Why in the News?

• The Union Home Ministry has said that from January 1, 2027, procedures related to investigations and trials under the new criminal laws will be recorded digitally through the Interoperable Criminal Justice System.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• ICJS (Meaning, Objectives, Digital Push, etc.)
• News Summary

Interoperable Criminal Justice System

• The Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is a national digital platform designed to connect the key pillars of the criminal justice system on a single network. It seeks to integrate:

• Police
• Courts
• Prisons
• Forensic laboratories
• Prosecution

• The objective is to create an end-to-end digital workflow so that criminal cases can move more efficiently from FIR registration to investigation, chargesheet filing, trial, and final disposal.
• The data under this system is being stored on MeghRaj, the Government of India’s cloud platform.
• This digital push has gained importance after the implementation of the three new criminal laws on July 1, 2024:

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) replacing the Indian Penal Code
• Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure
• Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita (BSS) replacing the Indian Evidence Act

• These new laws require stronger digital systems, better forensic support, and smoother coordination among institutions.

News Summary

• The Union Home Ministry has indicated that India’s criminal justice system is moving toward a full digital rollout by January 1, 2027, when procedures related to all investigations and trials under the new criminal laws are expected to be recorded digitally.
• A senior official said the nationwide implementation of ICJS is nearing completion, but the available data also reveal major gaps in actual performance.

FIR Transmission Still Weak

• Data maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that only 46% of FIRs were digitally transmitted to courts.
• This process, called FIR consumption by courts, reflects whether cases are electronically shared and received by the judicial system.
• Since this is less than half of all registered cases, it shows that the digital chain remains incomplete.

Large Number of Cases Under New Laws

• Since the new laws came into effect:

• 74.66 lakh FIRs have been filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)
• 63,572 zero-FIRs have been registered under the BNSS

• Zero-FIRs are complaints that can be filed regardless of jurisdiction, and later transferred to the police station concerned.
• Of these, around 13,000 were filed in different districts of the same state and classified as intra-state transfers.
• The Home Ministry official clarified that police cannot refuse to register a zero-FIR.
• Once registered, the concerned police station can decide whether to close the case after inquiry or continue with investigation.

Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems

• FIRs are being filed through the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems (CCTNS) platform, which operates across 16,000 police stations.
• The platform allows case registration in 23 languages, and the Bhashini App can translate zero-FIRs into the language used in the jurisdiction where the case is transferred.
• State-Level Progress
  • Of the 36 States and Union Territories Haryana, Goa, Assam, Punjab and Chandigarh have implemented all parameters of the criminal justice digitisation system.
  • In addition, 23 States and UTs, including Delhi, are above the national average.
  • The official noted that some northeastern States are lagging mainly because of connectivity issues.

Forensic Expansion

• The new criminal laws make forensic examination of crime scenes mandatory in offences punishable with seven years or more. To support this:

• The number of forensic laboratories increased from 129 in 2023 to 154 in 2025
• 25 new forensic laboratories were added in two years
• More than 700 mobile forensic units have been deployed

• The numbers also show rising forensic demand:

• In 2023, forensic labs received 8,44,589 cases, with 4,64,879 pending
• In 2025, cases received rose to 11,11,798, with 3,90,786 pending

• This means capacity has improved, but demand on forensic systems is also growing rapidly.

Improvement in National Implementation Score

• The national implementation score under the new laws increased from:

• 46.47% in January 2025
• To 70.06% in June 2026

• Other improvements include:

• 60-day chargesheet compliance rising from about 51% to 67%
• 90-day chargesheet compliance rising from about 40% to 61%
• 46.5 lakh digital evidence (Sakshya) IDs generated
• 56.74 lakh e-summons served

Size of the National Police Database

• As of May 31, 2026, the national police database held 37.68 crore police records, including 9.9 crore FIRs & 7.64 crore chargesheets.
• These records can be accessed by police and investigating agencies, making the system a major national repository of criminal justice data.

