When Bofors still booms

It’s all a bit ironical is it not? After all, I am a Bofors 155mm Field Howitzer (FH) 77B towed gun, meant to pummel with almost saturation fire the target area of the enemy, even at long distances. Today, even in peace time, I am towed around, my silence broken not by a burst of fire, buta flurry of bank records, leaked memos and presidential approvals. And with Solanki, Bhatnagar et al in the firing line, it is only reasonable to expect that I will continue to boom, but only in Delhi, and via Geneva, Zurich and Channel Islands. But what of me, the gun, the product in which India invested more than Rs 1,200 crore way back in 1986? Well, here is my story…..

I am Swedish, but with a little European Community touch thrown in. I was conceived by the Swedish Army, after a three-year study was commissioned between 1965 and 1968 to look into the future requirements for artillery systems. I was, of course, required to be fighting fit in snow and the tundra type cross-country terrain. Having conceived me, the Army Material Development gave the responsibility of production to AB Bofors. And it was in 1973 that the first of us, the FH-77 breed, came out. But the actual serial production of the first generation was carried out between 1978 and 1984. Now the Swedish Army asked for furtherdevelopments, basically to make sure that I could fire NATO standard ammunition, have better mobility and also a mechanised ammunition loading system.

The Nigerians were the first to appreciate my performance, but they only bought 48 of my kind, the same as Sweden. (The Swedes, incidentally, picked up the 48 only after India had blacklisted my parent firm in 1990). It was left to India to pick me up in some number, 410 is one shot no pun intended here! Actually I am told that India had wanted to get a total of 1,500 guns, but that wretched payments scandal did the order in. Otherwise India would have produced more than a thousand of my type by now, the second lot assembled from components supplied, and the third batch through licensed production. Tough luck for India, for now they have to cannibalise from amongst my lot to keep the others going. I think about 25 of us have already gone kaput after being handled in this manner.

Anyway when I first left the factory for India, way back in August 1986, I wasa Swedish product with European fitments, as I had mentioned earlier. So there was a Marconi radar and control systems, Quickfire fire control systems, with navigation equipment from the Brits — a Ferranti — while a Swiss company, rather inappropriately named Wild given the calm Swiss temperament, supplied the surveying and sighting equipment.

That was how I was fashioned as the FB-77B. At my best, I can fire a Bofors-developed High-Explosive Extended Range (HEER) projectile to almost 30 km! Some rounds, I believe, have gone even further than that, as the residents of Skardu, in Pakistan-occupied Baltistan, discovered to their surprise some years ago. Although I was not designed to keep vigil high up in the Siachen glacier I am, in all humility, the power behind the punch that the brave soldiers at Siachen throw at the Pakistanis.

I am, after all, designed to be towed artillery, but with a little power unit of my own. So while the towing is done by a Saab-Scania 6X6 truck, my own little power unit isthrough a Volvo engine mounted on the front. This is what enables me to, as that famous Indian General Sundarji once put it, “shoot and scoot”. Even the ammunition loading system uses a hydraulic crane driven though the internal power. The crane, which I carry on my main body, can lift three 155 mm projectiles at a time! At about 42 kg for each round, that is one tough tough arm of a crane. With a mechanised loading system, all that the crane has to do is to place the shells on a loading table and thence onto a loading tray. Then with the other loader (a human one) placing the explosive charges to trigger the first ignition, the shell is now ready to enter the chamber.

This drill can even be achieved with the barrel angle at 70 degrees. And when it comes to the rate of fire, with a good three-man crew I can do three rounds in 12 seconds! So what sort of manpower does it take to manage one of me? Well, a gun commander, one loader for operating the mechanism up to the loading tray, another for preparing theprojectiles and fuses and placing them on to the crane. Another operates the ammunition crane and the last rams the shells into the chamber. There is also the layer, who generally doubles as a driver. It is he who lays the gun in the best firing position.So there you are, this is the story of my life in the Indian army. From the deserts of Rajasthan to the glacial climes of Siachen I stand guard, in defence of this country’s security.

–MANVENDRA SINGH