The artillery has been making a huge contribution in the war fighting for prolonged periods. It will not be wrong to say that it helped initially the Moghuls and later the Britishers to rule India for centuries. Even in the post Independence India , artillery has played a decisive role in the war fighting and has impacted the outcome of all the conflicts. The fire power provided by the artillery has helped the attacks to succeed besides saving substantial No of casualties to own assaulting troops. It has been effective in all the terrains and has evolved itself with time changing its operational employment philosophy as well as adding more teeth to its inventory by acquiring long range guns, rockets and missiles. The importance of the artillery to warfighting is so much that even the attack plans are often changed if it is not available in the requisite quantum at the desired time.
The artillery was seen for a long time as a battle support resource but the evolving trends give it a different dimension. One has seen the role played by artillery from close quarters during Operation Vijay in Kargil. It will not be incorrect to say that the Kargil war was an ‘Artillery War’ and was almost won on its own strength. If one carries out an objective analysis, it will be obvious to see the changing role of Artillery wherein it has the potential of winning the bulk of war on its own. This role will be increasing substantially if there is a war either with China or Pakistan or with both together.
The artillery has to share larger responsibilities towards the war fighting as it did during Kargil War in 1999. This is more important as both our adversaries – China and Pakistan have colluded with each other against us and our national interests. The role of artillery is also going to be more challenging as China has made incursions in certain areas in Eastern Ladakh and troops from both sides stand deployed in substantial numbers in those areas including in the depth areas . The artillery has to go in for procurement of long range light artillery guns, long range rockets and for all those missiles which will be used in conventional warfighting. On one hand, there is a pressing need for placing the entire fleet of guns, rockets and missiles under the regiment of artillery besides more focussed axial and lateral roads to be developed in the border areas for movement of the artillery resources. It is hoped that these challenges will be addressed in the positive domain in the due course. In addition to all this, the artillery has to also handle the challenges related to ‘crest clearance’ as almost our entire battle fighting against China has to take place in the mountainous terrain.
Mountains pose special challenges to the employment of artillery. ‘Crest clearance’ has been one of the problems faced by the gunners wherein deployment tactics, high angle trajectories, long range rockets and missiles and airborne fires have addressed these to some extent. Use of smart munitions are also aiding such engagements wherein the terminal engagement is sensor based and not merely the function of trajectory anymore.
It is obvious that the gunners are professionals and will handle this facet of ‘crest clearance’ with their operational brilliance and usage of technology but there is another facet of ‘crest clearance’. This another facet of ‘crest clearance’ is related to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of guns, rockets and missiles on the inventory of the artillery. There is a definite need of renewed focus on this facet of equipment management as only mission reliable equipment will deliver the optimum results. While the stakeholders in our hierarchy should address the need for the right kind of equipment needed by the Artillery, there is a more pressing need of keeping the entire fleet of the current equipment serviceable and mission reliable as of now.
If one looks at the Russia-Ukraine war running close to a year now, no one has ever discussed the strategic vision, operational art or tactical brilliance applied in this battle by either side. Instead, all deliberations and discussions have been focussed on the equipment and that too on tanks, Artillery and other resources including shoulder fired missiles, drones ets. It therefore clearly emerges that the side which has the mission reliable equipment, will be the side to win the battle as well as the war. It’s therefore essential to look at the MRO support to our inventory with gunners and re-energise the same as only then the availability of mission reliable equipment can be ensured. MRO encompasses a very wide spectrum of activities to include the MRO friendly system design, Life Cycle Cost (LCC) based equipment procurement along with budgeting for the MRO support at each stage of the equipment life, maintenance, repair, overhaul and discard management besides refit and upgrade.
The MRO support for the guns has been done on the distributed model wherein majority support is being extended through combatant maintainers from EME while some echelon at the command Level/ apex level exist in the form of Base support. The response of this support has been mixed if an objective assessment has to be done and therefore a serious re- look needs to be given in our operational environment having potential chances of conflict escalation. Some of the areas needing attention along with recommendations for quality MRO support have been covered in the succeeding paragraphs.
