DAC clears big gun deal with US

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Saturday cleared a government-to-government deal to buy 145 M-777 ultra-light howitzer guns, worth about Rs 5,000 crore, for the Indian artillery from the US. The guns are manufactured in the US by BAE Systems.

The three-hour DAC meeting at South Block here — chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar and attended by the top defence brass — also gave the go-ahead for the bulk production of 18 Dhanush artillery guns. In all, 19 proposals were cleared, including new ones worth about Rs 28,000 crore, besides a number of ongoing ones.

The M-777 guns, tried and tested by US forces in the rugged badlands of Afghanistan, have a strike range of 27 km and will be a vital addition to the arsenal of the new Mountain Strike Corps being raised in India’s Northeast, which has a long international border with China.

“The 17 Strike Corps is being raised with no new equipment, nor do we have a great stock, so this is definitely good news. This development means that price and other issues have been resolved with the US.

This gun will fulfil critical requirements for the strike corps,” said Brigadier Rumel Dahiya (Retd), a defence expert at the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Analyses. The Rs 5,100-crore deal, which will now go to the Union Cabinet for final clearance, had been in the works for the last four years.

A fallout of the Bofors kickbacks scandal that broke out in the mid-1980s was that for more than 30 years India did not acquire a single howitzer, leaving a critical void in the country’s artillery requirements.

Defence expert Maharoof Raza told this newspaper: “Earlier, the Bofors guns had to be taken in parts to the higher reaches and assembled therein. The M-777 can be airlifted and hence is easily deployable.”

“About 25 M-777 guns will come fully assembled and the rest of them will be assembled, integrated and tested in India, for which we will have to set up our capacities and which will also cut transportation costs substantially,” a defence official said.

The M-777, at 4,100 kg, is lighter than the Bofors gun ( 5,150 kg). The weight reduction is due to the fact that titanium is used in the manufacture of the M-777 ultra-light howitzer.

Expressing satisfaction with the progress in the manufacture of the indigenous 155 mm Dhanush field guns (range 38 km), the DAC also cleared bulk production of 18 guns. Three guns will be delivered for user exploitation by June 30 and another three will be handed over by September “to enable better exploitation and setting up of indigenous production”. The government plans to introduce about 100 such guns by 2020.

Among the other proposals discussed was the protection and counter-measure systems for T-90 tanks. The DAC decided that it be taken up as an indigenous project to “strengthen future capabilities”. On the shoulder-launched, very short-range air defence (VSHORAD) and the short-range surface-to-air missile (SRSAM) systems, the DAC decided to continue with the ongoing procurement system involving multiple vendors.

For the Navy, the DAC approved a Rs 13,600-crore “buy Indian” proposal to acquire six next-generation missile vessels besides the indigenous purchase of five diving support craft. It also cleared a Rs 386-crore project for indigenous modernisation and augmentation of facilities at naval dockyards and naval ship repair yards.

For the Indian Air Force, the DAC cleared the procurement of an indigenously-developed Rs 500-crore simulator for Jaguar fighter aircraft and setting up of a `1,300-crore electronic warfare range using indigenous capabilities.

The Make-in-India effort and the indigenisation drive were recurring themes at Saturday’s DAC meeting, held after more than two months.