Key Challenges Ahead

• Improving internet connectivity, especially in remote and north-eastern regions
• Standardising processes across states and UTs
• Ensuring full interoperability among police, court, prison, prosecution, and forensic systems
• Training personnel to work with digital platforms effectively

Significance

• This digital transition is significant because it aims to replace fragmented, paper-based procedures with an integrated, real-time criminal justice process. If implemented properly, it could:

• Speed up investigations
• Reduce delays in chargesheets and trials
• Improve evidence handling
• Strengthen coordination among justice institutions
• Make the system more transparent and traceable

• At the same time, the low FIR transmission rate and uneven implementation across states show that the digital transition is still incomplete.
• The real test will be whether the system becomes genuinely interoperable and reliable in everyday practice, not just in design.

Why in News?

• The RBI released its latest Financial Stability Report (FSR), highlighting that geopolitical fragmentation and rapid advances in AI are emerging as the two most significant forces reshaping the global economy and financial system.
• The report also underscores the resilience of India's banking sector despite an uncertain global environment.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Financial Stability Report (FSR)
• Key Global Risks Identified by Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
• India's Macro-Financial Resilience
• Health of India's Banking and Financial Sector
• Trends in Asset Quality
• Growth Outlook and Broader Vision
• Conclusion

Financial Stability Report (FSR):

• It is a comprehensive biannual publication released by the RBI since 2010.
• It evaluates the overall health, resilience, and potential risks within the Indian financial system, by compiling insights from the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) subcommittee.
  • Founded in 2010 to improve financial stability mechanisms, FSDC is the Ministry of Finance's apex non-statutory body, chaired by the Union Finance Minister.
  • The RBI Governor chairs the FSDC Subcommittee, which discusses systemic risks and provides inputs to FSR.
• It acts as an early-warning system to identify systemic issues before they escalate into crises.
• It provides a trusted baseline metric to gauge the stability of India’s banking, insurance, and non-banking (NBFC) sectors.

Key Global Risks Identified by Reserve Bank of India (RBI):

• Geopolitical fragmentation:
  • Rising geopolitical conflicts and fragmentation have increased the risk of adverse external shocks.
  • These developments pose significant challenges for policymakers by affecting the global trade and investment flows, supply chains, and financial market stability.
• Technological disruption through AI:
  • Rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are transforming economic activity and financial systems.
  • While AI promises productivity gains and long-term growth, it also introduces uncertainties regarding employment, financial markets and regulatory oversight.
• Global financial stability concerns: The RBI identified several vulnerabilities that could amplify future crises:
  • Persistently high public debt across major economies.
  • Fragile global bond markets.
  • Elevated asset valuations.
  • Expanding role of leveraged non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs).
  • Possibility of advanced economy central banks maintaining a hawkish monetary policy due to inflation, leading to tighter global financial conditions.

India's Macro-Financial Resilience:

• The RBI observed that the Indian economy has remained resilient despite significant external shocks because of:
  • Strong economic growth.
  • Moderating inflation.
  • Healthy balance sheets of financial and non-financial firms.
  • Adequate capital and liquidity buffers.
• The central bank reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening institutional safeguards to protect the economy from future domestic and external risks.

Health of India's Banking and Financial Sector:

• Improvement in asset quality:
  • The Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio of banks declined to a multi-decadal low of 1.8% in March 2026.
  • Improvement was broad-based across the Public Sector Banks (PSBs), private sector banks, and other banking groups.
• Future stress assessment: Stress tests suggest -
  • Baseline scenario: GNPA may rise marginally from 1.8% (March 2026) to 1.9% (March 2028).
  • Adverse scenarios: GNPA could increase to 3.8%–4.1%, indicating resilience even under severe stress.
• Strong financial institutions:
  • According to the RBI, banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) maintain strong capital adequacy, comfortable liquidity, healthy profitability, low NPAs, and robust credit growth.
  • Stress tests indicate that the financial sector is well-equipped to absorb adverse shocks.

