UPSC Express

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.