In one of the biggest orders to a private company, the Defence Ministry has inked a contract worth over Rs 4,366 crores with larsen and Toubro(l&T) for 100 self-propelled tracked artillery guns for the army. The engineering conglomerate has tied up with a South Korean firm for manufacturing these guns in India. The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS) had approved the deal in March.
As per the deal, the first batch of ten 155mm/52 calibre tracked self- propelled (SP) gun — K9 VAJRA-T — will be delivered within 18 months of inking the contract, the next 40 within 30 months and the balance 40 within 42 months, defence ministry sources said here on Friday. They said the contract was signed on Tuesday.
larsen and Toubro, supported by its South Korean technology partner Hanwha Tech Win (HTW), had bid for the contract in 2011. It emerged as the sole qualified aspirant after a series of user trials and evaluations, based on the performance of the K9 VAJRA-T self-propelled howitzer.
The K9 VAJRA-T gun is an enhanced version of HTW’s K9 Thunder - a self-propelled howitzer, customised and co-developed by l&T and HTW to suit the specific requirements of the Indian Army. The guns will have over 50 per cent indigenous content and will be delivered from l&T’s manufacturing facilities including a unit in Hazira.
The guns will move on tank-type tracks to accompany tanks and mechanised regiments to battle and can hit targets at a distance of 45 km. The Army urgently needs new artillery guns as the modernisation plan came to a halt in the wake of Bofors gun controversy in 1987.
Given the urgency, the Government had earlier approved a deal for procuring 145 ultra-light howitzers of the 155mm caliber from US. The Army’s artillery modernisation plan envisages procuring 2,800 guns by 2027.
The plan included procuring 1,580 towed guns, 814 truck-mounted guns, 100 tracked self-propelled guns, 180 wheeled self-propelled guns and 145 ultra-light
howitzers.