Bofors to boom with desi designed, developed ‘made in Nagpur' ammo

Time of India

04-06-2025

Nagpur: Nearly 40 years after the 155mm Bofors Howitzers were purchased, India is finally close to having entirely indigenously designed and developed ammunition for the famed guns that boomed in the Kargil war.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Though the gun itself was indigenized and inducted in 2019, the shells, though made domestically, were based on a South African design.
The Indian 155mm ammunition has been designed by Armaments Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), an arm of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (
). The new shells will be manufactured by Yantra India Limited (YIL) at its flagship unit — the Ordnance Factory Ambajhari at Nagpur.
YIL is a public sector undertaking (PSU) formed out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factories in 2021.
From the private sector, Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure Ltd will also be making the shells, becoming the first private company to enter the segment. Reliance Infrastructure is planning to set up a manufacturing plant at Ratnagiri with an investment of Rs5,000 crore. All the new versions are expected to be inducted by 2026, said sources in the know of the development.
Only YIL has been making these shells — since the pre-PSU days. These are based on a transfer of technology (TOT) sourced from Naschem, a South African defence manufacturer. The recent global conflicts have also triggered a major demand for the 155mm calibre shells.
ARDE has developed four indigenous versions of the ammunition — high explosive (HE), smoke, illumination, and cargo. The HE shell is the basic variant.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The smoke version can provide a screen against detection by the enemy, while the illumination shells can light up the entire area after hitting the target. The cargo version has bomblets shooting out of the main shell, explained sources.
User trials of the Indian high explosive version were conducted recently. The other three versions — smoke, illumination, and cargo — are at different stages of evaluation too, said sources.
YIL will replace the existing extended range full bore (ERFB) version shells of Naschem design, which had nubs, an additional component fixed in the shells to ensure aerodynamic stability within the gun's barrel, said top sources.
The Indian design does away with the need for fixing a nub. The shape was designed in such a way that the shell will be able to achieve stability on its own and even achieve a range of up to 36km.
This is slightly longer than the shell made so far, said sources.
As Yantra will be making empty shells, its sister PSU — Munitions India Limited — will fill them up with explosives. Around 10 Indian companies are part of Reliance's supply chain. The company hopes to get orders of Rs10,000 crore in 10 years, said a source.
Box
Imported to indigenous in 40 years
After Swedish Bofors artillery guns were purchased in 1986, even the initial lot of ammunition came with it.
Ordnance Factories then continued to make the M-107 ammunition based on Swedish technology. In 2000, a new design was adopted based on a transfer of technology with South African defence manufacturer Naschem Corporation. The factories continued to depend on Naschem for a base-bleed, a key component, until the mid-2000s.
The supply was stopped after the company was blacklisted in around 2005. Eventually, the Ordnance Factories indigenized the base-bleed, which gives an extra thrust to the shell, though manufacturing continued as per the South African design. TNN