Hyderabad: The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has bagged a contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for up-gunning the existing 130 mm M-46 artillery guns to 155 mm/45 calibre. These are to be supplied to the Indian Army in a span of four years.
This upgraded weapon system has been named “Sharang” after the bow of Lord Vishnu, which was crafted by Lord Vishwakarma.
Sharang is an indigenously developed weapon that is aimed at meeting the Indian Army’s requirement to replace the existing 130 mm calibre M-46 towed guns of Russian make, which have been in service since 1968.
This up-gunning is a highly cost-effective solution to substantially enhance the strategic capabilities of the Indian Army in terms of range (an increase from the existing 27 km to 39 km), lethality (130 mm ammunition to 155 mm ammunition) and artillery area coverage against the enemy.
According to deputy director general/ weapons, OFB, Alok Prasad, the gun is capable of firing NATO series ammunition also with the old 130 mm chassis. This would be a big step in the ongoing modernisation efforts of the Indian Army.
In the long run, the export potential of this gun could be profitably explored. As far as ‘accuracy and consistency’ trials were concerned, Sharang performed exceedingly well. Its performance was 10 to 100 times better than the specified RFP values.
