India's artillery upgrade remains in limbo

SOURCE-JANES.COM

The Indian Army's long-overdue plans to upgrade around 390 Bofors FH-77B 155 mm 39-calibre howitzers to 155 mm 45-calibre, stand jeopardised due primarily to the 'over-ambitious' qualitative requirements (QRs) drawn up by the artillery directorate for the retrofit.

The army first acquired the howitzers in 1987 and currently has a total of 410 in its inventory. The upgrade is intended to enhance the range of the guns, and includes replacing the gun barrel, breech block, strengthening the undercarriage and fitting the howitzers with a state-of-the-art sighting system, allowing them to fire heavier ordnance.

"Some of the upgrade QRs are unrealistic for these 25-year-old guns, demanding even more capability than newer howitzers," said an armament industry source associated with the project.

The army, he declared, was unwilling to revise or modify the request for proposals (RfP), even though many in the artillery directorate conceded that the QRs were unrealistic because only the defence minister had the authority to effect a change in the tender and they were circumspect about approaching him.

An earlier, similar RfP issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2006 lapsed unfulfilled. It required competing vendors such as BAE Systems (which now owns Bofors AB), the FH 77B's original equipment manufacturer (OEM), private defence contractor Tata of Mumbai and the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to develop an upgraded prototype howitzer within a year