These weapon systems have been a part of the Regiment of Artillery for over half a century

The decommissioning ceremony was held at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in north-western Rajasthan, where the last customary salvos were fired.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16

The Indian Army on Tuesday decommissioned two of the longest-serving artillery weapon systems, the 130mm M-46 Catapult self-propelled guns and the 160mm Tampella mortars.

These weapon systems have been a part of the Regiment of Artillery for over half a century. The decommissioning ceremony was held at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in north-western Rajasthan, where the last customary salvos were fired.

The Catapult was an integration of the Soviet origin M-46 towed artillery gun with the hull of the Vijayanta tank. While the Catapult was first produced in 1987, the army had started procuring the M-46 from 1986 onwards.

About 1,000 guns, which had a range of 27 km, had been inducted. In 2008, about 180 of these guns were upgraded to 155 mm caliber by Israel and some more were similarly modified by the Ordnance Factory Board.

Close to 100 Catapults using the 130 mm guns were built on the Vijayanta’s hull. Later, the Army carried out trials on the Arjun tank’s hull which reportedly proved to be successful and a requirement of 40 such systems had been projected.

The Tampella was a heavy mortar weighing 7,300 kg that fired a projectile weighing over 40 kg to a range of 8 km. Only a limited number of these weapons had been procured and given their weight, 7-member crew strength and range, were no longer relevant in today’s operational environment. They were last used in the Kargil conflict.

The K-9 Vajra 155 mm self-propelled howitzer, Dhanush 155 mm  towed artillery gun and the US made M-777 155 mm ultra-light howitzer are among recent inductions in Regiment of Artillery to replace old obsolete weapons.