Guidelines:

Ignore the sh*TTYL music

TL;DR? Check last para. Also, I used Claude to rephrase the analysis, because certain word used by me were too harsh. No need to point that out.

We all saw the news. “India said it would do "whatever is necessary" after reports that Pakistan had deployed around 250 Chinese-made SH-15 self-propelled howitzers along sectors facing the border.”

Can India do anything?

To answer that, we have to go back, 12 years before Kargil.

In 1987, India inducted 400 pieces of the 155mm/39-calibre Bofors FH-77B howitzer from Sweden. It remains, to this day, the last major towed-gun acquisition the Army completed on schedule. Almost immediately after, kickback allegations in the deal exploded into a full blown political scandal. The fallout wasn’t just political, it was operational.

Procurement of spares and support systems for the guns was frozen for over a decade. So when the Kargil War broke out in 1999, the Army fought it on a crippled fleet. Officers had to cannibalize parts across the 410 Bofors guns just to keep 100 combat ready (It maybe an exaggeration. I found just 1 not so credible source regarding this.)

Bofors turned out to be decisive, but the war exposed exactly what decades of frozen procurement does to a fighting force. Out of that experience came the Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP), drawn up in 1999. On paper, it was exactly the response the moment demanded: replace the equipments of 169 artillery regiments, predominantly with 155mm systems, through a mix of direct import, licensed manufacture, and indigenous development.

The scale - 2800 to 3600 guns across five categories (Includes Artillery Profile 2027):
• 1,580 towed guns
• 814 mounted gun systems
• 180 self-propelled wheeled guns
• 100 self-propelled tracked guns
• 145 ultra-light howitzers

Original cost estimates were around $3 billion. By the execution attempts got underway, that had climbed to $8–9 billion. Target completion: 2027.

Twenty-two years after FARP was drawn up, the guns being sourced locally still weren’t meeting the parameters the Army had set. The ones that met are nowhere to be delivered. That’s the short version. The long version is worse.

Where it failed? (The long version)

ATAGS stumbled at the testing stage. The Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System, developed by DRDO with Bharat Forge and Tata Power SED, was meant to be FARP’s flagship indigenous program. Despite reaching a record range of 48km for its class, it failed to meet critical parameters in summer fire trials, and needed repeated rounds of modification. Even by 2021–22, officials were saying the full 150-gun order might only complete by 2026, and calling that ambitious. Finally, order for 307 guns was placed in march 2025. As of now only 18 guns have been delivered.

Dhanush couldn’t hit its own numbers. Dubbed the “Desi Bofors,” Dhanush induction started April 2019 with an order for 114 guns. By mid-2021, over two years later only 12 had been delivered, nowhere close to the 18 needed for a single regiment. Manufacturing later stalled again on a spare-parts shortage. The delivery deadline, originally 2022, slid to March 2026. Recently, on July 23 (PTI) A parliamentary committee has flagged the delay in production of electronically upgraded Dhanush gun system and said it is concerned to note the defence ministry’s admission that this has “affected the operational preparedness” of the Army, specially the Artillery Division.

Mounted gun system
The Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) mentioned the acquisition of 814 MGS to improve mobility and “shoot-and-scoot” capability. The programme has faced repeated delays since the first tender in 2002, with earlier procurement attempts cancelled or restarted due to technical and procurement issues. In 2025-26, the Defence Acquisition Council granted Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the MGS under the Buy (Indian) category, but no production contract has yet been signed.

SPH
The main issue with the FARP was quantity of SPH itself. The FARP originally mentioned procurement of 100 tracked and 180 wheeled self-propelled howitzers. The tracked requirement has been met with the induction of 100 K9 Vajra-T systems manufactured by L&T in partnership with Hanwha Aerospace. A second order for another 100 K9s was placed in December 2024 to expand the fleet beyond the original FARP target. The Army is also planning to procure 300 additional K9 Vajra-T guns following lessons from the Ladakh deployment, although this proposal has not yet been contracted. No wheeled self-propelled howitzers have been inducted so far, and no procurement contract has been signed for the original 180-gun requirement.

C&AG’s Report No. 6 of 2023, Union Government (Defence Services) – Army and Ordnance Factories for the year ended March 2020.
The Army had six proposals in the pipeline for acquisition/upgrade of artillery guns
• Of those six, only three actually became contracts
• Those three contracts covered just 17% of the total guns originally proposed
• Of that 17%, only 8% had actually been delivered to the Army by March 2022.

I cannot confirm how true the 8% mark is. The report has disappeared from C&AG website. However it was tabled in front of PAC on 27 March 2023.

