The Director General of Artillery Lt General Adosh Kumar says the Indian Army is conducting a study to increase the scaling of precision-guided munition. The Indian Army is in the process of filling its inventory with AI-based futuristic ammunition. Given their ability to do mid-air course correction for hitting moving targets deep into enemy territory, the change will be from ‘dumb bombs’ to ‘bombs with brains’.

The paradigm shift from conventional unguided shells called dumb bombs, to next-generation munition, is in sync with similar high-value firepower capabilities of global armies, amply demonstrated during the ongoing wars and conflicts.

Lt Gen Kumar shared details of the modernization plan: “A study is on in the Army headquarters to increase scaling of precision-guided munitions. We are emphasizing precision-guided as well as terminally-guided ammunition… We are engaged with the IITs of Chennai and Delhi and will sign MoUs with them. We are looking at sensor fuse of munition, course correction fuses, terminally guided munition… will engage with private vendors and they have to come together for capability enhancement….” Lt General Kumar shared this on the eve of the 198th anniversary of the Regiment of Artillery.

The Army is also looking to induct ammunition that operates in GPS-denied environments to foil satellite communication jamming technology, as seen in Israel recently when it used its capability to make ineffective the barrage of rockets fired from Iran.

The smart ammunition on the shopping list of the Army also includes nubless munition and a proposal to procure it was cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) last year. The contract for area denial ammunition, which has a dual purpose of being anti-tank and anti-personnel, is expected in this Financial year. The Ministry of Defence is not merely pushing for quality upgrades to match global standards but is keen to make the country “aatmanirbhar in ammunitions”.

The Army has already started getting loitering ammunition, which are kamikaze drones laden with explosives, in batches, having placed orders for 480 of them from a Nagpur-based company through the Emergency Procurement route.

The DG Artillery stated that the Army is trying to ramp up the ammunition under the Make in India initiative by inviting public and private sectors and addressing supply chain issues, taking lessons from the ongoing global conflicts.

“In October and November, we are going to carry out the trials of different types of 155mm calibre munition and for bio-modular charge system (BMCS),” Kumar said. The BMCS increases the speed of preparation of ammunition for firing and reduces error risk — another challenge the Army is looking to address in its bid to reduce the time for sight-and-shoot targets to two to three minutes. In that context, it is also restructuring its SATA units.

Lt General Kumar did not give an insight into the number of different categories of ammunition the Artillery would require for prolonged wars. He stated that Russia is using 10,000 to 15,000 155mm shells per day, while Ukraine is firing 4,000 to 5,000 shells per day. The fierce war between the two has been for the last three years.

Together with smart ammunition, the Artillery Regiment is enhancing its gun strength, making 155mm the standard calibre, and increasing the firing range potential of machines through AI, which is taking advanced warfare into unchartered territory.

Efforts are on to increase the range of the DRDO-developed Pinaka rocket system by up to four or even eight times the current range. The Artillery Regiment is set to enhance the variety of guns to more than 500. Trials for induction of about 300 Advanced Towed Artillery Guns are complete. The remaining bidding may get done by this or next FY, the DG Artillery stated. Likewise, a repeat order of 100 more K-9 guns has been placed and more regiments of Dhanush, the in-house upgraded version of the Bofors guns, is also being acquired.