Context

Recently, Indian Army received its first batch of indigenous built Dhanush artillery Guns. It was inducted during a ceremony held at Ordnance Factory in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

About

• Dhanush is the first indigenous artillery gun with a calibre of 155mm x 45mm. It is the first long range artillery gun to be produced in India, having a range of 38 km, which is equipped with a navigation- based sighting system, on board ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system.
• It has been developed by Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Kolkata based on requirements of Indian Army and manufactured by Jabalpur-based Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) and 81 % of its components are indigenously sourced.

Ordnance Factory Board Indian Ordnance Factories organisation is a family of 41 Ordnance Factories under the aegis of its corporate headquarters Ordnance Factory Board, Kolkata It works under the aegis of Ministry of Defence. The ordnance factories form an integrated base for the indigenous production of defence hardware and equipment. The primary objective of the ordnance factories is achieving self-reliance in equipping the armed forces with state of the art battlefield equipment.

• It is also referred to as Desi Bofors because Bofors had played a crucial role in targeting Pakistani military positions during the 1999 Kargil War, and similarly has a 155 mm calibre.
• The gun has passed tests under severe cold conditions in Sikkim and Leh and in hot and humid weather in Balasore, Odisha, Babina in Jhansi and in the desert of Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Features of Dhanush

• It has several significant advance features, including an all-electric drive, high mobility, quick deployability, auxiliary power mode, advanced communication system and automated command and control system.
• It has six round magazine, instead of standard three round.
• It weighs slightly more than normal due to the larger chamber.

Significance

• It is a part of the army’s mediumisation of the artillery plan.
• It will be deployed along the borders with Pakistan and China. Self-propulsion unit allows the gun to deploy itself in mountainous terrains with ease.
• Dhanush gun has emerged as a reliable and robust gun system at par with the latest in the world and will increase the fire power of the Indian artillery manifold. It is truly Make in India
• Dhanush gun system has laid the foundations for India catapulting itself straight on to the world stage, India will soon emerge as a leading Artillery Gun design and manufacturer in the form of evolution of ATAGS, which would be the highly advanced version of Dhanush.
• In future, it will potentially take over guns in this category. Dhanush’s long-range, light-weight and automation features will help it immensely.