Indian Army K-9 Vajra Gun: India’s defence and engineering major Larsen & Toubro Tuesday delivered the 81st K-9 Vajra-T howitzer gun to the Indian Army. With this delivery, L&T Defence is on track to deliver all 100 guns within the delivery schedule of 42 months as permitted under the relaxed criteria following the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic that hit the defence industry like any other sector of the economy.
In a virtual event, defence production secretary Raj Kumar, flagged off the 81st K-9 Vajra-T gun from L&T’s Hazira facility located in western state of Gujarat.
In January this year, the defence and shipbuilding major has also delivered the 51st K-9 Vajra-T gun for the Indian Army ahead of the schedule. India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh had flagged of the gun from the L&T’s Hazira defence complex in a major event. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated L&T Defence‘s Armoured System Complex in Hazira to the nation in January 2019.
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L&T’s Ajay Bhatia (L) with Raj Kumar, Secretary Defence Production.
Indian Army’s K-9 Vajra-T Gun
This is the first howitzer which will join the last of total five Vajra gun regiments. The Ministry of Defence had placed a Rs 4,500-crore (over $600 million) for 100 of these weapon systems in May 2017.
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L&T Defence partnered with South Korea defence giant Hanwha Techwin for this tender.
The gun has been built to meet the specific requirements of the Indian Army, particularly to be able to operate in desert operations, and it has over 50% indigenous content.
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