A year after Operation Sindoor that saw precision strikes effectively targeting military and sites and terrorist camps in Pakistan, the Army is moving to automate and integrate all operational aspects of kinetic strikes involving land-based artillery systems from observation, target acquisition, planning, delivery and post-strike damage assessment through an indigenously developed unified control and coordination system.
Referred to as Land Vectors Control and Coordination System (LVCCS) for control and coordination of fire by all land based ‘vectors’ or weapons of the Indian Army, the system is being developed as a customised application at the regiment that can also be integrated with the Army’s existing Battle Field Surveillance System.
During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, the artillery had played a crucial role in neutralising targets across the border in the Jammu and Kashmir sector by employing the M-777 ultra-light howitzers that fired precision guided munitions. It was the first time that a specialist artillery regiment was air mobilised for deployment in a war-like situation, which was done in utter secrecy.
The Commanding Officer of 302 Medium Regiment, Col Koshank Lamba, and the Officer Commanding 1988 (Independent) Medium Battery, Lt Col Sushil Bisht, were decorated with the Vir Chakra for effective planning and deployment of their guns and ensuring complete destruction of the enemy.
LVCCS will also be incorporated seamlessly with the national Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence and Interoperability (C4I2) grid, an overarching architecture for coordinating and executing operations across all operational domains in the three services.
The major functions envisaged by LVCCS include technical control to deliver fire from vectors like missiles, rockets, guns, howitzer, mortars and loitering munitions quickly and accurately when and where it is required and tactical control to achieve optimum utilisation of resources, resulting in higher efficiency in degrading the enemy’s combat potential. Integrated planning, deployment management to achieve maximal impact in critical areas, operational logistics and data management are other functional aspects.
LVCCS will ensure the passage of fire direction and control orders from the fire control elements to the regiment command post and their subsequent corrections is required and follow-on actions, and fire planning at the theatre Level to prepare and execute offensive and defensive fire plans and allow flexibility in fire delivery with modifications.
It will pick up target details from all acquisition sources including battlefield surveillance systems, observation post drones and control systems like the Command Information and Decision Support Systems (CIDSS). Direction of artillery fire should also be possible on targets indicated by non-artillery systems.
