heads the Army’s think tank, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

In the Nineties, the Indian Army had put forward a requirement for guns similar to the ones that Pakistan has now got. While the plan took off in 1999, it got scrapped after eight years of trials after South African firm Denel was blacklisted by the government. Israel’s Soltham and Singapore Technologies, the other artillery giants, have also been blacklisted by the government

 

[abdulrafi]

India artillery upgrade stuck, Pak gets howitzers from US

 

[Burninspice]

Rs 20k cr deals may end Army's artillery drought
Rajat Pandit, TNN 24 August 2009, 03:02am IST
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NEW DELHI: India is now going to float a mega global tender for acquiring 814 motorised howitzers in a fresh attempt to kickstart the Army's
long-delayed over Rs 20,000 crore artillery modernisation programme, bedevilled by the Bofors ghost and other scandals for almost 25 years now.

The project will include an off-the-shelf purchase of 200 155mm/52-calibre mounted gun systems from abroad, which will be followed by indigenous manufacture of another 614 such howitzers under transfer of technology.

"These 17-tonne motorised howitzers will arm 40 regiments. The project was recently cleared by Defence Acquisitions Council, chaired by defence minister A K Antony. The RFP is being issued," said a defence ministry source.

Yet another big project on the anvil is the outright purchase of 100 155mm/52-calibre self-propelled tracked guns for five artillery regiments, the field trials for which will be held around May-June 2010.

The 1.13-million Army is keeping its fingers firmly crossed this time about its artillery modernisation programme, which envisages induction of a whopping 2,814 guns of different types.

Not a single new artillery gun, after all, has been inducted ever since the infamous Rs 1,437 crore Bofors contract for 410 field howitzers became a political bogey in 1986.

If first it was Bofors, then it was Denel in 2005. And now, Singapore Technologies (ST) is in the dock after the defence ministry put all dealings with it on hold due to the alleged corruption scandal involving former Ordnance Factory Board chairman Sudipto Ghosh.

A worried Army top brass, in fact, has even asked Antony to allow the trials in different categories to go ahead while the CBI conducts its probe into Ghosh's case. The Pegasus gun of ST Kinetics, for instance, was to be field-tested from mid-June onwards in the project to acquire 140 air-mobile ultra-light howitzers (ULHs) for Rs 2,900 crore. Army needs ULHs to ensure artillery can be swiftly deployed in forward, inaccessible areas with the help of helicopters.

ST Kinetics was also a contender in the meandering Rs 8,000 crore project to buy 400 155mm/52-calibre towed artillery guns, which is to be followed by indigenous manufacture of another 1,180 howitzers. The other two contenders are BAE Systems and Israeli Soltam.

Times Of India

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

This is great news. It will be an invaluable complement to the MKE 155mm Towed-howitzers (Panthers) we received from Republic of Turkey.

 

[BlackPearll]

Indians had the best artillery Bofore's 155mm howitzer's. but the stupit old blood sucking politicians has turned new orders down. SELF-Propelled artillery from Switzerland is known to be the best system ever built. What are those corrupted old politicians and army generals thinking. I think India will become a great nation once they getrid of there 70+old glued with there seats....they should let the young generation take over the political system.

 

[ironman]

Already a thread exists in Pak Land force section. Mods pls mere this with it.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

hahaha i read about the indian bofors scandal. It is also not to their advantage that when they sign deals, they take so long. They pay and then get their equipments 10 years later.

strange habits

 

[graphican]

@BlackPearl;

Yes you rightly said so.

I haven't seen any Indian who wears American flag. Are you afraid of declaring yourself Indian over here? You should be proud of your motherland, shouldn't you?

 

[hack]

@BlackPearl;

Yes you rightly said so.

I haven't seen any Indian who wears American flag. Are you afraid of declaring yourself Indian over here? You should be proud of your motherland, shouldn't you?

Depends on whether he is an American or not does it not? I am an American,born and staying in America but I have Indian origins so I support Indian causes.But it does not mean my loyalty is to India,it remains and will be with America,so I have an American flag on my profile,maybe it is the same for him.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Already a thread exists in Pak Land force section. Mods pls mere this with it.

That thread, I thought, was more in the context of the A5's Pakistan was receiving, though I realize the basis was the same article as this one.

I thought this thread was revolving more along the lines of explaining Indian acquisitions and why India is lagging behind.

I can move posts over, or if there is an existing thread on Indian artillery, merge this one into it.