Headline : Indian Army gets first batch of Dhanush artillery guns
Details :
The News
- In a major boost to its fire power, the indigenously produced long-range artillery gun, Dhanush was inducted into the Indian Army.
In focus: Dhanush
Introduction
- Dhanush is the first indigenously produced long-range artillery gun.
- It has been developed by the Ordnance Factory Board and manufactured by the Jabalpur-based Gun Carriage Factory.
- About 81% of its components are indigenously sourced which would scale up to 90 per cent by 2019.
- Indian Army will induct a total of 114 Dhanush artillery guns by 2023.
- The 155mm 45 caliber Dhanush is a long-range artillery gun system of 2 varieties
- Towed-variety
- Self-propelled mounted gun system variety
Specification
- It is a 45 caliber 155mm towed artillery gun. (caliber is the internal dia of the barrel and 155mm is the length of the barrel)
- It has a 6-round magazine.
- Capable of firing 60 rounds in 60 minutes.
- Maximum firing range of 38 km in the plain areas.(11 km more than Bofors guns)
- It can achieve a bigger range in high-altitude region where the density of air is much thinner and thus less air-friction.
Advanced features
- Inertial navigation based sighting system.
- Day and night direct firing capability with a thermal imaging system.
- All electric-drive gun laying and sighting system.
- Advanced communication system
- Automated command and control system
- Self-propelled and thus capable of quick deployability and high mobility in difficult mountainous terrain.
In brief: The artillery System of India
- India has a 2-front porous border of 7000-odd kms and 4000-odd kms with China and Pakistan respectively.
- The operational requirement to fight a 2-front war is 3000-odd artillery guns in addition to aerial weapons, precision-guided weapons, multi-barrel rocket launches etc.
- The categories of artillery systems include
- Long-range guns of towed variety
- Self-propelled guns mounted on a high-mobility vehicle (K9 Vajra)
- Light howitzers for difficult mountainous terrains. (M777 howitzers)
K9 Vajra T guns
- The K9 Vajra-T gun is a 155-mm, 52-calibre artillery gun.
- It is a South Korean artillery gun in the self-propelled mounted gun category.
- It has a range of 28-38 km.
- It is the first ever-artillery gun that will be manufactured by private sector in India with L & T India manufacturing 90 of them.
- Further, K9 Vajra is capable of ‘burst firing’ meaning which it can fire 3 rounds in 30 seconds.
M777 Ultra Light Howitzers
- The M777 is a 155-mm, 39-calibre towed medium artillery gun.
- It has a maximum range of 30 km.
- M777s are light artillery guns with a weight of 4 tonnes and are capable of being air lifted by Chinook helicopters.
- Thus, M777 can be deployed in mountainous terrains devoid of roads & tracks.
Section : Defence & Security
