The Bhim self-propelled howitzer is a type of

self-propelled artillery Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled ...

developed by the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

n company

Denel Denel SOC Ltd is a South African state-owned aerospace and military technology conglomerate established in 1992. It was created when the manufacturing subsidiaries of Armscor were split off in order for Armscor to become the procurement agency ...

under the supervision of the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) (IAST: ''Raksā Anūsandhān Evam Vikās Sangaṭhan'') is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, ...

. It was designed to meet the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

's requirements for self-propelled artillery units. The howitzer is named after Bhima, one of the main protagonists and brother to Arjun of the Indian epic "

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...

History

The Bhim artillery system was developed by the Indian

in the 1990s. Trials of the Bhim artillery system were successfully conducted in 1998 and 1999, but its development remained on pause for over ten years, as

was blacklisted by the Indian government.

Development

Bhim is a self-propelled howitzer. It consists of the Denel T6 turret mounted on an

Arjun MBT Arjun or Arjuna may refer to People * Arjun (name), a male given name (including a list of persons with the name) * Arjuna, a character of the Hindu epic '' Mahabharata'' * Kartavirya Arjuna, a character in Hindu mythology * Arjun (Firoz Khan) ...

chassis. It was developed and tested successfully and was cleared for production but was put on hold after Denel was banned from working on the project.

Specifications

The Indian army required 400 mounted 155-mm /52 howitzer, of which 200 would be mounted on the Arjun chassis and another 200 to be mounted on modified TATRA trucks. The Bhim artillery system has a fully automatic ammunition loading system as well as a turret-mounted auxiliary power unit, which powers all systems. The Bhim's primary armament is a Denel 155mm howitzer gun, while its secondary armament consists of a single 7.62mm machine gun.

References

Self-propelled howitzers of India 155 mm artillery Tracked self-propelled howitzers {{India-mil-stub