How Bofors made all the difference

And then Commander, Drass Artillery Brigade, Brigadier Lakhwinder Singh got thinking. Nicknamed Enraged Bull of Drass, Brig Singh along with his boss Major General Mahinder Puri General Officer Commanding, Mughalpura Division and colleague Brigadier Amar Aul Commander, Drass Brigade spent hours studying enemy locations. The solution, says Brig Lakhwinder Singh in retrospect, lay in war techniques of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Babur8217;s Topkhana.

8220;They were firing directly at the target; not lobbing at a high trajectory. With General Puri8217;s permission, we did the same,8221; he says. And they clobbered the enemy locations. On the night of June 12, this correspondent witnessed 120 guns most of which were Bofors, followed by 130 mm and 105 mm guns along with multi-barrel rocket launchers and mortars simultaneously begin pounding Tololing peak. The enemy did not know what had hit them. The guns boomed through the night bothat the peak and at enemy gun positions. The infantry march was not very bloody. 8220;Still there were lives lost. Real artillery success came during the attack on adjacent Peak 5140. The infantry just marched up without a single casualty. With that we knew we had passed the test,8221; adds the Brigadier.

And then the huge 155 mm Bofors gun became the most wanted weapon. 8220;During assaults, they wanted the Bofors and we tried to oblige as much as we could. For the first time, a wonderful camaraderie developed between the infantry and the artillery,8221; he says.

Sources say that discussions are underway on the need to upgrade the Bofors gun and to explore the possibility of indigenous manufacture of high-calibre big guns.

With the dynamics of war changing fast and the artillery assuming greater importance, the Indian topkhana needs to modernise,8221; says a commanding officer, who played a crucial role in the Kargil operations. 8220;The Bofors guns are the best tubes we have. But in the present day war scenario weneed better, more powerful and more accurate guns,8221; he adds. The Bofors gun is 39 calibre; the artillery has expressed the need for a 52 calibre gun system. 8220;More calibre means greater spin for the round, and consequently more accuracy. There were times that the Bofors guns fell short landed on our troops injuring them or hit the target but not accurately. Therefore, in such terrain and war we need an upgraded version of the existing gun,8221; adds another officer. 8220;Our own production is limited to 105 mm field guns and mortars. The 130 mm guns are basically Russian-made anti-tank guns and the 155 mm guns are the now famous Bofors guns imported from Sweden,8221; he says.

Modernisation includes the purchase of precision guided missiles but officers concede that with a limited defence budget, these may not be a reality yet. The government, needs to do some serious thinking on upgrading the guns, say officers.

8220;This will cost a lot but will go a long way in keeping the fatal casualties of our infantrysoldiers down,8221; adds an officer.