Advance Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL), the new defence PSU formed out of Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) at Jabalpur, and other group factories, will be taking part in the tenders issued for air defence guns by the Army.
The GCF at Jabalpur had been making the L-70 guns which ran on a mechanical system. There are no longer orders for the L-70s with the last batch issued to the Army last year. Now as the Army wants upgraded guns with electronic gear, AWEIL as a PSU will have to compete in the open tendering process along with the private sector.
The tenders by both Army and the IAF are for around 200 guns each. The anti-aircraft guns will have electronic equipment radars. In the meantime, even before AWEIL was created, the GCF had also upgraded the legacy L-70 guns in association with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), said sources. The last batch of the upgraded guns was supplied last year. Meanwhile, the company also makes the Dhanush 155×45 mm guns on the lines of the Swedish Bofors. Around 20 guns have been made so far with a target of 24 for the year. In October last year, the guns had cleared a trial in which shells were fired at full charge. The tests were carried out after an incident of muzzle hit was reported during an exercise by the Army. After that another round of trials will take place in which a certain number of rounds will be fired. The final deployment of Dhanush will happen after that.
