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Our lead story covers Twaral, a DRDO-Industry Workshop on Defence Technology Acceleration organised at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called upon the private sector to move forward from ‘participation’ to ‘taking lead’ in the defence sector, assuring the Government’s full support to make India an innovation & technology hub and one of the strongest countries in the world. As technology continues to reshape the battlefields from conventional to unconventional warfare, Rajnath Singh also pointed out the need to invest in R&D in defence and make the sector stronger.
The ongoing wars across the globe are being watched and followed by armies around the world. These wars have also proved beyond doubt the lethality and prowess of Artillery in modern wars. Learning from the same, Indian Army has also put its Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) on the fast track and pushing ahead with its modernisation. The article on Trends in Indian Artillery Modernisation gives you an overview on the ongoing modernisation of the Artillery with procurements both from the private and public sector but with a clear focus on ‘Atmanirbharta’. Orders for ATAGS, K9-Vajra, Pinaka, Drones, etc. clearly shows an all-around effort to modernise the Indian Artillery.
The Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), developed under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) as key partners, is designed to replace the Indian Army’s ageing Bofors FH-77B howitzers. In his article, Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd), analyses how the induction of ATAGS into the Indian Army will not only be a technical upgrade but also represent indigenisation of the entire artillery acquisition programme under ‘Make in India’.
In a significant technology collaboration for achieving the nextgen Artillery Gun Platforms for the Indian military, India’s Bharat Forge has tied up with a global lead, in its quest for advanced and best-in-class gun systems. This collaboration is targeted to address the requirement of modern armies of the world in an evolving combat scenario equipping them with compact, robust, lightweight, ruggedised, mobile, all-weather, all terrain 105mm and 155mm next-generation artillery gun platforms. Manish Kumar Jha brings you the highlights of the deal with a huge export potential and how it can be a game changer for defence manufacturing in India.
In another related article, Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) covers the recent development of a new Truck-Mounted Howitzer (TMH) by the Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), building upon the experience TASL gained from the ATAGS project. The uniqueness of the Tata TMH is that it utilizes the Tata 8x8 Truck platform, ensuring remarkable mobility and adaptability. TASL, therefore presents a complete package (ATAG and the truck platform) from its own sources.
All this and with a lot more. Happy Reading!