The Ordinance Factory Board (OFB) has announced the successful completion of the upgunned 155 mm/45 Calibre SHARANG artillery gun at the Mahajan Field Firing range located in the state of Rajasthan. 155 mm Sharang is an upgraded version of the 130 mm M-46 field guns. The gun is 100% indigenous Artillery Gun which is designed and produced by the OFB. The SHARANG artillery gun has a range of 39 kms.
The first indigenous SHARANG modified artillery gun system was handed over to the Indian Army in February 2020. In September 2020, the OFB commenced the delivery of 155mm/45 calibre Sharang Artillery Gun to Indian Army.
In October 2018, the Ministry of Defence had placed an order worth Rs 200 crore with the OFB for upgunning the Indian Army’s vintage Soviet era 130 mm M-46 artillery guns. It was won under stiff competition from two other vendors, including Punj Lloyd teaming up with Serbian Yugoimport–SDPR and Bharat Forge teaming up with Israeli Soltam. The Indian Army wants to upgun 300 artillery guns out of around 1000 it acquired from the Soviet Union.
As per the contract, the barrel and breech block were to be replaced. In addition, new sighting systems and a new hydraulic rammer to ease loading of shells were to be added. The Sharang upgrade kit was pegged at about Rs 70 lakh per gun, which is less than one-fifth the cost of a brand new towed field artillery gun.