Breaking news
India has signed a contract with South Korea to manufacture 100 K9 Vajra 155mm howitzers 12404171.
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Defense & Security News - India
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India has signed a contract with South Korea to manufacture 100 K9 Vajra-T 155mm howitzers.
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Friday, April 21, 2017, Indian Company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has signed a contract with Hanwa Techwin of South Korea to manufacture the K9 Vajra-T, a 155mm self-propelled howitzer for the Indian army. The K9 has been shortlisted by the Army after extensive trials and it got the final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) recently.
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 K9 Vajra-T Indian variant of the South Korean K9 Thunder at DefExpo 2016 Defense Exhibition in India. |
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L&T said in a statement that the first 10 guns would be manufactured at L&T facility at Talegon near Pune. L&T is setting up a green field manufacturing facility at Hazira in Gujarat.
K9 Vajra-T will be manufactured with over 50% indigenous parts and the joint venture will provide life cycle support from India. Both the companies will develop 14 subsystems including fire control and communication suits, hull, and turret structure in India. In March 2017, Indian government has approved the procurement of of 100 modified South Korean Hanwa Techwin K9 Vajra-T 155 mm/52-calibre tracked self-propelled howitzers for the Indian Army. The K9 VAJRA-T is a variant of K9 Thunder 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzer which is in service with the South Korean armed forces. The K9 was first developed by Samsung Techwin in 1989 before the industrial conglomerate Hanwha Group took over the defense manufacturing unit and renamed it Hanwha Techwin last year. Since 1999, South Korea's military has deployed some 900 K9 howitzers along the heavily militarized border with North Korea and to a group of front-line islands along the tense sea border in the Yellow Sea. In March 2017, South Korea signed an agreement with Finland on to deliver 48 of its K9 155mm self-propelled howitzers. It is the third foreign customer of the South Korean-made K9, following Poland and Turkey. The development program of the K9 155 mm/52-caliber self-propelled howitzer has been underway since 1989. In 1996 the first prototype of this new artillery system was tested. The main armament of the K9 consists of a 155 mm/52 caliber ordnance with a maximum firing range of 40 km. The K9 Thunder has a maximum rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute and is capable of multiple-round simultaneous-impact firing. It is able to fire three rounds in 15 seconds, each in different trajectories, so that all of the shells arrive on target at the same time. |
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 K9 Thunder 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzer. |
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