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Maintaining that the ATAGS howitzer is the best gun in the world with the capability to strike targets at the longest range of 48 kilometers, a top  DRDO scientist said, the indigenous gun can meet the Indian Army’s full requirement of 1800 artillery guns systems and there was no need for imports in this field.

Interacting with ANI during the field trials of the ATAGS, project director and senior Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Shailendra V Gade said that the indigenous gun can meet Indian Army’s full requirement of 1800 artillery guns systems and there was no need for imports in this field.

The ATAGS has already fired over 2,000 rounds in places like Sikkim near the China border and Pokharan near the Pakistan border. According to news agency ANI, Gade further said the gun system is far better than the legendary Bofors in the Indian Army along with any other artillery gun in the world including the ATHOS gun offered by Israel.

The Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) has been developed by the DRDO and produced by two firms Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems Limited.

"The Indian Army's requirement is for 1580 towed artillery guns and apart from that, they need 150 ATAGS and another 114 Dhanush guns. So, there is a requirement of a total of 1,800 guns. The way the ATAGS is performing and come up, I am sure that this entire requirement of 1,800 guns can be met by this gun only," said Gade.

The ATAGS gun system comprises 7,463 components of which 4977 are manufactured parts involving about 30,000 manufacturing processes and more than 2,00,000 inspection parameters.