L&T delivers 100th K9 Vajra tracked self-propelled howitzer to Army

Surat, Feb 19: With an aim to strengthen the Indian Army, Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane flagged off the 100th K-9 Vajra tracked self-propelled howitzer built by Larsen & Toubro ( L&T ) at its armored system complex at Hazira in Gujarat.

 

 

With this, L&T had completed the delivery of all the howitzers under the contract awarded in May 2017 ahead of schedule. The 155mm, 52 calibre K9 Vajra is built by L&T with technology transfer from South Korean defence major Hanwha Defense, and is based on its K9 Thunder.

 

 

In a statement, L&T said with the flagging-off of the 100th howitzer, the company has successfully completed delivery of all guns under the existing contract awarded to it by the Ministry of Defence in May 2017. The company said it has maintained its track record of “ahead of time deliveries” of complex platforms. Last year in January, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had flagged off the 51st K9 VAJRA from Hazira.

 

 

As a part of its ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, the company established a green-field manufacturing-cum-integration and testing facility at its Hazira manufacturing complex near Surat to produce the guns. The ‘Armoured Systems Complex’ at Hazira was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018.

 

L&T Defence produced the ‘K9 VAJRA’ under a contract awarded to it through global competitive bidding. L&T was the prime bidder for the programme with South Korean defence major Hanwha Defence, the original equipment maker of the world’s top rated howitzer the ‘K9 Thunder’, as its technology partner.

 

 

The company said ‘K9 VAJRA’ systems are delivered with more than 80 per cent indigenous work packages and above 50 per cent indigenisation (by value) at the program level. It said the project involved local production of over 13,000 components per system through a supply chain spread across the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.