Dhanush the Indian Bofors

arnabmit

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Desi Bofors to plug gap in Army’s long-range firepower - Times Of India

NEW DELHI: The desi version of the original Swedish 155mm Bofors howitzers, which proved its worth by wreaking havoc against Pakistani intruders during the 1999 Kargil conflict, is now all set to plug huge operational gaps in the long-range, high-volume firepower of the Army.

The defence ministry has placed an order worth over Rs 1,260-crore for acquisition of 114 of the artillery field guns developed by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), which has used the designs obtained under the transfer of technology (ToT) provisions in the infamous Rs 1,437-crore Bofors contract of 1986 to develop the new guns.

The order is in tune with defence minister A K Antony's latest directive, issued in the aftermath of the bribery controversy in the VVIP helicopters' contract, for a greater thrust on indigenization to avoid scams.

It will also serve to "exorcise" the almost three-decade-old Bofors ghost - which in later years got reinforced by scandals around other global artillery manufacturers like South African Denel, Israeli Soltam and Singapore Technology Kinetics (STK) - to ensure the Army failed to induct even a single 155mm howitzer since the mid-1980s.

Under the original Bofors contract, India had obtained ToT to indigenously manufacture the howitzers after inducting 410 guns but the ensuing scandal, which had led to the fall of the Rajiv Gandhi government, had put paid to all such plans.

"Now, the OFB has worked on the original drawings and electronically upgraded the guns to 45-calibre from the original 39-calibre. The new howitzers have a 38-km range compared to the 30-km of the Bofors gun," said an official.

OFB has developed two prototypes of the 155mm45-calibre guns, one with 68% indigenous parts and the other with 46%, that have been "satisfactorily tested in validation firings" in Pokran and Balasore over the last five months.

The "letter of intent" for the 114 howitzers was placed on the OFB "a couple of days ago" to ensure it can begin bulk production after the "user-trials" in June.

The Army has projected an initial requirement for 414 of these guns, each of which will cost over Rs 11 crore, as part of its long-delayed artillery modernization programme.

Interestingly, the other artillery project on the verge of being inked â€" the $647 million contract for acquisition of 145 M-777 ultra-light howitzers (ULH) from the US - also has a strong Bofors angle.

Though the ULH deal will be a direct government-to-government deal, which is said to preclude kickbacks, the 155mm39-calibre M-777s are manufactured by BAE Systems, which now owns the original Bofors firm.

"It should be signed by April-May. An Indian `maintainability evaluation team' visited the US from February 8 to 25 to examine the howitzers," said the official. The air-mobile howitzers, capable of being swiftly deployed in forward areas by helicopters and aircraft, are primarily meant for the high-altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh to counter China.

The other 155mm52-calibre artillery projects, in the overall Rs 30,000 crore artillery modernization plan, include the purchase of 100 self-propelled tracked guns from a foreign vendor and the development of 814 mounted gun systems through a joint venture with the private sector.

But the biggest one is the over Rs 12,000-crore project to buy 400 towed artillery guns, followed by indigenous manufacture of another 1,180 such guns after transfer of technology from the foreign vendor. This project has been derailed at least a couple of times in the past, the last time after STK was blacklisted due to the corruption scandal against former OFB chairman Sudipto Ghosh.

================================

Sorry if posted earlier...
 
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Lions Of Punjab

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Re: DRDO 155mm Artillery Program

Things about 155mm Guns of different calibers..

We will take bofors FH-77 based guns for study :

================
================



This is bofors 155mm/52cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 8.06 m (26 ft 5 in) L/52
52cal gun with ordinary ammo:19 km
52cal gun with Special ammo: 52-56,000 m (BB+RAP extended range)

================
================



This is bofors 155mm/45cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 6.95 meters L/45
45cal gun with ordinary ammo: 18 kms
45cal gun with Special ammo: 41,600 m (Extended range full-bore-base)


=================
=================



This is bofors 155mm/39cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 5.89 m (19 ft 4 in) L/39
39cal gun with ordinary ammo: 24 km
39cal gun with Special ammo: 30km


====================
====================
====================
====================

How to measure caliber :



From above :

155 x 45 = 6.95 meters long barrel
155 x 52 = 8.06 meters long barrel
155 x 39 = 6.04 meters long barrel
informative , thank you kunal bhai .
 

