The Indian Army received the first batch of India’s first-ever indigenously designed and manufactured artillery gun – “desi” Dhanush howitzers at the Jabalpur army base on Monday.
**advertisement**
Related Articles
Within past five years, the “Make in India” program has propagated various sectors of manufacturing in India, from smartphones to cars and space satellites to defence weapons. In the latest addition to the realms of indigenously developed items, the Indian Army just received the first batch of the India-made Dhanush 155/45 calibre towed artillery gun system, also known as “desi” Bofors at Jabalpur base station on Monday. This is by-far the first-ever long range piece of artillery designed and made in India.
— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) April 7, 2019
The Dhanush gun mechanism was acquired in 1980s, but were marred by corruptions; later the design was updated as per fire standard NATO 155 mm ammunition. With joint efforts from the Ordnance Factory Board of the Gun Carriage Factory at Jabalpur, DRDO, DGQA, DPSUs and other private enterprises, they finally managed to deliver the first batch of desi bofors, almost four decades later. As per the defence ministry statements, the new guns are loaded with “inertial navigation-based sighting system, auto-laying facility, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system. And the self-propulsion unit allows the gun to negotiate and deploy itself in mountainous terrains with ease”.
The induction of Dhanush will be a booster for the Indian army, which is on the spree to upgrade its ammunition and defence artillery – as it recently inducted armours like the South Korean tracked self-propelled howitzer K-9 Vajra; and the American ultra-light howitzer M-777. For the first batch, only six gun systems were rolled out at the handing-over ceremony at Jabalpur on Monday; but it has been reported that the Indian army has placed a prompt order of 110 Dhanushes to quench the gun-drought in the times of tension at its international borders.
**advertisement**
The post Indian Army gets India-made Dhanush howitzers appeared first on News on Screen.
