Quietly and steadily India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi strengthening its muscle power. Indian Army gets a major firepower boost with K9 Vajra-T guns. Larsen and Toubro on Monday flagged off the 91st K9 Tracked Artillery gun. In a short period, the Indian Army’s firepower has reached the point where China’s number supremacy could be compromised.

Delivery On Time

With an impressive track record in delivering the gun systems, L&T has proved its efficiency once again. The 91st Vajra-T gun was dispatched even before the contractual delivery date.

“Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani flagged-off the 91st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from L&T’s Armoured System Complex (ASC),” the company said in a statement.

L&T Defence is currently producing K9 VAJRA-T 155mm/52 caliber tracked, self-propelled Howitzer Guns under the largest contract awarded to an Indian Private Company by the Ministry of Defence through global competitive bidding.

Official Statement

“The ‘K9 VAJRA-T’ Howitzer Program involves the delivery of 100 systems with associated Engineering Support Package (ESP) covering Spares, Documentation & Training and Maintenance Transfer of Technology (MToT) to the Army Base Workshop to support the Howitzer regiments throughout their operational life cycle,” the company said.

“With the experience, track record, skills, capabilities, and infrastructure that L&T has built at the ASC in Gujarat, we are ready to develop, qualify and build India’s future armored platforms for our Armed Forces.

“The Complex, set up under the Gujarat State’s Aerospace & Defence policy to produce Armoured Systems, is a flagship Defence Production Unit under the progressive policies of the State,” JD Patil, Whole-time Director & Senior Executive Vice President (Defence & Smart Technologies), L&T, said.

80 Percent More Indigenous

K9 VAJRA-T systems are being delivered with more than 80 percent indigenous work packages and above 50 percent indigenization (by value) at the program level, the company said.

This involves the local production of over 13,000 types of components per gun system through a supply chain of about 1,000 industrial partners, mostly MSMEs, with about 150 of them being from Gujarat, it added.

Tailor Made for Indian Army

The company claimed that it took sustained efforts and innovated by indigenizing K9 VAJRA-T, right from the prototype developed for user evaluation trials by utilizing basic K9 Thunder from the South Korean Partner Hanwha Systems and indigenously developing and producing fourteen critical systems, including the fire control system.

The VAJRA variant developed by L&T with India-specific features emerged fully compliant to the Indian Army’s needs during the arduous and extended field trials, the statement said.

The company said it exceeded the indigenous manufacturing content by grooming a young team of engineers and specializing them in manufacturing automation and integration with the help of its in-house team of weapon system experts as well as by training at Hanwha facilities in South Korea.

More Production units

Subsequently, this team trained the supply chain partners as well as teams from L&T’s five defense production units from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu that served as the hubs for nearly 1,000 supply chain partners in a Hub and Spoke supply chain model.

The ASC is a state-of-the-art facility to manufacture and integrate advanced armored platforms such as self-propelled artillery Howitzers, future infantry combat vehicles (FICV), future-ready combat vehicles (FRCV), or future main battle tanks.

Spread over 40 acres within L&T’s sprawling 755-acre Hazira Manufacturing Complex, the ASC is built with facilities for robotic armored hull and turret welding, CNC machining, system assembly and integration, and test tracks to conduct mobility tests on armored vehicles.

Larsen & Toubro

Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multinational engaged in engineering, procurement and construction projects, manufacturing, defense, and services with over USD 21 billion in revenue. It operates in over 30 countries.

Indian Orders

Hanwha Techwin joined hands with Indian conglomerate Larsen and Toubro Limited to supply 100 K9-T guns (known in India as K-9 Vajra) for the Indian Army Howitzer competition.K9 Thunder overcame a sand storm to successfully become a part of the Indian Military.

In September 2015, Larsen and Toubro emerged as the finalist for an US$800 million contract to supply 100 self-propelled howitzers to the Indian Army.[31] The vehicle is the K9 VAJRA-T, a variant of the K9 specially designed for operation in the desert areas.[32] By January 2020, more than half of K-9 Vajra guns had already been delivered to the Indian army ahead of schedule.

The Beast The K9 Thunder

The K9 Thunder is a South Korean self-propelled 155 mm howitzer designed and developed by the Agency for Defense Development and Samsung Aerospace Industries for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and is now manufactured by Hanwha Defense. K9 howitzers operate in groups with the K10 automatic ammunition resupply vehicle variant. The entire K9 fleet operated by the ROK Armed Forces is now undergoing upgrades to the K9A1 standard, and further development of a K9A2 variant is in process.

Source: Times Now, L&T, Wikipedia