W.G.Ewald

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Re: DRDO 155mm Artillery Program

Any reference links to check out work on auto loader? Does any other gun have auto loaders for 155 mm guns?
I never served in artillery, but...

Different fire missions require different size charges. I would think a gun crew would be more flexible for that requirement than any automatic system that could be devised.
 

Dinesh_Kumar

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Re: DRDO, Army working on futuristic artillery gun

About DRDO Gun System, I think DRDO effort different from OFB, but from a similar base.

A pic is avbl , from one of blogs on the net, of 155mm 52 cal gun, but I not able to attach pic to post.
 

Kunal Biswas

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Re: DRDO, Army working on futuristic artillery gun

DRDO is a research institute of India, OFB also have a research wing but its mainly responsible for manufacturing..

===========

DRDO is making 52cal gun where as OFB is made 45cal gun based on FH-77, +100 units are already ordered by Army..

About DRDO Gun System, I think DRDO effort different from OFB, but from a similar base. .
 

Kunal Biswas

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India had developed Its First 155mm Gun..
Kanpur Ordnance Factory had developed 155mm of 45cal gun



In 2009, FH-77 were first updated with 155mm/45cal barrels.
Translation By me:
The prototype Gun is named P-1( 55 ), It is based on FH-77 which was purchased in 1984 to 1990, but coz of various reasons it was not feasible to import further, FH-77 played a major role in Kargil war, Now MOD has cleared to manufacture 414 pieces of the new gun based on Battle Proven FH-77 guns, This New Gun can fire 8 rounds per Minute, It can be deployed easily, The range of the gun is 30km with Regular Ammunition and can be Extended to 40kms.
Link in Hindi: http://business.bhaskar.com/article/india-made-bofors-gun-2685744.html?HF-12=
 

Kunal Biswas

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100 made-in-India Bofors artillery guns

Defeating the ghost of Bofors scandal that has haunted successive Congress governments, the Indian Ordinance Factory Board has set on a daunting task of manufacturing 100 Bofors artillery guns indigenous from scratch, nearly 24 years after the first of these Swedish guns were inducted into the Indian Army.The Indian Army has already placed an order with the OFB and the effort if successful will save the country millions and would give the country a capability to further improvise the guns to add punch to its firepower.
More Info:
Latest India News | Breaking News | World &amp Business News | Sports &amp Entertainment news
Army Places Orders For 100 Howitzers with OFB - Defence Now
 

Kunal Biswas

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The Gun:













1. The body including the crane and auto loading will be rebuilt with Indian Raw material with help of given TOT

2. The Gun of 45cal which already in use by Indian Army will be fitted with the body

3. The electronic is produced by bel India will be added to the whole system

4. The ammo is produced already by OFB will be in use..
 

Kunal Biswas

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Kunal Biswas

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Summer trails are successful winter trails will be conducted in Jan of 2014 ..



Desi Bofors named "Dhanush"; 5th Prototype successfully tested at Balasore in Orissa by GCF, Jabalpur. More than 100 rounds fired and ranges of upto 38 km was achieved. Issues of Auto Loading has been resolved, and adequate precautions taken due to previous barrel burst incident. Winter Trials by Indian Army are next.Link is given below (in Hindi):

Source : Clipping of Patrika Bhopal, 06-12-2013 :readwhere
 

JBH22

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Nice development but wanted to know how to it compares to the latest Bofors gun the Archer system.

Wonder why artillery has always been neglected by IA, its not a complex system to build compared to planes. Back then in 1965 also IA lacked heavy artillery that PA had.

Hopefully this gun might give decent punch to Indian armed forces.
 

Kunal Biswas

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Archer is a SPGH based on wheeled platform, this is about towed gun in that case you meant bofors bo5 which is a 52cal gun ..

The Danush and bo5 main difference is there barrel length, other than that there is no notable difference ..

