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In a major boost to the Indian Armys firepower along the borders with Pakistan and China, the Defence Ministry on Monday cleared a Rs 20,000 crore proposal to buy 335 more K-9 Vajra self-propelled howitzers, which will have over 70 per cent indigenous content.
The Indian Army already has 200 of these howitzers, and the Rs 20,000 crore project will further boost its capability to deploy howitzers in high-altitude areas and extreme cold conditions, defence sources told ANI. The 335 howitzers will be accompanied by a large number of winter kits, which will enable them to carry out operations in the high-altitude areas of Ladakh, they said. The project cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council today would be thebiggest artillery procurement in decades. The proposal, valued at over Rs 20,000 crore, has been taken up under the Make-in-India route and will be manufactured by Larsen & Toubro (L&T). The guns built with South Korean partnership have also been successfully inducted in the Ladakh sector and were first tried there post the Galwan Valley operations. The guns have been found to be very effective, and the Army has been able to enable them to operate in extreme cold conditions. The Prime Minister has also recently visited the Hazira plant near Surat in Gujarat, where Larsen and Toubro builds the K-9 Vajras along with the Zorawar light tanks. (ANI)
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