Indian Army to deploy K-9 howitzers in central, eastern sectors of LAC with China

 

 The Indian Army is planning to deploy indigenous K-9 Vajra howitzers in Uttarakhand and the Northeastern statThe plan is to acquire 200 more of these guns [K-9 howitzers] and deploy them in the LAC with China's central and eastern sectors," senior government sources told India Today.

The decision was made after the howitzers were successfully tested in the Ladakh sector, where they began to be deployed last year.

To increase firepower along the Chinese border, the Army first deployed a few guns before deploying an entire regiment in the high-altitude area.

The gun is capable of hitting targets at more than 45 km in high-altitude areas and has strengthened the force's artillery corps, sources saides of the country that share a border with China.The Vajra variant, developed by engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) with India specific features, emerged fully compliant to Indian Army's needs during the arduous and extended field trials, the statement said.

The ‘K9 VAJRA-T’ systems are being delivered with over 80 per cent indigenous work packages and above 50 per cent indigenisation (by value) at the program level, Larsen & Toubro said.

This entails local production of over 13,000 different types of components per gun system via a supply chain of about 1,000 industrial partners, mostly Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), with about 150 of them based in Gujarat, L&T added.The company further said that it exceeded the indigenous manufacturing content by grooming a young team of engineers and specialising them in manufacturing automation and integration with the assistance of its in-house team of weapon system experts, as well as training at Hanwha facilities in South Korea.

 indiatoday