The regiment of artillery is an operational and the second largest arm of the Indian army. With its guns, mortars, rocket launchers, unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance systems, missiles and artillery firepower it constitutes almost one-sixth of its total strength.
Artillery refers to the large caliber guns used in modern warfare on land. The types of equipment of the Indian artillery regiment:
- Howitzer: It is characterized by a relatively short barrel length. Small propellant charges are used to propel projectiles at high trajectories, thus giving them a steep angle of descent. Some howitzer types of equipment used in the Indian army regiment are: M777, Haubits FH77/B, M46, Metamorphosis 155vmm gun, M101 howitzer. Howitzer comes from the word ‘HOUFE’ meaning heap or mass. Thus, the howitzer type is used against mass enemies.
- Field Guns: They are smaller guns which could be easily moved and can accompany the field army on the march. Its position can also be changed on the battlefield with the changing circumstances. Some equipment of these types presently in service are: M-46, 100mm M1944, 100mm field gun M-1944(BS3).
- Mountain Guns: They are designed to be used in mountain warfare where wheeled transport is not possible. They have the ability to be broken down into smaller pieces and therefore are easy to transport. Due to their ability to be broken down into smaller pieces, they are often called pack guns or pack howitzers. The only mountain gun in the Indian army is 76mm Mountain gun M48. Earlier OTO Melara Mod was also used which is now retired. Mountain Guns are highly outdated and are replaced by multiple rocket launchers and guided missiles. The modern artillery is made of light weight material solving the problem of transportation as they can be easily transported via helicopter.
- Multiple Rocket Launchers: It is a type of unguided rocket launching system. Some MRL presently in the Indian Army Artillery Regiment are: Smerch 9K58 MBRL, Pinaka MBRL, and BM21. Although the MRLs are much less accurate and have low rate of fire, but they have the ability of dropping many hundreds of kilograms of explosive over an enemy with devastating effect.
- Self-Propelled Artillery: It is any type of artillery which has its own propelling system to move toward the enemy. They are high mobility vehicle usually on caterpillar track. They are usually for long range indirect bombardment support on battlefield. Some self-propelled artillery in the Indian Army are: M-46 Catapult, FV433 Abbot SPG, 2S1 Gvozdiak. Some of them also carry rockets and missiles which have long range and high impact.
Other types with examples are:
- Anti-tank gun: Sprut Anti-tank gun.
- Heavy Gun: 180 mm gun S-23.
- The motto of the Regiment of Artillery is Sarvatra Izzat-o-Iqbal (Everywhere with Honour and Glory). This regiment is very useful as it provides support and firepower to the Army.
