Learning from Russia-Ukraine war, Indian Army makes changes in its weapon doctrines, acquiring plans

The Russia-Ukraine war has stressed upon the need to have a judicious mix of guns and rockets in the Indian Army's artillery. As per top officials, we need to acquire niche technologies and more precision weapon systems, reported the Indian Express.

The Russia-Ukraine war has reemphasised on the importance of having a solid firepower as a battle-winning factor, considering the fact that 80 per cent of casualties reported in the war were due to artillery fire, said another official.

Russia is reportedly firing 20,000 shells in a day, meanwhile, Ukraine is firing around 5,000 shells every day.

“It has been seen that the massive firepower used in the war has resulted in a lot of destruction. It has underlined the need to have judicious mix of guns and rockets in our inventory,” the official said.

The war has also shown that battlefield transparency had a major role to play in the war by identifying, acquiring and engaging a target in real time.

“The war has shown that the time between acquiring and engaging a target has gone down from five to 10 minutes in the past to one or two minutes now. There is a need to engage the target as quickly as possible before it changes course and thus the need for a more effective kill chain,” the official said.

According to officials, the lessons from the war between Russia and Ukraine has made Indian Army create an overhauled artillery profile.

"While the western front requires more mounted gun systems and self-propelled gun systems, the towed guns systems with a shoot-and-scoot capability would be more apt for deployment along India’s mountainous northern borders," they said.

“We have recently concluded four contacts with different types of 155mm guns. Several regiments have already been equipped with these guns and additional guns are being procured at a fast pace,” an official added.

Meanwhile, DRDO is also enhancing its missile capabilities in terms of accuracy and range for both cruise and ballistic missiles.

“A lot of improvement is taking place in our ammunition systems and the focus is on precision-guided munitions. We are engaged with the academia and the industry for various projects related to 155mm shells,” an official said.