Kalyani AM General partnership pitches MArG gun to world armies

The Kalyani AM General partnership announced at Eurosatory 2026 puts an Indian designed mounted artillery gun in front of armies across the world. Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited, the defence arm of Bharat Forge, signed the agreement with American military vehicle maker AM General at the Paris defence exposition on 18 June.

The aim is narrow and clear. A compact, mobile, survivable 155mm gun that can be moved fast and fired from a truck instead of a towed carriage, built for armies that no longer want to be pinned to static gun positions.

What the Kalyani AM General partnership covers

The arrangement sets the KSSL mounted gun up as an exportable product for partner nations that want modern 155mm fires on a mobile platform. Both companies pitched it at armies fighting in a changing combat picture, where weight, speed and all weather readiness decide whether a gun reaches its firing point in time. They see openings in several markets and intend to move the platform through allied distribution, selling it as a scalable solution rather than a one off.

AM General supplies the reach. The firm sells into more than seventy countries, builds the HUMVEE and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle A2, carries six decades of defence and automotive work behind it, and now holds the patented soft recoil technology that sits at the centre of this gun.

KSSL supplies the gun.

Inside the MArG system

The MArG carries a 52 calibre 155mm cannon paired with a patented Soft Recoil Technology recoil mitigation system, an automated load assist and an all weather fire control suite that handles both indirect and direct fire. It pushes a standard high explosive projectile beyond 40 kilometres and carries more than twenty projectiles and propellant charges on board.

Recoil that buys weight

The recoil system is what makes the rest of the design work. By soaking up far more recoil force than a conventional gun, it lets the engineers fit a lighter vehicle and a lighter turret and put less shock through the whole weapon across its service life. KSSL matches that with a purpose built powerpack, tuned suspension and a lower gross vehicle weight, and says the package is what gives the gun its strategic transportability and tactical mobility.

The full MArG range was on display at the same show, where KSSL laid out the family across calibres and also rolled out its Simha 4x4 armoured vehicle for the export crowd.

A line into the US Army

The partnership opens an American door at the same time. AM General has filed a proposal with the United States government to join the US Army Mobile Tactical Cannon programme, offering a 155mm cannon built on the mature MArG architecture. If the bid clears, delivery is planned for 2027.

That would route an Indian designed artillery platform straight into a United States Army competition. The two firms first moved this way in 2024, when KSSL, AM General and the Mandus Group agreed to explore co developing 105mm and 155mm next generation guns for world markets, a push built around lighter platforms with sharper firepower, precision strike and tactical mobility, and timed to the tenth anniversary of the Make in India programme.

What the principals said

Amit Kalyani, vice chairman and joint managing director of Bharat Forge, said the tie up rested on the American firm's confidence in Indian artillery work. "Our partnership with AM General is underscored by trust in our advanced artillery capabilities, and confidence in our commitment to delivering leading-edge and combat-proven solutions that meet modern warfare requirements," he said.

John Chadbourne, AM General's president and chief executive, framed it around allied supply. He said working with KSSL marked a shared commitment to support allies and, in the end, the warfighter, and that folding soft recoil technology into mature platforms would put groundbreaking capability on the battlefield.

KSSL's export push

KSSL has been working artillery into export markets for a few years now, and the Kalyani AM General partnership widens that effort. The push comes during a record year for Indian defence production. The company calls itself a sovereign capability provider across land, marine and unmanned domains, drawing on more than six decades of metallurgy and manufacturing, and lists artillery, armoured vehicles, small arms, ammunition and unmanned systems in its catalogue. It also sells technology partnerships that let buyer nations stand up their own production lines and through life support.

Its artillery record already runs to towed and mounted guns shipped to foreign buyers, with the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System among the better known products in the stable. The 155mm mounted gun now anchors the pitch abroad.

AM General runs its main plants in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and leans on a supplier base spread across 46 American states.