A home-built gun enters service
The Dhanush is one of the towed howitzers in India’s artillery modernization programme. The Indian Army ordered 114 units, and the first regiment, the 93 Field Regiment, became operational near the Line of Actual Control. The army received its first six guns in April 2019.
Production setbacks
The gun’s early manufacturing years were marked by accidents, including barrel bursts and muzzle-brake strikes. At the time, the Ordnance Factory Board was responsible for the Gun Carriage Factory in Jabalpur.
A later disruption came from an unexpected bottleneck: a spare part needed for a sub-assembly had not been procured in time. Production paused because of the shortage, then restarted. Following the corporatization of the former Ordnance Factory Board, new terms and conditions were agreed with Advance Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL), the new entity involved in production. Under the revised terms, deliveries were reported to be proceeding as planned.
Catching up
AWEIL intended to supply 26 new howitzers in fiscal year 2023–2024. The army was expected to have 50 Dhanush weapons overall after those deliveries, while all 114 ordered guns were expected to be delivered by 2026.
The programme’s story captures a central challenge of domestic defence manufacturing: designing and ordering a system is not enough. Reliable production depends on the less visible details—components, industrial arrangements, and the ability to keep a supply chain moving.