Utterly frustrated by the long gestation period for developing the precision-guided Pinaka-2 multi-barrel rocket launch system (MBRL), the Indian Army’s (IA) HQ Northern Command last July began the process of procuring an initial 1,200 Raytheon Missile Systems/Sweden-based BAE Systems Bofors-developed M982 Excalibur GPS-guided cargo projectiles, which will be used by the IA’s Hanwha Techwin/Larsen & Toubro K-9 Vajra (Thunderbolt) 155mm/52-cal tracked self-propelled howitzers and the BAE Systems/Mahindra Defence M-777 ultralightweight field howitzers.
The order for the M982 Excalibur rounds was fast-tracked under the emergency powers to the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff at IA HQ, with deliveries commencing earlier this month and all 1,200 rounds have been delivered as of now.
The standard M982 Excalibur is an extended-range guided projectile that uses a combination of a high-glide ratio lifting-body airframe and tightly coupled GPS/MEMS-based inertial measuring unit (GPS/IMU) guidance (developed by Honeywell) to achieve ranges of up to 40km from existing 155mm/39-cal howitzers, with a circular error probable (CEP) of less than 2 metres. Excalibur is fully qualified in multiple artillery systems, including the K-9 and M-777 howitzers.
The tightly coupled GPS/MEMS-based IMU increases hit-accuracy and to minimizes collateral damages to improve the fire-assault efficiency when complex terrain limits the effectiveness of conventional projectiles and makes it difficult in term of logistics and supply. A major challenge for is the IMU that has to operate at full accuracy even after the extremely harsh launch environment. Hence, the Excalibur uses Colibrys-developed (a subsidiary of France’s SAFRAN Group) accelerometers, is capable, after an initial launch characterised by a gun hard shock of about 20,000 G, to be guided by a GPS receiver and/or an IMU to the target within a precision of 2 metres. The GPS receivers of the Excalibur are optimised for using coordinates supplied by India’s NavIC/IRNSS GPS satellite constellation.
It was in April 2010 that the IA had issue an RFI to global contractors for 155mm Sensor-Fused Munitions (SFM) for 155mm howitzers. At that time, the RFI had stated that it was looking to enhance the accuracy of existing in-service ammunition, meaning it desired add-on guidance kits that could equip the 155mm rounds already stockpiled by the IA, as well as acquire new-build 155mm rounds containing SFMs.
Only two OEMs responded to this RFI, these being BAE Systems’ Israel-based subsidiary Rokar offering its Silver Bullet GPS-based round, and Israel Aerospace Industries offering its TopGun add-on precision-guidance kit. However, the procurement exercise did not proceed to the RFP stage since the DRDO had back in 2012 claimed that it could offer a fully-developed precision-guided 214mm variant of the Pinaka-1 rocket within three years.
Since the DRDO was unable to keep its promise, an internal competitive evaluation of various available 155mm precision-guided rounds was carried out by IA HQ last year in which the SMArt-155 from US-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) and Germany’s GIWS (Gesellschaft für Intelligente Wirksysteme mbH), and the Nexter Systems’ Katana projectile was also considered. The latter’s guidance is provided by a combination of a GNSS signals-receiver and an IMU. In the future, metre-scale precision will be made possible through the addition of an optional semi-active laser distance gauge. But since the IA was then according a higher priority to the procurement of precision-guided cargo projectiles (carrying cluster sub-munitions and nor anti-armour SFM) for use against hostile targets located within PoK, the M982 Excalibur was considered to be the favoured choice.
In future, however, the IA will, for its K-9 Vajra SPHs, procure about 10,000 IMU-equipped 155mm rounds containing anti-armour SFMs.
The IA on November 9 last year formally inducted the M-777 and the K-9 into service. The IA took delivery of 10 of the 100 K-9s that it had ordered in mid-2016 at a cost of Rs.43.66 billion (US$600.4 million) at the IA’s Field Artillery Training Centre at Deolali in Maharashtra, western India. The remaining 90 Vajras will be delivered by Larsen & Toubro to the IA by November 2020, with the first K-9 Regiment becoming operational last July.The IA has so far also inducted five M-777s, with another 25 units now being supplied directly to the IA along with Selex-built Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems.
The remaining 120 of a total of 145 M-777s ordered in 2016 for $737 million, will be built at the BAE Systems/Mahindra Defence Assembly, Integration and Training (AIT) facility, with all deliveries being completed by mid-2021. The first of seven planned M-777 Regiments is expected to be operational by the end of this month.
It was in March 2006 that the IA had placed a $45 million contract with Tata Power SED and Larsen & Toubro for delivering 40 Pinaka MRBLs (for equipping two Regiments). Even then, the Pinaka-1’s rocket—developed by the DRDO’s Pune-based Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE)—could not achieve the specified CEP at its maximum range of 40km.
Subsequently, Israel Military Industries (IMI) was contracted for supplying trajectory correction systems (TCS) for the rockets. However, the subsequent blacklisting of IMI in 2012 left the Pinaka-1 rockets bereft of their TCS modules, which then forced the IA to limit the rocket’s maximum engagement range to 35km.
The DRDO next proposed that a Pinaka-2 rocket incorporating a precision-guidance kit could be developed within three years by the ARDE, and the Hyderabad-based Research Centre, Imarat (RCI) and the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL).
However, matters did not move as expected and the DRDO in 2016 sought MBDA’s assistance in developing a precision-guidance kit, which was subsequently subjected to two test-firings on May 30 and 31, 2018.
As of now, the specified maximum range of this rocket stands at 55km. These rockets, powered by higher-energy solid propellants, will be fired from the same launchers as those of existing the existing Pinaka-1 MBRL.
Last September, India’s Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) cleared the raising of the third and fourth Pinaka-1 Regiments at a cost of Rs.3,000 crore ($441 million). Furthermore, the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) last November cleared a RFP for six additional Pinaka-1 Regiments at a cost of Rs.14,633 crore ($21.7 billion). Contract signature for the third and fourth Regiments (negotiations for which had concluded way back in January 2011) took place only last December, with each Regiment costing Rs.200 crore and including the supply of 20 launchers and eight command posts.
Series-production of the Pinaka-2 rockets is now expected to get underway by 2021.