Trends in Asset Quality:

• Declining loan defaults: The annual slippage ratio declined steadily over the last four financial years to 1.2% in FY 2025-26, reflecting reduced fresh NPAs, especially among public and private sector banks.
• Sector-wise performance: Credit quality improved across all major sectors. However, agriculture continued to remain the weakest segment despite improvement -
  • GNPA ratio: 5.1% (highest among sectors).
  • Accounted for 37.2% of Scheduled Commercial Banks' total GNPAs.
• Large borrowers:
  • The share of large borrowers in total bank credit increased marginally to 44.5%.
  • However, their asset quality improved significantly, for example, aggregate GNPA ratio declined from 2.4% (September 2024) to 1.2% (March 2026).
  • This indicates better credit management and recovery among large corporate borrowers.

Growth Outlook and Broader Vision:

• Despite global uncertainties and market volatility, the Indian financial markets have functioned in an orderly manner.
• The financial system continues to support investment, credit expansion, and economic growth.
• Globally, despite ongoing geopolitical conflicts and supply-chain disruptions, economic resilience has been aided partly by expectations of AI-driven productivity improvements.
• The RBI emphasized that financial stability extends beyond prudential regulation. Sustained public confidence requires:
  • Fair business conduct.
  • Improved customer experience.
  • Efficient financial services.
  • Greater financial inclusion.
  • A dynamic and resilient financial ecosystem that supports households, businesses and long-term economic growth.

Conclusion:

• The Financial Stability Report (FSR) 2026 portrays India's financial system as fundamentally strong. However, the RBI cautions that the vulnerabilities in international financial markets remain key risks.
• Going forward, strengthening financial resilience while ensuring efficiency, inclusion and consumer confidence will be critical for sustaining India's macro-financial stability.

Context

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a strategic driver of economic growth, national security, and geopolitical influence.
• Countries are increasingly treating frontier AI as a national asset, using industrial and strategic policies to strengthen their global position.
• Although India possesses a globally competitive IT services industry, it lacks indigenous frontier AI models.
• Therefore, its long-term strategy must combine access to global AI technologies with the steady development of domestic capabilities, ensuring both competitiveness and strategic autonomy. 

Global Shift Towards AI Nationalism and India’s Strategic Dilemma

• Global Shift Towards AI Nationalism
  • The United States has restricted foreign access to advanced AI models and is considering greater government involvement in leading AI firms to safeguard technological leadership.
  • Europe has shifted from strict regulation to investing in AI compute and encouraging Buy European procurement, while Argentina is promoting AI investment through a regulatory safe harbour.
  • These developments demonstrate that industrial policy, technological leadership, and national security have become closely interconnected.
• India's Strategic Dilemma
  • India's digital economy depends heavily on foreign frontier AI systems.
  • Indian businesses require access to the best AI models to improve productivity, innovation, and global competitiveness.
  • However, excessive reliance on foreign technologies exposes the country to geopolitical risks, changing international policies, and technological dependence.
  • The solution lies in balancing global integration with domestic capability building rather than viewing globalisation and industrial policy as opposing approaches.
  • The pharmaceutical sector illustrates this reality. Despite the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, India still imports nearly 65% of its critical pharmaceutical ingredients from China.
  • This highlights that resilience is achieved gradually through sustained investment rather than immediate self-reliance.

Building Strategic AI Linkages

• India cannot match the enormous financial resources invested by global AI leaders.
• National research and development (R&D) expenditure remains only 0.6% of GDP, while companies such as OpenAI spend tens of billions of dollars annually on AI infrastructure.
• Instead of attempting to outspend these firms, India should strengthen its backward linkages by securing reliable access to frontier AI technologies while expanding forward linkages through globally competitive AI-enabled products and services.
• A whole-of-government approach is essential. Ministries responsible for external affairs, commerce, information technology, defence, energy, and telecommunications should coordinate policies to align technological development with trade, diplomacy, and national security objectives.

