India’s ATAGS howitzer best artillery gun in world, says top DRDO scientist

ATAGS Howitzer

The indigenous ATAGS howitzer is the best artillery gun in the world, a top scientist of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has said.

The ATAGS or Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System was developed by the DRDO and produced by two Indian firms -- Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems Limited.

The ATAGS howitzer can strike targets at the longest range of 48 kilometers and meets Indian Army’s “full requirement of 1,800 artillery guns systems” and the DRDO believes India does not need to import guns.

Shailendra V Gade, senior DRDO scientist and ATAGS project director has told news agency ANI that the ATAGS howitzer is even better than the Bofors and Israel’s ATHOS guns.

He said: “The Indian Army’s requirement is for 1580 towed artillery guns and apart from that, they need 150 ATAGS and another 114 Dhanush guns. So, there is a requirement of a total of 1,800 guns. The way the ATAGS is performing and come up, I am sure that this entire requirement of 1,800 guns can be met by this gun only.”

He further said: “The enemy won’t be able to counter you as they would not be able to reach you, but you can reach them at 48 kilometers. You can be eight kilometers behind their strike range but still hit them.”

Explaining why the ATAGS are better than the Bofors and other guns in the world, Gade said the ATAGs can fire five rounds in one minute, whereas the rest can only fire three. Besides, the range of ATAGS is 48 kilometers, whereas that of the Bofors is 32 kilometers.