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Desert To Siachen, No Hiding From India's Homegrown Mobile Artillery: 10 Points
NDTV News Desk | Updated: July 07, 2025 20:03 IST
The ATAGS is designed to engage targets in both direct and indirect fire modes
New Delhi: India is set to test a homegrown mobile artillery gun that can be deployed anywhere, from Rajasthan's desert to Siachen's icy heights. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has named it Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS).
Here are 10 points about India's new mobile artillery gun
- Foreseeing a futuristic requirement, a project for design and development of the 155 mm x 52 calibre ATAGS was sanctioned to DRDO's Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in 2012.
- The ATAGS has been envisaged with a high degree of excellence in range, accuracy, consistency of operations, superior rate of fire, and all-weather and terrain deployability, ARDE Director A Raju said.
- The ATAGS is compatible to fire existing in-service ammunition, and can integrate seamlessly with the Indian Army's Artillery Combat Command and Control System (ACCCS), which seeks to automate field artillery in the areas of trajectory computation and communication with secrecy.
- The ATAGS comprises two major sub-assemblies - upper carriage and undercarriage. The upper carriage has ordinance assembly (gun barrel, breech and muzzle brake), recoil system, cradle, saddle, elevating and traversing mechanism, layer station, loader station and ammunition handling system. The undercarriage consists of structural, automotive, and auxiliary systems.
- The system is configured with an all-electric drive to ensure maintenance-free and reliable field operations. This ensures automatic operation of laying, shell and charge loading, ramming and gun deployment. The automation also enables a higher rate of fire, the DRDO said in an in-house bulletin.
- The ATAGS has self-propulsion capability which has been achieved through an auxiliary power unit (APU) consisting of an automotive system, hydraulic transmission, and actuation mechanisms. It was imperative for the ATAGS to adopt a new strategy to enhance mobility, deployability, and powering the complete drive system including the gun automation, the DRDO said.
- The ATAGS is designed to engage targets in both direct and indirect fire modes. For this, it is equipped with various sighting systems. In direct fire mode using an optronic sight, the gun can engage targets up to 1.5 km away. The optronic sight comprises a day camera, thermal imaging, and a laser range finder with identification range up to 2 km and detection range up to 10 km.
- The design and reliability of the recoil system were validated by carrying out at least 100 cycles of continuous recoil and run out cycles. The testing of the recoil system was carried out on a specially designed static and hydraulic test bench, simulating dynamic conditions under which the gun will eventually operate.
- The ATAGS can fire 10 high-explosive shells on a target in a very short span of 2.5 minutes, or five rounds in 60 seconds in burst fire mode. Depending on the type of ammunition, it can fire shells up to 48 km.
- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has given acceptance of necessity (AoN) for 307 pieces of ATAGS for the Indian Army. It was first publicly showcased at the 68th Republic Day Parade on January 26, 2017.
Published: July 07, 2025 20:02 IST
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Highlights
- DRDO sanctioned the design and development of 155 mm x 52 calibre ATAGS in 2012
- ATAGS offers long range, high accuracy and rate of fire, and all-weather deployability
- It integrates with Indian Army's Artillery Combat Command and Control System