Government and Industry Roles

• Role of Government
  • The government must also reduce risks that private firms cannot manage independently.
  • Models such as export credit guarantees and hybrid-annuity models demonstrate how the state can share geopolitical and long-term investment risks.
  • Similar mechanisms can encourage private investment in AI infrastructure, innovation, and research while protecting firms from disruptions beyond their control.
• Role of Industry
  • Government support alone cannot create global competitiveness. Indian technology companies must prioritise innovation, quality, and the creation of globally successful digital products.
  • Although India remains a leader in IT services, countries such as the Philippines are rapidly increasing technology exports.
  • Furthermore, Indian app developers have yet to establish a significant presence among the world's leading digital platforms.
  • The technology ecosystem also requires a unified strategic vision. Established IT companies often focus on market access, while startups emphasize regulation and fundraising.
  • Despite these different priorities, both share a common interest in maintaining access to global AI ecosystems while strengthening India's domestic technological capabilities.

The Way Forward

• India should pursue a balanced AI strategy based on international partnerships, sustained investment in digital infrastructure, stronger R&D, coordinated policymaking, and greater collaboration between government and industry.
• Building domestic capabilities while remaining deeply integrated with global AI ecosystems will reduce strategic vulnerabilities and improve long-term competitiveness.

Conclusion

• The future of AI competition extends beyond developing the most advanced models; it depends on capturing the economic value and strategic advantages created by AI.
• India's success will require a pragmatic approach that combines global integration, industrial policy, innovation, and resilience.
• By strengthening domestic capabilities while maintaining international cooperation, India can transform AI into a source of sustainable economic resilience, technological leadership, and long-term national development.

Why in news?

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is on her maiden visit to India for the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit.

The two countries are set to strengthen bilateral cooperation and review progress across their Special Strategic and Global Partnership. The visit follows PM Modi's trip to Tokyo in August 2025 for the 15th summit.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• The Summit and Its Agenda
• The Economic Relationship
• The Strategic Logic: A Counterweight to China
• A Unique Feature: Regional and State-Prefecture Ties
• The Evolution of the Partnership
• Critical Areas of Collaboration
• Conclusion

The Summit and Its Agenda

• The India-Japan Annual Summit is a mechanism established in 2006, under which the two prime ministers meet every year, alternating as host.
• During her three-day visit, PM Takaichi is accompanied by a large business delegation, and both leaders will attend business events.
• The summit will let both sides review the full spectrum of bilateral cooperation and exchange views on regional and global issues.
• Japan's foreign ministry framed the visit as focused on trade, investment, and strategic cooperation.

The Economic Relationship

• The economic ties are substantial and growing:
  • Around 1,400 Japanese companies operate in India, nearly half in manufacturing.
  • Bilateral trade reached $27.5 billion in 2025-26.
  • Japanese investment in India rose to $3.2 billion between April and December 2025.
  • Japan is among India's largest investors, backing major projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor.
  • Recent deals include a $1.6 billion investment for a 20% stake in Yes Bank.

The Strategic Logic: A Counterweight to China

• At its core, the partnership provides a strategic and economic counterweight to China's growing dominance in the region.
• The two countries will discuss:
  • Security cooperation and advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific.
  • Their shared membership of the Quad (with the US and Australia), within which they have steadily expanded defence and strategic collaboration.
• Modi and Takaichi had also met earlier at the 52nd G7 Summit in France to discuss economic cooperation.

A Unique Feature: Regional and State-Prefecture Ties

• The relationship rests on eight key pillars: economy, economic security, mobility, environment, technology and innovation, healthcare, people-to-people exchanges, and state-prefecture engagement.
• The state-prefecture cooperation is a distinctive strength:
  • In 2025-26, the Chief Ministers of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh visited Japan; several Japanese prefecture governors visited India.
  • This led to the launch of the India-Japan Governors Network in February 2026.
• The North-East focus: Japan is the only country with which India has a dedicated institutional mechanism for developing the North-East — the India-Japan Act East Forum. The two partner on infrastructure, urban renewal, energy, agriculture, tourism, and skills across the region.
• The strategic idea, as articulated by Japan, is that the North-East is where India's "Act East" policy and Japan's "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" vision meet — a bridge connecting South Asia with Southeast Asia.
• Recent engagements include prefecture delegations visiting Manipur, and an MoU with Meghalaya to skill and employ 5,000 youth.

