is bharat 52 trials already complete? isn't that the gun which serves the purpose of m777?
No Bharat 52 is not the gun offered by Bharat Forge as a potential M-777 replacement.
Bharat 52 is a 52 caliber artillery gun which Bharat forge (BF) made. This gun is a separate project that ATAGS. It has completed trials as of August 2020.
DRDO 155mm Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System Bharat Forge, part of Kalyani Group, has conducted final trials of its Advanced Towe...
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In late 2000s, Bharat Forge bought the entire assembly line of Norincum, which was an Austrian artillery manufacturer, disassembled the plant in Austria, bought it to India and re-assembled the plant here. As a result, BF gained sufficient expertise on artillery systems. Based on this experience and the available blueprint of GHN-45 or Norinco, developed its own version of 45 caliber 155 mm gun called Bharat 45. Based on this they further developed 52 caliber Bharat 52.
Interesting thing to note is that GHN-45 (Austria), Soltam 845P (Israel), ODE FH-88 (Singapore), and
PLL01/WA021(China) all trace their heritage back to the famous GC-45 artillery gun designed by famous scientist Gerald Bull of Canada.
BF gained experience with this acquisition, and went on to become development partner with DRDO in the ATAGS project. Parallelly BF worked with US based Mandus group to develop soft recoil technology. Based on this technology, BF developed our own desi version of M777, a 155 mm 39 caliber gun in 2 VERSIONS: first built with Titanium (4.5 tons) and second built with stainless steel (5.8 tons). Based on a request from the then Army Cheif Gen. Rawat, BF further developed the stainless steel variant into a 52 caliber gun (8 tons). Further, BF have developed a version of 105 mm gun of weight less than 1 tone (based on old 105 mm IFG) which can be mounted on small pic-up trucks.