In March this year, the Ministry of Defence received a proposal from the Indian Army to buy 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems (ATAGS) for deployment along the borders with China and Pakistan.

The Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) is likely to place an order for 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems (ATAGS) before the end of the current financial year, the research wing's chairman Dr Samir V Kamat has informed ANI.

These weapons will be deployed along the India-China and India-Pakistan borders.

Mentioning that ATAGS has already completed all the trials, the chairman said according to his estimates, the order should be placed in this financial year.

DRDO developed 155 mm x 52 mm calibre howitzer gun with two private partners Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and Bharat Forge Ltd.

"DRDO has always been supporting industry. During our development phase we worked with MSMEs, and smaller industries and now for the last seven to eight years, when we have started this DcPP concept, we are even working with them as system integrators, right from the design and development stage. Private and public sectors have equal chances of getting selected as DcPP," Dr Samir V Kamat said.

In 2023, Army deployed a significant number of easily transportable M-777 ultra-light howitzers in mountainous regions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Army's bolstering of firepower in the forward locations of Arunachal Pradesh comes after the howitzers were deployed in several sensitive areas in the Ladakh sector amid the lingering border standoff with China.

India has been ramping up its overall military might in all strategically key areas along the nearly 3,500-km-long LAC after the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020 that triggered a major escalation in tensions between the Indian and Chinese armies.

With inputs from news agencies ANI, PTI