American made M777 Ultra Light Howitzer

The battle of Tololing had resulted in more than half the casualties suffered by the Army in the Kargil war. New guns such as the M777 Ultra Light Howitzers and the 155 mm Dhanush have been inducted into the Army. Long Range vectors such as the Pinaka missiles are also there for use in both the mountains and the plains

TOLOLING BASE: They looked like firecrackers in the sky as life teetered on the ground. It was war then — the toughest battle that had changed the course of the Kargil war. It’s been 20 years since and, save for the bitter chill and the rugged terrains, a lot has changed for the army deployed in Tololing.

“What we didn’t have then, we have it now. Technology has immensely improved for artillery,” said Naib Subedar Kirtan Singh. The memories of the war — he was in his early 20s then — are still vivid as he recounted the stories while visiting the Tololing Base for the anniversary celebration of the Kargil War.

Havildar Prakash Pandey was in the same 41 Medium Artillery Regiment, to which Singh belonged, and they were together in one of the toughest battles the Indian Army ever fought.

Standing at the foot of Tololing, their eyes searched for the fissures where they were once told the Pakistani invaders lay. “Back in the summer of 1999, we witnessed the loss of hundreds of lives here,” Pandey said. The battle of Tololing had cost more than half the casualties the army suffered at the Kargil War.

Indian artillery was successful because of the large number of guns that were made to fire in a limited area. These fire platforms supported the infantry battalions going in the dead of the night to beat back the Pakistani intruders.

No effort was spared by the artillery to bombard the Pakistani positions on Tololing. The army used the Bofors and 105-mm guns. All the 18 guns of the regiment were brought to fire on Tololing and Tiger Hill. “In a day, we would fire 200 to 250 rounds at the Pakistani positions. Our guns would get so hot from the firing that we would have to wrap the barrels with water-soaked jute bags,” Singh recalled.

But, a lot were lacking in the artillery in 1999. “We didn’t have adequate surveillance and target acquisition means for firing. We had to use our guns in direct firing role. We had to manually align the gun at the enemy position and fire and sometimes using an indirect method. Also, the precision inventory was virtually non-existent then,” said an army official.

The artillery lacked a real-time response mechanism, which allowed ground formations deployed along the war front to immediately receive response and instructions from their command post. “The network capability was inadequate,” the official said.

Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher

All this has changed now. New guns such as the M777 Ultra Light Howitzers and the 155mm Dhanush have been inducted into the army. Long-range vectors such as the Pinaka missiles are also there for use in both the mountains and the plains. Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have been inducted for surveillance and target acquisition.

“What we still don’t have is adequate precision inventory. We have made progress in the networking part, but still need improvement for a full-front response. Survivability meaning ensuring our guns are safe by air defence needs to be enhanced. The fire power has to be in conjunction with air power,” said another official.

However, replicating the artillery’s success in Kargil in case of an all-front war won’t be possible now. In Kargil, the war was in a limited area, so deploying the resources was focused. In case another war happens over a larger area, then distribution of resources will have to take place, limiting it in every sector.