Planned Procurement for 220 Guns
The Indian MoD has extended to 24 February the deadline for responses from local defence companies to a request for proposals (RfP) on the planned procurement of 220 towed air defence guns.
The RfP, originally issued last October, states that the guns – along with 141,576 (37,440 programmable and 104,136 standard) rounds of ammunition – are being procured under the ‘Buy and Make (lndian)’ category of the MoD’s Defence Acquisition Procedure.
This category allows the ministry to acquire the guns from a selected Indian vendor in a venture with a foreign OEM, but requests that a majority of the guns be produced locally following technology transfer.
In this particular case, the RfP states that up to 25 guns and 44,440 (7,000 standard and 37,440 advanced) rounds of ammunition can be procured under the ‘Buy’ portion, but that the remaining 195 guns and 97,136 rounds of standard ammunition have to be procured through the ‘Make’ portion, meaning that they have to be produced in India and feature a minimum of 50% indigenous content.
As for the envisaged capabilities, the document states that they need to have a cyclic rate of fire of at least 200rpm, and be effective during day-and-night operations against a wide range of aerial targets, including aircraft, UAVs and cruise missiles, at altitudes of 2,500m or more and out to a range of 4,000 metres. They must be capable of engaging ground targets at 2,000m, be fitted with an ‘in service’ fire control radar and a separate electro-optical fire control system (EOFCS) and must demonstrate a minimum hit probability of 0.6 at 70% of the maximum effective range using smart ammunition. The guns, each of which should not weigh more than 7 tons, must also be capable of being transported by in-service aircraft and ships.
The shortlisted bidders will be asked to send the weapon system to India for field evaluation in varying climatic, altitude, and terrain conditions, noted the MoD.
In September 2020, the MoD cancelled negotiations to import 104 K30 Biho self-propelled anti-aircraft gun/missile (SPAAG/M) systems from South Korea. This system was intended to help replace the licence-built Bofors single-barrel, 40mm/L70 and Soviet-era ZU-23-2 towed twin-barrel anti-aircraft guns that are still operated by the Indian Army.
Some of these ageing systems are being upgraded, though. For instance, Bharat Electronics Limited was contracted to retrofit at least 200 L70s, replacing their hydraulic drive with an electrical one, fitting them with EOFCS and video trackers, and augmenting their rate of firing, among other things. Punj Lloyd was similarly set to upgrade several hundred ZU-23-2B guns.
