The Indian Army is looking to induct the Made-in-India Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) by the end of this year, the
Hindustan Times has said in a
report.
Indian Army, in December 2022, released a
Request for Information (RFI) for 150 of the 155 mm/52 calibre artillery guns to be purchased at an estimated cost of Rs 3,356 crore.
The ATAGS, developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), comes with a six-round automated magazine and is capable of firing 5-6 rounds in under a minute.
The existing 155 mm/52-calibre guns have
three-round magazines.
Developed in collaboration with the Kalyani Group and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, the gun weighs around 18 tonnes.
The 155 mm and 52 calibre Howitzer is the world’s longest-range gun system in its class. It has a maximum firing range of 48 kilometers and can be deployed in less than three minutes, various reports say.
According to union secretary of Defence Research and Development department G Satheesh Reddy, the gun has cleared all developmental tests successfully, and it will be inducted into the army.
The gun had performed exceptionally well during initial trials, setting a new world record, in range, in its category by hitting targets at a distance of 48 km. High-altitude trials of the gun in January 2018, at the 12,000-foot-high Menla Firing Range in Sikkim, were also successful.
However, the ATAGS programme experienced a significant setback in 2020. The induction of the guns was delayed due to a barrel burst incident during trials at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan, which injured 4 army soldiers.
Defending the guns, ex-chief of Defence Staff, late General Bipin Rawat had asserted, “Failures during trials will happen but these must not dampen the spirit, instead, it must lead to timely reviews and encourage the manufacturers to seek ways to overcome the problems.”
“The Indian Army's requirement is for 1,580 towed artillery guns and apart from that, they need 150 ATAGS and another 114 Dhanush guns. So, there is a requirement for a total of 1,800 guns. The way the ATAGS is performing and come up, I am sure that this entire requirement of 1,800 guns can be met by this gun only,” Shailendra V Gade, a senior scientist at DRDO, said during an interaction with
ANI, following the field trials of the gun in 2020.
“The enemy won't be able to counter you, as they would not be able to reach you, but you can reach them at 48 kilometres. You can be eight kilometres behind their strike range but still hit them,” he added.
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