Six prototypes of artillery gun 'Dhanush' have been produced till date: Rao Inderjit Singh

NEW DELHI: Six prototypes of the artillery gun ' Dhanush' have been produced till date, said Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Friday.

Dhanush is currently undergoing confirmatory trials and evaluation. Bulk production of the gun shall commence after successful completion of the trials and evaluation.

Technical sanction for the production of the gun i.e. bulk production clearance is awaited from Army headquarters. The sanction is dependent on the results of confirmatory trials and evaluation. Infrastructure at Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur is under augmentation for increasing the production, the Ministry of Defence release said.






Dhanush is one ' Make in India' defence project that is now finally booming. The desi howitzer can outgun the original Swedish Bofors 155mm artillery gun in range, accuracy, reliability, angle of fire and shoot-and-scoot capabilities.

The Army is now getting set to induct the first battery of six Dhanush guns, which will be the first 155mm howitzers to be acquired by the force since the infamous Bofors scandal torpedoed all its artillery modernisation plans in the mid-1980s.

The Army wants 414 such guns. They have been upgraded to 45-calibre from the original 39-calibre to give the new howitzer a 38-km range compared to the 30-km of the original Bofors gun.

(With inputs from TNN)