India’s Artillery Modernisation Plan Stalled Despite Made-In-India Choices, CAG Says Just 8% Gun Acquired

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was very critical of how slowly the Army was updating its artillery guns. As of March 2022, only 8% of the guns that had been planned had been delivered to the Army.

In 1999, the Army made a plan to improve its artillery. In the Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan, getting 2,800 guns by 2027 was talked about.

In a report, the CAG said, “Replacing the existing artillery guns with state-of-the-art guns has been going at a slow pace for over 20 years.” Only three of the six plans to buy and improve artillery guns were turned into contracts. This means that only 17% of the guns planned to be bought were able to be bought. At different points, the process of getting the property was held up.

The report said that the delays show how important it is for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Army Headquarters to make sure that the parameters (called “qualitative requirements”) are realistic. The Army’s artillery guns are made up of different types of systems that have been used since 1965. Self-propelled guns were taken out of the plan for modernization without a good replacement being found.

Even though they had gone through many stages of procurement, two major plans to buy towed guns and a number of mounted gun systems, which made up 77% of all proposed purchases, could not happen until March 2022.