India to call for fresh bids in 155mm, 52 calibre towed artillery competition

In a major about-face, the Indian Army has decided to call for fresh bids in its five-year competition to procure 400 new 155mm, 52 calibre towed howitzers direct from a foreign manufacturer, and to license-produce a further 1,000 of the weapons in-country.

This will mean a further delay of 6-8 years before the Army can induct the new weapons, not to mention more than doubling their price, to some Rupees 25-30 crore (US$6.0-7.4 million) per gun.

130mm M46 upgrades

In an effort to overcome its critical shortage of towed 155mm artillery, the Indian Army has begun upgrading some of its 1,200 elderly, Russian-supplied 130mm M46 howitzers to 155mm status, under a series of contracts with Israel’s Soltam.

The Army initially ordered 100 upgrades, but this has now been expanded to 500 at a cost of more than Rupees 800 crore (US$197.9 million).

The problem is that the upgraded M46s cannot fire at an elevation above 45°, so they are not suitable for operations in the mountains.

Trials not satisfactory

The move for a new 155mm, 52 calibre towed artillery competition comes after a fourth round of trials last year, between the Swedish BAE Systems Bofors FH77B05 L52 and the Israeli Soltam Athos 2052, apparently failed to meet the Army’s specifications.

On completion of these trials last December, Soltam was asked to take back its weapons, since they had failed to meet the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQRs). BAE Systems Bofors, on the other hand, was asked to keep its howitzers in India, where they were moved from Chandigarh to a field artillery unit in Gurgaon near New Delhi.

Now, however, the Army says that neither weapon meets its specifications. As a result, Defence Minister A.K. Anthony said on July 10 that “The Army is not satisfied with the trials that ran for four years. We will issue the [new] tenders at the earliest [opportunity] and ensure that these guns are inducted into the Army in the shortest possible time.”

South Africa’s Denel Land Systems had taken part in the first three rounds of trials in 2002, 2003 and 2004, with its towed G5-2000. But, in 2005, it was blacklisted by the Indian Government over allegations of an illegal pay-off to a middle-man in a separate deal under which it had sold anti-materiel rifles to the Indian Army. Denel has consistently denied these allegations, which have still not been proven in court.

Wheeled and tracked SP weapons

The Army had also been planning to purchase Denel’s G6-52 6x6 wheeled Self Propelled (SP) howitzer and its T-6 155mm, 52 calibre turret, mounted on the chassis of a T-72 Main Battle Tank (MBT) and designated the Bhim. But, due to its blacklisting, Denel was also excluded from these deals in 2005.

This year, the Indian Defence Ministry finally issued international Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for 180 155mm, 52 calibre wheeled SP howitzers and 100 tracked SP howitzers of the same calibre (MPI June 15, 2007, page 3). Reportedly due to the lack of responses, however, the deadline for bids on both of these programs has now been extended twice.

Bidders for the wheeled SP howitzer program had been expected to include the new BAE Systems Bofors Archer, the Caesar from France’s Nexter and the Soltam Atmos 2000. Contenders for the tracked SP weapons had been expected to include the German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann PzH2000 and the South Korean Samsung Techwin K-9 Thunder.

BAE Systems OMC in the frame?

MPI believes that the delays in all three of these major Indian Army artillery programs may give South Africa’s BAE Systems OMC the time to set up its planned Joint Venture (JV) with Denel Land Systems (MPI June 15, 2007, page 6), and to take over the marketing in India of Denel’s outstanding artillery weapons.

If this is indeed the intention, the sooner the JV is formed, the better for the Indian Army and South African industry. © DAPSS  S.A., 2007, Switzerland

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