Modest Presence


Indian Army’s on-going force transformation attract attention in Eurosatory 2008


By Prasun K. Sengupta

India’s participation at the 9th Eurosatory 2008 International Land Airland Homeland Defence Exhibition, which was held at the Parc d’Expositions in Paris-Nord Villepinte, France, from June 16 to 20, was limited to a mere six exhibitors. The world renowned exhibition, which attracted 1,210 local and foreign exhibitors, 110 official delegations from 71 countries, 447 high-ranking political and military officials, would have been expected to host Indian military-industrial entities and R&D agencies like TATA Advanced Materials Ltd, Mahindra Defence Systems, Larsen & Toubro, Ordnance Factory Board, Heavy Vehicles Factory, Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) and the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) to showcase India’s growing expertise in the development and production of field artillery systems and armoured vehicles. Instead, the country was represented by Bharat Electronics Ltd, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Machinery Sales Corp (specialising in the manufacture of safety devices, vibration isolation devices, machine tools, power presses, sheet metal machinery, water treatment plant and related machinery, and compressors and air driers), Saint-Gobain Sully (a world leader in safety glazings), Sandip Metalcraft Pvt Ltd (producing time mechanical fuzes for medium- and large-calibre artillery ammunition), and Star Wire India Ltd (engaged in the business of manufacturing armour steel and super-special alloy steel for bulletproof steel retrievable fighting bunker and guard rooms, bulletproof steel observation towers, bulletproof steel sentry posts, bulletproof IBA vests and helmet patkas).

There was tremendous interest evinced by several European, Russian Scandinavian exhibitors in the Indian Army’s on-going force transformation programmes, especially those pertaining to tube artillery modernisation (involving the procurement of four different types of 155mm field artillery howitzers (the 52-cal towed gun system, 52-call mounted gun system, 39-cal ultra-lightweight system, and the 52-cal tracked self-propelled system), and those of the armoured corps. Officials of Nexter Systems of France said that they were optimistic about the prospects of the Caesar motorised 155mm/52-cal howitzer in India. Presently, four countries neighbouring India — China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Thailand — have already taken the first steps towards acquiring such howitzers. Myanmar last year bought an initial 12 NORA-B52 motorised 155mm/52-cal howitzers from Serbia, while Thailand on 3 April 2006 ordered six Caesar howitzers from France’s Nexter Systems. The NORA-B52 is mounted on an 8x8 Russian KAMAZ-63501 vehicle. The 155mm barrel comes fitted with a semi-automatic breech block and an advanced powder chamber self-sealing system. The howitzer can fire base-bleed rounds out to a range of 41.5km. The NORA-B52 is currently competing against the Caesar, Denel of South Africa’s T5-52 Condor and NORINCO of China’s SH-1 in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and India. The Royal Thai Army (RTA) remains interested in ordering 12 more Caesars. All six units will be delivered by the year’s end to the RTA’s 2nd Army Region, headquartered in Prachinburi. Earlier, in June 2003, an initial five Caesars were delivered to the French Army and in December 2004, Nexter Systems was awarded a contract for 72 Caesars to equip eight land artillery Batteries of the French Army, with deliveries due for completion by 2011. In July 2006, an order for 76 Caesars was placed by the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The SH-1 from NORINCO can fire rocket-assisted V-LAP projectiles out to 53km, as well as laser-guided projectiles like NORINCO’s ‘Red Mud’ and KBP Instrument Design Bureau of Russia’s Krasnopol-M. The SH-1 can also fire base-bleed 155mm rounds out to 42.5km, and its truck chassis houses a fibre-optic gyro-based north positioning-cum-navigation system, battlespace management system, autonomous orientation-cum-muzzle velocity radar, gun loader’s display-cum-ramming control box, ammunition box housing 25 rounds (of seven different types) and their modular charges, and a network-centric artillery fire direction system. A complete SH-1 Regiment comprises 24 SH-1s, four Battery Command Post vehicles, one Battalion Command Post vehicle, one road-mobile JY-30 C-band meteorological radar, four 6x6 wheeled reconnaissance vehicles, and an S-band SLC-2 artillery locating-cum-fire correction radar. The Pakistan Army late last year conducted an in-country operational evaluation of the SH-1.