Vijay Mohan,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, December 20

With the government pitching for “Make in India” in the defence sector and several industrial entities envisioning interest to produce weapons, the Army has drawn a policy to open several of its field firing ranges for trials and evaluation of weapons developed indigenously by the private sector.A draft policy note prepared by the Army sates there is a requirement to develop a robust indigenous defence industry for rapid modernisation of the armed forces and it is imperative to extend facilities at its disposal to the industry for strengthening the indigenisation process.Field firing ranges that are available with the Army will be provided to the defence private sector for trials and testing of weapon systems and ammunition and procedures and guidelines for the same are being finalised. Indigenous weapon systems were primarily designed and developed by state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation and Ordnance Factory Board.It is only recently that the private industry has forayed into the defence sector and two 155-mm howitzers were designed by different groups.There are also local contenders for the Army’s 155-mm gun deal and further down the line could be developments of light artillery guns, rockets and ammunition for small and medium calibre arms as well as tanks and armoured vehicles.While there are a number of ranges across the country, only a few are owned by the Army and the rest have to be notified from time to time by the respective states for use by the Army for specified period. Notification of several ranges has also been an issue with the states and many a time they are hesitant to notify them for training due to local socio-economic pressures.

Eight firing ranges shortlisted

• The ranges are at Pokhran, Mahajan and Balwanta (Rajasthan), Babina and Bamori (MP), Gamrala (Arunachal), Teesta (West Bengal) and Sikkim
• These have a firing range up to 32 km