ISLAMABAD – In a serious development, Indian Army seek support of Americansatellite guidance system against Pakistan border fire.
The Indian army has started to use long-range precision guided artilleryammunition, purchased under an emergency clause in India’s Defence Policy.
News about the deployment of the new M982 Excalibur artillery rounds -developed by Raytheon Missile Systems- was shared with army commanders at ahigh-level conference in New Delhi, local media reported.
Excalibur artillery rounds 155mm trajectory correctable munitions alsoreferred to as Course Correctable Fuze, that use GPS technology toaccurately guide a shell to its target, facilitating co-ordination in usingmid-course flight path correction.
TCM accuracy and first-round hit probability is significantly higher thanthat of conventional ammunition facilitating its use in close supportsituations within 150 metres of friendly troops.
The guided shells have been inducted in the army units guarding the Line ofControl, a 435-mile line which marks where the Indian and Pakistani partsof Kashmir begin.
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The shells can be used in the new lightweight M-777 Howitzer along thePakistan and Chinese border. The shells can reach up to 57 km will also beused in the K-9 tracked Howitzer gunlink thatIndia bought from South Korea in 2017, Sputnik has reported.
Traditionally tense Pakistani-Indian relations dipped to a new low inFebruary after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for sponsoring terror attacks inKashmir claimed by terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad. India carried out aretaliatory strike to destroy the group’s infrastructure.
The Kashmir issue dates back to 1947 when both countries became independentfrom Britain and both claimed the region as belonging to them.
