Most of Krasnopol ammo for Bofors guns turn out duds

Top Government sources have told The Sunday Express that a majority of the 2,000-strong Krasnopol inventory has been found defective: the shell, priced over Rs 15 lakh per piece, hits the target accurately during test-firing but fails to explode on impact. In military parlance, these shells are “blind” or duds.

The Krasnopol shells are used on FH77 Bofors artillery guns, considered the teeth of strike formations in the Indian Army.

Some 1,000 Krasnopol shells, despite failing in high-altitude tests in the Kargil sector in 1999 — after the Kargil war — were bought from M/s KBP Instrument Design Bureau, based in Tula in Russia, at the cost Rs 151 crore and delivered in May 2000. Two years later, New Delhi contracted another 2,000 shells at the cost of some $80 million with plans firmed up for buying another 6,000.

While the Army has not replied to The Sunday Express questionnaire on the dud shells given that Parliament session is on, Defence Ministry officials have confirmed that “technical problems have been encountered with Krasnopol munition.”

They said: “The Army has incorporated the original equipment manufacturer (KBP) in a round of trials to resolve the problem.”

KBP didn’t respond to an email query from this newspaper.

Defence Ministry sources said Army Headquarters had already taken the matter up with KBP but there has been no ban on future shipments. This is despite the fact that the defects were first noticed during test-firing in Mahajan ranges in the end of 2004 after the UPA government came into power. And also in 2005 during exercises at the test-firing range.

KBP representatives were summoned to India and were present at test-firings conducted at Mahajan ranges three months ago so that the problem could be rectified.

The Krasnopol uses a seeker unit (to identify) and a Laser designator (LDR) to be guided to the target. At first, the Army thought that the problem was with the designator so they replaced Israeli and French designators with original KBP ones but the problem still could not be resolved.

Army officials said that KBP representatives have again been summoned to rectify the defects during test-firing in the forthcoming winter exercises. Officials, however, added that with KBP getting a new chief, R.A. Lenoidovich, only as recently as September, the process could be delayed.