by Staff Correspondent
IADB: As an important landmark, Economic Explosives Ltd, a Nagpur-based company ceremonially handed over to the Indian Army, the first batch of fully indigenously manufactured hand grenades in the presence of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh at a function in Nagpur recently.
This is the first instance of ammunition being manufactured by any private industry in India. Economics Explosive Ltd. (EEL), a wholly owned subsidiary company of Solar Industries India
Ltd. has already commenced deliveries of modern hand grenades to the Armed Forces last month.
The first consignment of 1 lakh Multi-Mode Hand Grenades (MMHG) has been tested satisfactorily for quality by users and has been further delivered. Meanwhile, to commemorate this landmark occasion, a handing over ceremony was held at EEL’s 2000-acre defence manufacturing facility.
On Tuesday Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was handed over a scale replica of MMHG by S.N. Nuwal, Chairman of EEL to mark the first deliveries of ammunition from the private sector in the presence of Gen. M.M. Naravane, Chief of Army Staff, Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman DRDO and Lt. Gen. A.K. Samantra, D.G. Infantry.
Earlier EEL had signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence on 01 October 2020 to supply one million (10 lakh) modern hand grenades for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force. The deliveries would be spread over two years from the bulk production clearance (BPC), which was accorded to EEL in March 2021.
These new grenades will replace Grenade No 36 of World War I vintage design, which had been continuing in service till date. The MMHGs have a distinctive design giving flexibility of employment in both defensive (fragmentation) and offensive (stun) modes. They have highly accurate delay time, very high reliability in usage and are safe for carriage. These modern grenades were designed by the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory of DRDO.
Economic Explosives Ltd. had taken the technology from DRDO in 2016, absorbed it successfully, while maintaining very high quality in detonics. Extensive trials were successfully undertaken by the Indian Army and DGQA in 2017-18 in plains, deserts and high altitude over summer & winter. The commercial RFP was published by MoD in 2019 and the contract concluded on 01 October 2020.
Thereafter, First of Production Model trials were also carried out in plains, deserts and high altitude on all parameters by Infantry and DGQA. Against a GSQR requirement of 95 % reliability, the grenades manufactured by EEL had highly superior reliability of 99.8%. The success of the MMHG story is further amplified by its usage of 100 % indigenous content.
Over the last decade, Economic Explosives Ltd. has been working tirelessly in the field of emerging technologies for modern munitions and adopting these for production. The company has successfully adopted many indigenous designs for manufacturing munitions. These efforts reflect the vision of EEL which is ‘to emerge as a Global Leader in Military Ammunition & Systems’. The parent company, Solar Industries India Ltd. recently celebrated 25 years of its founding and is headed by Satyanarayan Nuwal, as reported.