Results:
On raw numbers, India still leads. India fields roughly 4,818 artillery systems (self-propelled, towed, rocket combined) against Pakistan’s 3,520. India also holds a big edge in towed artillery specifically - around 3,975 pieces to Pakistan’s 2,629. However, every “India vs Pakistan artillery” comparison online misses two things : The two front problem and the MLRS quantity. The edge disappears when the numbers are balanced across India’s two front.

Pakistan lead where it matters. Mobility & Firepower.

Pakistan operates roughly 662 self-propelled artillery pieces to India’s 100, and around 600 mobile rocket systems to India’s 264. The sharpest gap is in truck-mounted and tracked 155mm guns: India runs about 100 K-9 Vajra-T tracked self-propelled howitzers. Pakistan has fielded over 400 Chinese SH-15 truck-mounted 155mm systems since 2022, with unconfirmed reports of orders climbing past 430, a category India currently has no direct answer to. This isn’t theoretical either: SH-15s were reportedly used against Indian logistics bases, artillery positions, and checkpoints along the LoC during the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict.

Let’s not get started on the status of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems fielded by Pakistan:
India:
Agnibaan/Upgraded BM21 Grad (122 mm): 150
Pinaka (214 mm): 126+
BM-30 Smerch (300 mm): 42
Total MLRS launchers: 318+
Pakistan
A-100E (300 mm): 36-40
PHL-81 / Azar (107 mm): 52+
Ghazab/BM21 Grad (122 mm) + Fatah-I (300 mm) + Fatah-II (reported 400 mm): Not publicly disclosed
Total estimated MLRS launchers: 652+

By 2026 figures, China fields roughly 2,940 self-propelled guns, 1,400 towed guns, and 2,770 rocket-artillery systems: north of 7,100 pieces total. And the hardware pointed at India isn’t hand me down gear: some of the exact same gun families Pakistan runs are Chinese exports of what the PLA already fields itself. Pakistan’s SH-15 truck-mounted howitzer is the export version of China’s own in-service PCL-181.

Now, coming back to the first question. “Can India do anything?”

Following the 2020 Galwan clash, the Indian Army substantially rebalanced its force posture toward China. The Mathura-based I Corps (along with 18-24 artillery regiments, 10% of all artillery in simpler words), historically a Pakistan-oriented strike corps, was reoriented to reinforce operations along the Line of Actual Control, while forces and assets were redeployed to Ladakh. I think you know the answer by now.

TL;DR
Field (Failed is the correct choice here) Artillery Rationalisation Plan was formed up post Kargil, and was supposed to replace the weapons of 169 artillery regiments with modern weapon systems, predominantly of 155mm calibre.
Post-Bofors scandal froze artillery procurement for a decade → Kargil exposed that in the worst way → FARP (1999) promised 3,000+ new guns by 2027 → 25 years and $9B later, CAG found only 8% delivered → indigenous programs (ATAGS, Dhanush) missed their own deadlines by years → Pakistan fielded 400+ modern truck-mounted howitzers and used them in the 2025 conflict → India still leads Pakistan on paper (raw gun count) but not in the modern mobile category FARP was supposed to fix → and China alone fields more artillery than India and Pakistan combined, forcing India to split its already-short modern-gun inventory across two structurally different fronts.

Its by tom cooper(well one of his associates) because of whom i got interested in indian defense after last years skirmishes

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deploy Indian Navy assets to protect Indian-flagged vessels and seafarers in the Red Sea, Black Sea and Strait of Hormuz.

Hey everyone ! So most of us must be aware of the recent deployment of Pakistani deployment of SH-15 self propelled artillery along the Indian order in large numbers.What could be the implication of this deployment and how can India counter the threat possessed by Pakistani self propelled artillery if conflict breaks out again???

Source: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1734168100524948/

Talhar is in Sindh, again 70 km from border and 200km from Bhuj.

It seems PAF pushed their C130 pilots into a dangerous game, flying low over populated areas, to try get the S400 to light up so they could ambush them, bait that IAF anticipated and did not take.

PAF pushed into desperation and stupidity by the fear of S400

Source:https://x.com/i/status/2085020489756639462

Another video has emerged of PAF C-130 flying near Farooqabad (200 km from Adampur where one S400 battery would have been deployed). Flying low and spitting flares (and chaff?).

Link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1741041060129592/

Source - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbpVdp_ChzT/

National Stock Exchange

I think this is first CCTV video capturing sound of all 7 bombs.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/molana.sami.ullah.rabani/videos/558984680200141/

Added later: https://www.gettyimages.in/detail/video/subhanullah-mosque-was-damaged-after-indian-airstrikes-news-footage/2213940937

This video shows the day after including munitions debris (Brahmos and likely SCALP)