INDO-PACIFIC India’s Improvements in OE Watch Commentary: Artillery has long played an important role along the (LOC) between India and Pakistan and as the accompanying excerpted article reports, the are taking steps to improve its capabilities in this area. The article comes from The Print, an English-language news website in India, and it discusses the recent induction of the howitzer into the and how it is an improvement on existing artillery along the LOC. The article first mentions that for a number of years “the Indian Army’s Artillery Corps has been working towards becoming a ‘major combat arm’, instead of being a mere ‘support arm’ for infantry or armour.” The author notes several features of the new howitzer, including its “maximum range of 38.4 kilometers” and that this “makes outranged Pakistani artillery units more vulnerable to Indian counter-battery fire.” While these are important to note, the article mentions how “114 Dhanush units are on order with 18 expected to be delivered before the end of 2019” and that it will be a couple of years until they can be produced in sufficient numbers to have an impact along the LOC.End OE Watch Commentary (Stein)

“Indeed, the Dhanush [howitzer] makes outranged Pakistani artillery units more vulnerable to Indian counter-battery fire, while itself staying out of reach.”

Source: Saurav Jha, “With Dhanush howitzer, Artillery Corps lends a major combat arm to Indian Army at LoC,” The Print, 26 March 2019. https://theprint.in/opinion/with-dhanush-howitzer-artillery-corps-lends-a-major-combat-arm-to-indian-army-at-loc/212161/

Since the 1999 , the Indian Army’s Artillery Corps has been working towards becoming a ‘major combat arm’, instead of being a mere ‘support arm’ for infantry or armour. While recent imports such as the K-9 Vajra-T self-propelled howitzer (SPH) and the M-777 ultra lightweight howitzer (ULH) have been in the spotlight, it is the indigenous 155 mm/45 calibre Dhanush howitzer — scheduled to be formally inducted on March 26 — that will provide the Indian Army with an advantage, especially along the mountainous terrain of the Line of Control (the LoC). Although derived from the baseline FH-77B, the ’s (OFB’s) Dhanush is a major step-up in terms of capability over the former. Moreover, with a high-level of indigenous content (IC), the Dhanush howitzer will be much easier to maintain than the 155 mm/39 caliber Bofors FH-77B howitzer…In fact, Dhanush’s production will make indigenous spares available for improving the serviceability of the FH-77B as well. For instance, the longer barrel length of the Dhanush, along with the use of a ‘Zone-6’ bi-modular charge system, allows it to fire an extended range full-bore base bleed (ERFB-BB) shell to a maximum range of 38.4 kilometers (km) as opposed to just 24 km for the FH-77B… Importantly, it also outranges any towed gun or howitzer in the Pakistan Army’s arsenal by a significant margin. The Dhanush howitzer also has superior fire control and accuracy when compared to the FH-77B due to the incorporation of an automatic gun alignment and positioning system (AGAPS), which uses an enhanced tactical computer (ETC) for on-board ballistic computations…Each Dhanush unit is also provided with a STAR-V radio, which along with the ETC and a gun display unit make it compatible with the Indian Army’s Shakti Artillery Combat Command & Control System (ACCCS) that automates artillery operations in a network-centric environment. The use of AGAPS along with electro-hydraulics suited for auto gun laying enables the Dhanush to be aimed at a target much faster than the FH-77B, once targeting data is available. This means that the Dhanush can better utilize enemy gun location data provided by the Swathi Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) and drones used by search and target acquisition (SATA) units of the Artillery Corps. Indeed, the Dhanush makes outranged Pakistani artillery units more vulnerable to Indian counter-battery fire, while itself staying out of reach. Dhanush’s longer range and high rate of fire will also make it useful in defeating localized Pakistan Army’s offensives in sectors of the LoC where the terrain favors the Pakistani side…The destruction of heavily fortified Pakistani posts along the LoC requires interlocking artillery fire from different directions. This is more easily accomplished if a standard artillery regiment consisting of 18 guns can be disaggregated and divided into groups…out of the 18 guns in a regiment, two could be sited closer to a target in different locations and used in what is called a ‘direct-in-direct fire’ (DIDF) mode, a concept that emerged during the Kargil War and was found to be rather efficacious. Meanwhile, the remaining guns — themselves sub-divided into firing units and kept further back — could engage the target from different directions, thereby maximizing the probability of destroying the target… At the moment, 114 Dhanush units are on order with 18 expected to be delivered before the end of 2019. A requirement for a further 300 units of this type is being projected by the Indian Army with annual production expected to reach 60 units in a couple of years…

OE Watch | May 2019 28