Defence Ministry inks Rs 6,900-cr deal to buy towed artillery guns, vehicles

The signing of the contracts comes after recent approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for the procurement of the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), a significant step in enhancing the Army’s firepower. The deal includes 307 units of home-grown 155mm/52 calibre ATAGS along with its corresponding 327 High Mobility 6×6 Gun-Towing Vehicles, equipping 15 Artillery Regiments of the Army. The procurement has taken place under the Buy Indian–Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Manufactured (IDDM) category.

Developed by DRDO with Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems, ATAGS is a cutting-edge artillery system with a range of more than 40 kilometres, advanced fire control, precision targeting, automated loading, and recoil management, thoroughly tested by the Army in all terrains. The contracts were signed in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh at South Block in New Delhi on Wednesday. During the contract signing, the Project Director of ATAGS from DRDO’s Pune-based facility ARDE, who played a pivotal role in the realisation of the project, was felicitated by the Defence Secretary as an honour for exemplary contribution.

The 155 mm/52 calibre ATAGS is set to replace the vintage and smaller calibre guns and enhance the artillery capabilities of the Indian Army. The MoD said in a press statement, “Being the first major procurement of towed guns from the private sector by the Indian Army, the project will provide a boost to the Indian gun manufacturing industry in particular and the indigenous defence manufacturing ecosystem as a whole. With the signing, total contracts worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore have been signed by MoD for capital procurement till date in the current financial year 2024-25.”

The ATAGS project was started in 2013 by DRDO to replace older guns in service in the Indian Army with a modern 155 mm artillery gun. With ARDE as the nodal laboratory, other DRDO facilities that joined the development effort were Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE), Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE), Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), and Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory (DEAL). The ARDE has collaborated with Bharat Forge Limited and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd for the manufacturing of this specialised gun.

After the several tests of the subsystems in the initial phases of development, July 2016 marked a key milestone when the proof firing of ATAGS was conducted during the technical trials at DRDO’s Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) in Balasore. In August and September 2017, a record target range of nearly 48 kilometres was achieved at Pokhran Field Firing Range. The system has subsequently undergone various levels of trials in different weather and terrain conditions.

The ATAGS is compatible with C4I (command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence) systems such as the Artillery Combat Command and Control System (ACCCS) called Shakti for technical fire control, fire planning, deployment management, and operational logistics management of the Indian Army. Interestingly, in 2022 the ceremonial 21-gun salute fired in the backdrop of national anthem during the Independence Day celebrations on August 15 at the Red Fort included for the first time the ATAGS alongside the traditional British origin ’25 Pounder’ guns.