Army unhappy with Ordnance ammo

Amid talk of greater indigenisation of weapons and ammunition, Indian Army is unhappy over the quality of ammunition provided by the state owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), sources said.

Due to budget constraints imposed after Coronavirus pandemic, there is talk of “selfreliance” and more “indigenisation” of weapons and ammunition to tide over the crisis. However, sources in the Indian Army said that despite complaining about the quality of ammunition provided by the Ordnance Factory Board many times in the past, there has been no major improvement.

“The issue of quality of ammunition provided by the Ordnance Factory Board again seems to be in cold storage,” sources said. Factories managed by the Ordnance Factory Board are the main source of supply of ammunition to the Indian Army and drop in quality of OFB products has a major bearing on war waging potential of the country.

The sources said that large quantum of ammunition by OFB to Indian Army has been found defective during the shelf life. According to an earlier report by the Indian Army, on an average there is an ammunition-related accident every 5.5 days or once a week. It had said that there is lack of ownership with respect to ammunition production and allied quality assurance and control. The report had said that regular accidents occur with

105mm Indian Field Gun,

105mm Light Field Gun,

130mm MA1 Medium Gun,

40mm L-70 Air Defence Guns and main guns T-72,

T-90 and Arjun tanks. It had said that the increase in accidents in the recent past has resulted in Army having lost confidence in most of the types of ammunition by the OFB.