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Centre signs two deals for 307 artillery guns
This comes a week after the Cabinet Commitee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the ATAGS (advanced towed artillery gun system) deal, in a boost for self-reliance in the country’s defence manufacturing sector.
The defence ministry on Wednesday signed two contracts worth ₹6,900 crore with Bharat Forge Limited and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) to boost the Indian Army’s firepower with 307 locally made artillery guns along with high mobility towing vehicles, taking the total value of capital purchase deals signed in 2024-25 so far to ₹1.4 lakh crore.
This comes a week after the Cabinet Commitee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the ATAGS (advanced towed artillery gun system) deal, in a boost for self-reliance in the country’s defence manufacturing sector. The 155mm/52-calibre gun has a range of 48 km.
“ATAGS, renowned for its exceptional lethality, will play a crucial role in bolstering the army’s firepower by enabling precise and long-range strikes,” the defence ministry said. The contracts were signed in the presence of defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation began the ATAGS project in 2013 to replace older army guns with a modern 155mm artillery gun system. It partnered with the two private firms to manufacture the gun.
The order has been split between Bharat Forge Limited, which emerged as the lowest bidder for the ATAGS tender and will manufacture and supply 60% of the guns, while the remaining 40% will be produced by TASL.
ATAGS will replace the vintage and smaller calibre guns and enhance the army’s capabilities, the ministry said in a statement. “The procurement of this gun system marks a significant milestone in the modernisation of the army’s artillery regiments...Being the first major procurement of towed guns from the private sector, the project will provide a boost to the Indian gun manufacturing industry and the defence manufacturing ecosystem,” it added.
The development comes three months after the defence ministry signed a ₹7,629-crore contract with Larsen & Toubro for 100 more self-propelled K9 Vajra-T guns that are being manufactured locally with technology transfer from South Korean firm Hanwha Techwin.
That was a repeat order for the K9 Vajra-T guns. The army has so far inducted 100 such guns under a 2017 contract worth $720 million, and several of them have been deployed in the Ladakh sector after carrying out upgrades to enable operations in mountains. The guns were originally bought for a desert role.
The army plans to enhance its firepower, with a greater emphasis on mobility, precision attacks, range, quick strikes and survivability as it ramps up efforts to buy an array of weapons, including guns, rocket systems and missiles, as previously reported by HT.
The linchpin of this capability boost, which will cost tens of thousands of crores, is a five-pronged strategy evolved after an assessment of what the artillery regiments need for battlefield supremacy.
The strategy hinges on equipping all regiments with advanced 155mm artillery gun systems, inducting missiles and rockets with longer ranges and precision, lethal ammunition, reorganisation of surveillance and target acquisition units, and shortening the sensor-to-shooter loop for swift detection and destruction of targets.
