Ultra Light artillery guns like the M777 are urgently required to give teeth and firepower to Indian Army formations deployed along long disputed Himalayan boundaries with China and Pakistan. It is central to arming India's new Mountain Strike Corps, with which India hopes to deter China. This artillery gun is made of titanium, which drastically reduces its weight as compared to other artillery guns, and enables it to be carried in aircraft to distant mountainous posts.
India has an initial requirement of 145 ultra-light howitzers, and the total requirement is expected to be about 450 guns. The US has offered the sale of 145 M777 guns "Made in India" at a cost of about $ 750 million.
This deal had stalled last year due to issues over price and offsets (countertrade obligations on the US). It was then offered as a direct import under a Government-to-Government sale under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.
The US and the owners of the M777 manufacturing company, British Aerospace Systems have re-opened dialogue with India and changed their offsets offer to make it complaint with Indian requirements. The price has also been pegged at about $150 million lower than what was previously understood.
In its fresh bid to revive the deal ahead of the Obama visit, the US has sweetened the deal by offering to shift the assembly line of the gun to India If India says yes to this deal, the M777 will be the first new artillery gun to be bought by India after the Bofors guns in the tainted 1986 deal. This will also significantly ramp up Indian capability to make modern artillery guns. Lack of artillery firepower is a big gap in the Indian Army capability