The Indian Army has entered into a period of massive 155mm gun acquisition either through global tendering or through indigenous efforts. It should be ambitious in its requirements in order to have the most modern 155mm guns with accurate navigation, elevation and azimuth system in order to defend the nation efficiently.

Artillery guns and rocket launcher systems have recently witnessed a quantum enhancement of their capability of accurate firing. This has been made possible by accurate navigation systems on the modern 155mm guns, which allows artillery to manoeuvre from forward concentration areas/hides to pre-determined gun positions without the conventional ’gun convoys’. Accurate navigation and laying of guns is also possible on dark nights and during the most adverse weather condition of fog or low visibility, and at the same speed and accuracy as in daylight.

Gun/rocket batteries would no longer require survey. Modern technology has so revolutionised artillery manoeuvre that each gun has the ability to be independent and deployed in an autonomous mode. This is extremely important especially in a high intensity air or counter fire threat by surface means. The move and deployment is also possible without the global positioning system (GPS), which may be frequently jammed in battle. All the above capabilities are possible due to accurate navigation capabilities which are onboard modern 155mm guns.

Artillery philosophy lays emphasis on destruction rather than neutralisation, and hence the importance of accuracy of delivery means. With improved pointing systems, guns are able to align on the targets and bring down accurate and consistent fire quickly. Such navigation and pointing/alignment systems also have the ability to align on the move in a shoot and scoot mode. When it comes to the firing session, the gun shall be aligned “on the move” to reduce the delay to manoeuvre, be laid on the designated target as quick as possible, shoot directly to the target without needs of fire adjustment and scoot to the next firing position.

Contemporary gun systems have a range in excess of 40 km, while multi-rocket launches can fire up to a distance of 80 to 150 km. With their enhanced ranges, high accuracy of positioning and azimuth are of critical importance.

Today’s navigation systems enable modern artillery guns to have the following combined performances:

• An orientation accuracy enabling firing errors contribution limited to 35 m at 40 km firing range, therefore better than 0.9 miles.
• A fixation accuracy after a tactical travelled distance of 40 km of 20 m CEP (0.05 per cent of TD) in X,Y and five metre CEP in Z (0.02 per cent of TD).
• A fast alignment time of five minutes and less than five minutes in case of “alignment on the move”.
• An alignment on the move without the aid of GPS or Glonass.