New Indian-made 155mm artillery howitzer Dhanush ready for use by Indian army end of this year.

After trials, India's indigenous artillery gun 'Dhanush' would be ready for use by the Army by the end of this year.Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chairman M C Bansal today said the winter trials of the 'desi' howitzers were successfully completed in Sikkim and after the summer trials to be held in the deserts of Rajasthan in the next few months, it would be ready for use.

"We will add another laurel to the country by producing them with indigenous technology," he said. After the extensive trials, 'Dhanush' would be produced in bulk in the Gun Carriage Factory in Jabalpur and the Army has placed an initial order of 114 such guns.

An improved and indigenous version of the Swedish Bofors, 'Dhanush' is a 155mm and 45 calibre gun. While the original Bofors gun has a maximum effective range of 27 km, 'Dhanush' can fire a salvo up to 38 km in the plains. With the Defence Ministry focusing on indigenous technology, OFB had also decided to increase production capacity for making 5000 rockets for the Pinaka multi-barrel weapons system.