Atlast Indian govt Pumps $75 Mil to Build Bofors Howitzers for Army

[Kunal Biswas]

Are you sure abt the BEML offer being cancelled , i think it has merely been shelved to allow the PSU to get it's act together !

May be, the news of cancellation of Wheeled SPGH conforms the End of BEML participation with slovaks hence end of BEML 52cal barrel..

 

[Godless-Kafir]

Very good news finally. So is this an reverse engineered Bofors gun?

 

[kaustav2001]

Gr8 News...but wasn't this already a done deal -

From - Army places orders for 100 howitzers

"The Army has placed orders with the OFB for procuring one hundred 155mm 52 calibre howitzers and this will be developed on the basis of Transfer of Technology (ToT) done by Bofors," Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju told PTI here.
He said indigenous development of the howitzers would continue alongside trials by the OFB and within a specific time frame, the guns would be delivered to the Army.

The Minister said this indigenous development programme was not likely to have any impact on procurement of several types of gun systems such as 145 Ultra Light Howitzers, 180 Self-Propelled Howitzers and 400 Towed Howitzers through global tenders.

So it does look like this would go hand-in-hand with procurement via FMS/ global tenders. I only wish Denel was part of this.. but that's a different story altogether

 

[LETHALFORCE]

 

[noob101]

Are 100 enough.... considering the gaping holes in IA artillery and the expansion the IA is expected to take shouldn't GoI be ordering them in the thousands or is this just a stop gap meassure or just something to make headlines to show the country that something is being done

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Are 100 enough.... considering the gaping holes in IA artillery and the expansion the IA is expected to take shouldn't GoI be ordering them in the thousands or is this just a stop gap meassure or just something to make headlines to show the country that something is being done

Why would the government reveal real numbers made??

 

[noob101]

Why would the government reveal real numbers made??

how can they keep it a secret? they might say " we are building 100" but build 200 in this case we may not know about it. My point is that we need 1000 pieces how is the GoI going to fund that with out the public knowing....

plus the point that I am trying to make is that the GoI and certain IA officers have deliveberatly kept the order to 100 as there are very little kick backs from this deal when in reality we needed total 2000 artillery pieces 5 years ago... in this case why only go for 100 units?

 

[Kunal Biswas]

100 Guns First batch after user satisfied more 100 and so on it goes on..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Gr8 News...but wasn't this already a done deal -

From - Army places orders for 100 howitzers

"The Army has placed orders with the OFB for procuring one hundred 155mm 52 calibre howitzers

Its 45 & 39cal

Very good news finally. So is this an reverse engineered Bofors gun?

No just Tot..

 

[LETHALFORCE]

how can they keep it a secret? they might say " we are building 100" but build 200 in this case we may not know about it. My point is that we need 1000 pieces how is the GoI going to fund that with out the public knowing....

plus the point that I am trying to make is that the GoI and certain IA officers have deliveberatly kept the order to 100 as there are very little kick backs from this deal when in reality we needed total 2000 artillery pieces 5 years ago... in this case why only go for 100 units?

The government had the TOT for years so they could have been producing the Bofors gun for
years. The government does not need to be honest in numbers produced. Kickbacks are a
good point. The Government has been very slow to acquire howitzers so it would not suprise me
if they were producing 100 each year and there are thousands produced especially from what I
Heard was a very large amount paid for the TOT.

 

[nitesh]

if what they are saying is true, then this is substantial progress:

Field trials of upgraded Bofors gun in Jan 2013 | idrw.org

An upgraded version of the 155mm Bofors gun, the Indian Army's most potent artillery weapon, will be ready for field trials in January 2013, a top official of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) said on Tuesday.

"We are working on this upgraded version. This has been tried out in PXE (Proof and Experimental Establishment), Balasore," OFB chairperson Sashi Dhar Dimri said on the sidelines of its 210th anniversary here.

OFB is upgrading the gun from its original 39-calibre to 45-calibre with mechanical and electronic suites.

Extensive firing has been carried out at PXE Balasore as part of the upgrade process.

"We are confident that in the beginning of 2013, our GCF (Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur) will be in a position to field the gun for trials," Dimri said.

While one gun has been upgraded with the electronic suite incorporating ballistic computers, servo valves and communication systems to provide automation, the second gun has been upgraded by fitting a new 45 calibre barrel, enabling it to achieve a range of 40 km.

 

[JAYRAM]

The Minister said this indigenous development programme was not likely to have any impact on procurement of several types of gun systems such as 145 Ultra Light Howitzers, 180 Self-Propelled Howitzers and 400 Towed Howitzers through global tenders.

So how many variety howitzers are we going to have?..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

So how many variety howitzers are we going to have?..

39cal, 45cal & 52cal of 155mm ...

 

[lemontree]

I just hope this project does not take forever like the INSAS rifle (15 yrs) and the LCA (on going since 30 yrs)...

Secondly, we should use imported ammo till we learn to make good quality shells. No point in using sub-standard OFB stuff that blows up in the barrel.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Sir, OFB Arty shell blows in barrels ?

 

[shuvo@y2k10]

is the project to develop 52 caliber 155mm artillery for wheeled and tracked sph(bhim) being carried out by arde or ofb?