This refers to the report “Army assures order for DRDO Howitzers” (June 10). The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had been clamouring to develop Howitzers for the Indian army for almost two decades, even as the all-powerful import lobby tried to source these guns from across the globe, including South Africa and Singapore. Not only DRDO, but also senior members at the Institute of Defence Scientists and Technologists made presentations – even to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence – to indicate the feasibility as well as the urgency of developing the 155-mm gun system with the available indigenous technologies. With decades of experience in gun development, it would be expedient to assign a greater leadership role to the Armament Research and Development Establishment to steer the indigenous weapons development work that is now fragmented across various agencies. In armaments most of the learning is from failures that should not be repeated.
Raghubir Singh Pune
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