Dhanush (“bow”) is a 155 mm/45-calibre towed howitzer developed in India from the Bofors FH-77B design, and is the first long-range artillery gun designed and mass-produced indigenously by an Indian state-owned manufacturer following the 1980s Bofors technology-transfer agreement.[1] Built by Gun Carriage Factory (GCF), Jabalpur, under the Ordnance Factory Board and its corporatised successor Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL), Dhanush was formally cleared for series production in February 2019, becoming the Indian Army’s first new towed artillery type inducted since the Bofors guns of the 1980s.[3]
Dhanush traces its lineage directly to the Haubits FH77B, which India purchased from Sweden’s Bofors in the 1980s along with a technology-transfer package for local production. OFB began work on an indigenous, longer-range derivative of that gun to replace the Army’s ageing 105 mm Indian Field Gun, 105 mm Light Field Gun, and Soviet-origin 122 mm guns with a single modern 155 mm calibre standard.[1] Development proved lengthy and troubled: a barrel-burst incident during trials in August 2013 paused testing, though a subsequent investigation attributed the failure to old ammunition with air bubbles rather than a design or metallurgical fault.[9] The gun failed further trials in 2017, including an incident in July where a shell struck the muzzle brake, again eventually traced to a defective round rather than the gun itself.[9] Despite these setbacks, Dhanush completed final development trials in June 2018 and received bulk production clearance from the Ministry of Defence on 18 February 2019.[3] The Army received its first six production guns in April 2019, the initial deliveries against a 2015 order for 114 howitzers worth roughly ₹1,260 crore.[2]
Dhanush is a 155 mm, 45-calibre towed gun-howitzer with a maximum range of approximately 38 km depending on ammunition and propellant charge, an improvement over the roughly 30 km range of the original Bofors FH-77B.[1] It fires up to eight rounds per minute and is served by a crew of six to eight artillerymen.[1] Compared with the legacy Bofors gun, Dhanush adds an inertial-navigation-based auto-laying and pointing system, an onboard ballistic computer, and an advanced day/night direct-fire sighting system, considerably reducing the time and manual effort needed to lay the gun onto a target and improving first-round accuracy.[1] The chassis and recoil system were also redesigned and strengthened relative to the original Bofors gun to handle the increased range and associated higher chamber pressures.[6]
Beyond the initial 114-gun order, the Army has planned a substantially larger follow-on acquisition. Reporting in early 2026 indicated the Indian Army was moving to procure roughly 300 additional Dhanush-type 155 mm howitzers, which would make it one of the largest towed-artillery fleets in Indian service alongside the M777 ultra-light howitzer and K9 Vajra-T self-propelled gun.[4] The original 114-gun contract, initially scheduled for completion by 2022, slipped to a revised delivery target of March 2026, reflecting the programme’s persistent production and quality-control challenges even after formal induction.[9]
Dhanush is fielded in a single baseline production configuration, distinguished from its Bofors FH-77B parent primarily by its extended range, auto-laying fire-control suite, and strengthened chassis.[1] There is no separate publicly designated upgraded “Mk2” Dhanush; incremental quality and component improvements have instead been introduced across production lots as AWEIL has worked through the gun’s various trial-related defects.[9]
The Army’s original order, placed around 2013-2015, covered 114 guns for approximately ₹1,260 crore.[9] Deliveries proceeded slowly through the early 2020s; AWEIL had targeted delivery of a further 26 guns in FY2023-2024 as part of working through the outstanding order book, with full completion of the 114-gun contract pushed to March 2026.[9] The prospective 300-gun follow-on order reported in 2026 has not yet been finalised into a signed contract at the time of writing.[4]
Dhanush’s development and early production history has been marked by repeated quality-control controversies. Trial failures in 2013 and 2017 were each eventually traced to defective ammunition rather than the gun itself, but they nonetheless delayed induction by several years.[9] A further recoil-system failure was recorded during a Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) trial in November 2020, after the gun had already entered service, raising renewed concerns about production consistency.[9] Most seriously, reporting in April 2025 alleged that a Dhanush gun failed trials after counterfeit Chinese bearings, procured through an allegedly corrupt supply chain, were fitted in place of certified components—an episode that has fed broader scrutiny of quality-assurance practices and component sourcing across India’s ordnance-factory supply chain.[10] Proponents of the programme counter that Dhanush remains a genuine “Make in India” success story insofar as it represents a fully indigenous design-and-production capability for modern towed artillery, even if execution has lagged.[7]
Dhanush has not seen combat, but its regiments have been progressively fielded by the Indian Army since 2019, primarily along the western border with Pakistan, complementing the M777 ultra-light howitzers deployed in the Himalayan sectors and the K9 Vajra-T self-propelled guns in the desert sectors as part of a broader modernisation of India’s towed and mechanised artillery.[6]
| Type | Towed Howitzer |
| Crew | 6-8 |
| Main armament | 155 mm/45-calibre gun |
| Range | ~38 km (extended ammunition) |
| Rate of fire | Up to 8 rounds/min |
| Fire control | Inertial navigation auto-laying, onboard ballistic computer, day/night sighting |
| Manufacturer | Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur / Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Ltd (AWEIL) |
| In service | 2019-present |
| Number ordered (India) | 114 (2015 order, deliveries through ~2026); ~300 more planned |