650 MILLION $ CLEARED FOR K9 VAJRA-T deal by Indian Cabinet

In my post "EMPOWERING INDIAN ARTILLERY"  I did a small mention of India buying K9 VAJRA-T which is 155mm/52cal self propelled howitzers from South Korea.

K9 vajra mention in old post

Self propelled howitzer is a field  where India was lagging behind rival nation like China and even Pakistan.

Today the Indian cabinet has cleared about 650 million $ or about 4300 Crore INR the deal. India will acquire 100 of these Self Propelled Guns. Indian variant of K9 Thunder which is called K9 Vajra-T is specially designed for desert operations as they will be used in desert areas bordering Pakistan.

Another special thing about this deal is the MAKE IN INDIA factor attached to this deal, while 10 of these guns will  be supplied directly by SAMSUNG from S.KOREA the rest 90 will be made in India by L&T.

Till now India was unable to procure even a single SPA or for that matter even a single artillery for decades due to the ghost of bofors scam which has been haunting the defence deals for long time now. With K9  in the inventory Indian army will have another option of striking deep as K9 has an attack range of  40+ kms and with certain shells it can be as much as 50 kms and also its being self propelled means that it can shoot and scoot which makes is less vulnerable to enemy counter-attacks and hence the survivability is improved.

Also K9 unlike towed artillery do not need another vehicle to tow them from one place to another and hence they can be deployed faster as they do not require any additional preparations for moving them like in case of towed guns.

The negotiations for K9 VAJRA are done and the final contract will be signed in a month and then first ten guns will be supplied within 18 months by SAMSUNG itself and rest 90 will be supplied by L&T within 2 years of signing of  contract.