The Evolution of the Partnership

• India-Japan friendship is rooted in centuries of cultural and civilisational exchange, but has gained sharp focus over the last decade. Its formal evolution:
  • 2000 - Global Partnership;
  • 2006 - Strategic and Global Partnership
  • 2014 - Special Strategic and Global Partnership (Modi–Abe Summit)
• The two countries approach the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027. The bilateral framework now includes over 70 dialogue mechanisms, with regular high-level engagement at the level of Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, NSA, and others.
• Key mechanisms include the 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministers' Meeting, the Foreign Ministers' Strategic Dialogue, the Economic Security Dialogue, and the Act East Forum.

Critical Areas of Collaboration

• Economic security and technology have emerged as central pillars. At the 1st Economic Security Dialogue (Tokyo, November 2024), the two sides identified five priority sectors: semiconductors, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, clean energy, and ICT.
• Key recent agreements:
  • MoC on Mineral Resources (August 2025); first joint working group held virtually in 2026.
  • MoC on Semiconductor Supply Chains (July 2023).
  • Japan-India AI Cooperation Initiative (2025), with the 1st Strategic AI Dialogue held this year.
• Defence cooperation is robust:
  • Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation signed at the August 2025 summit.
  • Bilateral exercises: JAIMEX, Dharma Guardian, Veer Guardian, and Coast Guard drills.
  • Multilateral exercises: MALABAR and MILAN.
  • Defence technology transfer, including the UNICORN Mast (Memorandum of Implementation, November 2024).

Conclusion

The 16th Annual Summit reflects a partnership that has matured well beyond trade into a broad strategic alignment. Its distinctive strengths — the North-East development focus, state-prefecture diplomacy, and cooperation on economic-security frontiers like semiconductors, critical minerals, and AI — set it apart from India's other bilateral ties.

Underpinning it all is a shared strategic purpose: a stable, multipolar Indo-Pacific that balances China's rise. As the two nations near 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2027, the relationship stands as one of India's most reliable and forward-looking partnerships.

Why in news?

White Papers recently released by Kerala and Tamil Nadu — two of India's most socially and economically advanced States — described their outstanding debt as alarming.

This has revived a debate about State finances. State debt is often unfairly dismissed as fiscal mismanagement, when it may instead reflect a mismatch between development aspirations and the limited fiscal capacity of States.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• The Core Fiscal Dilemma
• How States Fund Themselves — and Fall Short?
• Kerala's Spending: Locked Into Day-to-Day Costs
• The Investment Trap
• The China Comparison: A Different Model
• Rethinking State Debt

The Core Fiscal Dilemma

• The heart of the problem lies in a structural imbalance in Indian federalism. Debt builds up over years through deficits — when a government's spending exceeds its tax and other receipts.
• The key mismatch is this: the power to raise taxes rests largely with the Union government, but a larger share of overall public spending is borne by the States.
• Most State expenditure goes to areas that directly touch people's lives:
  • Social sectors — health and education
  • Economic sectors — agriculture and irrigation
• In Kerala, high social-sector spending since the 1960s has been central to its social progress. Comparative per-capita social expenditure (2020–23) shows the divide clearly:
  • 

How States Fund Themselves — and Fall Short

• States meet expenditure through two main channels:
  • Own revenues — mainly State GST (SGST) and sales tax.
  • Union transfers — devolution, grants, and loans.
• Kerala's case illustrates the squeeze. It has a good record of raising own-tax revenue — 1.5 times the all-India per-capita average.
• Yet its share in Union tax devolution was just 1.92%, lower than its 2.6% share of India's population in 2023–24.
• In effect, a State that taxes itself well still receives proportionally less from the centre. The gap between expenditure and receipts is bridged through market borrowings, on which States pay interest.

