Ukraine war influences Indian artillery upgrade

EMPHASIS ON MOBILITY, PRECISION ATTACKS, RANGE

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Weighty lessons learnt from the Ukraine conflict, which entered its 570th day on Saturday, have influenced the Indian army's plans to advance its firepower, with a greater emphasis on mobility, precision attacks, range, quick strikes and survivability as it ramps up efforts to buy an array of weapons, officials tracking the artillery's modernisation said on Saturday. The linchpin of this capability boost, which will cost thousands of crores, is a five-pronged strategy evolved after an assessment of what the artillery regiments need for battlefield supremacy.

The strategy hinges on equipping all regiments with advanced 155mm artillery gun systems, inducting missiles and rockets with longer ranges and precision, lethal nmunition, reorganisation of surveillance and target acquisition units, and shortening the sensor-to-shooter loop for swift detection and destruction of targets, said one of the officials.

The Ukraine conflict has clearly reaffirmed the primacy of firepower as a battle winning factor, and the army has drawn some lessons relevant to its operations, said a second official, who also sought anonymity.

"Global militaries have focussed their attention on artillery equipment with longer ranges, higher volume of fire and greater precision. We have revised the profile of weaponry we want to deploy after analysing the developments in the Russia-Ukraine war," he said.