Ordnance Factory Gets Bulk Order to Produce Dhanush Artillery Guns

Ordnance Factory Board has received an order for the production of 114 number of ‘Dhanush’, from the Indian Army and the Ministry of Defence. Dhanush Artillery Guns are the first ever indigenous 155mm x 45 calibre artillery gun with a firing range of 38 kilometers. The weapon is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced in India and it is a major success story of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

The Dhanush artillery gun is equipped with inertial navigation based sighting system, auto laying facility, onboard ballistic computation and an advanced day and night direct firing system. The self-propulsion unit allows the gun to negotiate and deploy itself in mountainous terrains easily and comfortably. 

‘Dhanush’ has been mechanically upgraded to the fire standard NATO 155 mm ammunition and can accommodate both boll bags and the bi-modular charge system (BMCS), which have resulted in increasing the range. ‘Dhanush’ has also been electronically upgraded in order to enhance the firing accuracies, laying speeds of the existing gun and to provide compatibility with various kinds of ammunition as well. 

The performance of ‘Dhanush’ has been evaluated under arduous conditions in several phases. The guns travelled extensively in self-propelled mode across all kind of terrains which include desert and high altitude with each gun clocking over 1600 km. The user carried out such an extensive exercise for the first time for any gun system under the process of induction.

‘Dhanush’ is the product of joint efforts by the Ordnance Factory Board and the Indian Army with contributions from Defence Research and Development Organisation, Directorate General Quality Assurance, Defence Public Sector Undertakings such as Bharat Electronics Limited, Public Sector Undertakings such as Steel Authority of India Limited and several private other sector enterprises.