Level one : At Unit End. The core MRO activity is needed to be carried out at the unit level. It is the ‘M(Maintenance)’ of the MRO trilogy which is most important. If it is undertaken efficiently and promptly, the work required at R (Repair) and O(overhaul) stages reduce substantially besides life enhancement of the equipment. It also avoids the movement of the equipment outside the area of operational responsibility. Based on the type of equipment, critical maintenance HR with appropriate tools must be posted on the strength of each unit. In addition to them, the gunners must be also trained to handle the routine faults at the unit level themselves. Gunners must be the first port of call as against the maintainers. Each equipment should be connected to an appropriate sensor so that preventive , predictive and proactive maintenance can be undertaken. In addition to these, running spares, oils and lubricants should be available at the unit level so that there is no delay in keeping the equipment well maintained. This can be also termed as the Basic End of MRO .
Level Two : At Intermediate Level– These are the tiered organisations at the moment at intermediate level wherein Artillery resources are available at Divisional Level, Corps Level and Command Level. The Artillery workshops affiliated with these HQs undertake the ‘R(Repair)’ task of MRO. As one advances towards the IBG concept, one layer will be reduced but there is a need to re-look at Artillery organisations afresh so that the employment is most effective and the mission reliability of the equipment can also be ensured. These Artillery workshops can undertake field/ intermediate repairs but need to be fully equipped, skilled and located in a manner so that no guns move out of TBA for repair support. A mobile component constituted with select techniciations with appropriate tools, gauges and instruments along with spare support should be able to move forward to the locations where such support is needed to ensure the ‘in situ’ repair. In the process of optimising , some administrative components could be reduced but there should be no deficiency of skilled maintainers if one has to ensure availability of battle winning equipment for any future conflicts.The war in indian conditions cannot be outsourced. The maintainers must be made accountable and appropriate HR provisioning should be done. It will be worth considering handing over the ‘spares’ provisioning responsibility also to the maintainers even if the procurement has to be carried by Ordinance Branch / MGS Branch as the case may be . The repair support will be constrained in a big way if the spares are not available. The concept of 80% or 90% spares is meaningless and there is a need for 100% spares. Condition based maintenance (CBM) should be also practised.
Level Three: The Base Level. This aspect needs much more deliberation and restructuring. Post Galwan clash, the equipment surge with respect to guns, rockets, and missiles has been substantial. It is therefore must that:
Base workshops/ Advance workshops/ Command workshops need to be restructured at least in Northern Command as well as in the Eastern Command. Name is not important. The issue is to have a workshop at the command level to take care of ‘O’ of MRO i.e. the overhaul of guns. It is obvious that such workshops will also need to cater for the need of tanks, BMPs, Heavy engineering Equipment, Air Defence equipment etc besides the inventory equipment of the artillery.
The current pace of infrastructure allows such workshops to be located in Leh for the Northern command so that the equipment does not move out too much back for the overhauls. Similarly, the one in the Eastern command could be located on the Northern side of the River Brahmaputra at a suitable location. The locations can be decided by those more appropriately who are in know of the things but its a must.
The current arrangements/ thought process to go in for the ‘GOCO’ model is a failed model. While core work in the base workshops must be with the combatant maintainers, some work could be outsourced to the industry to speed up the output as overhauls are lagging behind substantially.
These workshops need to be revitalised with modern equipment so that the overhaul results in refit of the equipment at least upgraded to its modern competitor level and not merely to the level at which it was initially purchased.
In case required, the private sector can be encouraged for greenfield projects in the domain of ‘overhauls’.
The base workshops located in Central india/down South be re-considered for their locations closer to the areas where the war has to be fought, if at all.
The equipment for gunners is most important. It is because of this that the ‘guns’ are the ‘colours’ for the gunners. It is therefore a must that the MRO domain be revitalised to ensure that 100% mission reliable equipment is maintained always and every time. HR and funds invested on this is worth it as the equipment will dictate the future outcome of the war. Once quality MRO support is given, the gunners will clear all the Crests and bring laurels to the country.
The author is a Kargil War Veteran. The officer superannuated from the appointment of MGGS (SD&WE) of HQ Eastern Command besides tenating the appointment of MD ECHS. He is a prolific writer, media commentator and defence/ strategic analyst. The officer is the visiting fellow of the CLAWS.
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