Indian Company Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited announced receiving an order worth $155 million for supplying 155mm howitzer platform to be executed over a 3-year timeframe. This order, to a non-conflict zone, is a great testament to the Indian government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat agenda and its sustained push to promote exports of Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) advanced defense platforms from India. Kalyani is one of the major investors in the defense sector and has been offering a number of weapon systems to India as well as foreign countries.
Kalyani Group maintains modern and sophisticated infrastructure required for manufacturing Artillery Guns and Systems in the country. The Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) recently allowed Kalyani Group to procure ammunition for its howitzer and open its doors to the field range in India for Internal trials which earlier had to be done in the United States and South Africa. The MOD also allowed Kalyani Group to export Bharat-52 and Bharat-45 which are two 155 mm guns to prospective countries and even more advanced ATAGS has been cleared for export by India even though it is still under user trials of the Indian Army.
Bharat-52 is being considered to fulfill its requirements for towed howitzers. The Bharat-52 gun is a 155mm, 52 caliber towed howitzer manufactured by Bharat Forge, a subsidiary of Kalyani Group. Kalyani group has also made a strong pitch for supplying heavy weapons to the Saudi Arabian military. Two gun systems, both developed by Kalyani Group, will be sent to Saudi Arabia for trial evaluation by the Royal Saudi Army. Royal Saudi Armed Forces carried out trials in 2020 and was impressed with the major improvements that were done on the baseline GC-45 howitzer that Saudi Military is familiar with as it still operates them.
Bharat-52 is based on a GC-45 howitzer, developed by Austrian Maschinenfabrik Liezen (MFL). Noricum purchased the design rights to the GC-45. They made a number of detail changes to improve mass production, which was offered in a variety of options like the APU and fire control systems. Other “aboveboard” customers included China, Singapore and Israel. All of these companies worked on local production under a variety of names, the Soltam 845P in Israel, ODE FH-88 from Singapore, and PLL01/WA021 in China. Bharat Forge, an Indian firm of Kalyani Group, has recently purchased Noricum and brought the entire manufacturing workshop to India.