Regarding barrels ========= >>Things about 155mm Guns of different calibers..

We will take bofors FH-77 based guns for study :

================
================



This is bofors 155mm/52cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 8.06 m (26 ft 5 in) L/52
52cal gun with ordinary ammo:19 km
52cal gun with Special ammo: 52-56,000 m (BB+RAP extended range)

================
================



This is bofors 155mm/45cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 6.95 meters L/45
45cal gun with ordinary ammo: 18 kms
45cal gun with Special ammo: 41,600 m (Extended range full-bore-base)


=================
=================



This is bofors 155mm/39cal gun, Specifications below :

Length of the barrel : 5.89 m (19 ft 4 in) L/39
39cal gun with ordinary ammo: 24 km
39cal gun with Special ammo: 30km


====================
====================
====================
====================

How to measure caliber :



From above :

155 x 45 = 6.95 meters long barrel
155 x 52 = 8.06 meters long barrel
155 x 39 = 6.04 meters long barrel

Nice development but wanted to know how to it compares to the latest Bofors gun the Archer system..
 

Kunal Biswas

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The 400 guns are of 52cal for which IA has put tenders since 30 years and still on ..

45cal Dhanush is a solution till we get 52cal guns in mass amount, 45cal is a little shorter than 52cal gun but has equal range of 52cal with normal rounds and bleed base rounds ..

Study no #7 post for better understanding of the calibers and there advantages, Though i should have added that longer the barrel enhance longer range and velocity of the round fired from the barrel ..

Kunal bhai , which news is true ? we r buying 144 of these or 400 ? Also what r advantages of different types of callibers ?
 

ladder

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The 400 guns are of 52cal for which IA has put tenders since 30 years and still on ..

45cal Dhanush is a solution till we get 52cal guns in mass amount, 45cal is a little shorter than 52cal gun but has equal range of 52cal with normal rounds and bleed base rounds ..

Study no #7 post for better understanding of the calibers and there advantages, Though i should have added that longer the barrel enhance longer range and velocity of the round fired from the barrel ..
Kunal Sir, my understanding was that IA ultimately needs 400 of 45 cal Dhanush to replace the Bofores in the inventory, of that 114/ 100 have been ordered (LOI) issued.
DRDO 52 cal is needed for future projection and requirement of IA.

Even when the original bofors were indicted there was a requirement of around 1600 examples.
So, may be the DRDO 52 cal will cater to those requirement if the ongoing artillery procurement is delayed to 2020.
 

Blood+

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Kunal bhai , which news is true ? we r buying 144 of these or 400 ? Also what r advantages of different types of callibers ?
Are you an idiot or blind??All of your questions are already answered by Kunal bhai in post #7 right in this very page!!Just take a look for crying out loud man!
 

The Fox

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Hey guys I cant get a grip over the advantage of having 52 caliber over 45 caliber the projectile dia is same 155mm and i don't understand how it is impacting on the range of it compared 45 to 52 caliber
2nd. if you can design a 45 caliber gun how in the world it is tough to design a 52 caliber gun its just a matter of 6.95 ~ 8.06 meters different i cant understand the rucks behind a 45 and 52 caliber difference........
 

nik22

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What are the challenges to build 52 cal in India? Why not directly build 52 ones ?
 

Dinesh_Kumar

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Its like saying we can make Tandoori Chicken, but have a problem with chapathis. Some genius from BR Forums also postulated " its like taking chapathi and reverse engineering to find the composition of water and atta" Over 40 countries build artillery howitzers, including N. Korea, Iran, and Finland, but cannot match us in other areas like space science,supercomputers and fly-by - wire technology. ARDE lab has enough no. of M.Tech and Phd holders, testing facilities, and access to research papers from all over the world. Actual issue maybe bureaucratic inertia prevents open communications between various organizations who have to come together.

Nice development but wanted to know how to it compares to the latest Bofors gun the Archer system.

Wonder why artillery has always been neglected by IA, its not a complex system to build compared to planes. Back then in 1965 also IA lacked heavy artillery that PA had.

Hopefully this gun might give decent punch to Indian armed forces.
 

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