Kerala's Spending: Locked Into Day-to-Day Costs

• A closer look at Kerala's budget reveals why fiscal space is so tight. Of its limited resources, only about 10% goes to capital expenditure (which builds future productive capacity).
• The rest is revenue (day-to-day) expenditure:
  • ~20% on salaries (mainly teachers, nurses, doctors, police)
  • 15.3% on pensions
  • 16.5% on interest on market borrowings
• With such a large share pre-committed to salaries, pensions, and interest, very little is left to invest in the future.

The Investment Trap

• This traps Kerala in a genuine dilemma:
  • If it cuts revenue expenditure (pensions, employees) to free up money, it risks eroding its hard-won social-sector strengths.
  • But it urgently needs large investments in infrastructure, higher education and research, and public transport to compete in modern, knowledge-intensive sectors.
• The human cost is visible: educated young people are leaving Kerala in large numbers because the State cannot create opportunities matching their aspirations.
• There is also a striking paradox — the government's weak fiscal capacity contrasts with visible private affluence (large houses, expensive cars, dense gold shops), threatening to widen inequality.

The China Comparison: A Different Model

• Analysts contrast India's constraints with China's model of decentralised investment-led growth:
  • In China, provinces and local governments undertake the bulk of growth-boosting investment, borrowing heavily against the country's large domestic savings pool.
  • Their efforts are coordinated through central government planning.
  • They raise resources via local government bonds (LGBs), land sales, and off-budget borrowing through local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), on top of central transfers.
• The cost difference is stark. Chinese local governments borrow from their banking system at roughly 2%, whereas Indian States pay far more.
  • State Development Loans (SDLs) — the securities States issue to borrow from the market — carry interest of about 6.5% to 7.5%.
  • This is 0.25 to 0.75 percentage points higher than the rate at which the Union government itself borrows, and significantly more expensive than the cost Chinese local governments face.
• In other words, Indian States are squeezed twice over: they face both limits on how much they can borrow and a markedly higher cost of debt, which further tightens the noose around their finances.

Rethinking State Debt

• In India, government bonds are mostly bought by domestic institutions like banks and insurance companies. These institutions use the savings that ordinary people deposit with them. So when the government borrows, it is really borrowing from its own citizens.
• Hence, a government that borrows to expand welfare and create opportunities is doing something far more useful than one that refuses to spend at all.
• Against this backdrop, India needs a system that allows State governments to use the country's own savings more easily and at a lower cost, so they can fund well-planned development projects.

About Himayat Sagar Lake:

• It is an artificial lake in Telangana.
• It was built on the Esi River (a tributary of the Musi River) during the rule of the last Nizam of Hyderabad.
• The main objective was to provide drinking water and, at the same time, save the city from floods.
• The construction of the lake was completed in 1927 and was named after Himayat Ali Khan, the son of the last Nizam of Hyderabad.
• It lies parallel to Osman Sagar Lake.
• The Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar reservoirs provide water supply to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. 

About Aldabra Giant Tortoise:

• It is the second-largest species of land tortoise in the world, after the Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra).
• Scientific Name: Geochelone gigantea
• Habitat and Distribution:
  • It is endemic to the Aldabra Atoll of the Seychelles, an archipelago nation in the western Indian Ocean.
  • It  is terrestrial and occurs in a wide variety of habitats, including scrub forests, mangrove swamps, and coastal dunes and beaches, each with their respective vegetation.
  • The largest populations of tortoises are found on grasslands called “platins.”
  • Their heavy grazing has formed a special kind of grassland habitat called “tortoise turf.”
• Features:
  • Males are considerably larger than females and have longer, thicker tails.
  • Their carapace (or upper shell) is highly domed and thick, with a small neck plate that is usually visible, a feature absent in other species of giant tortoises.
  • Lifespan: It is among the longest-living vertebrates, with many individuals living over 100 years and some believed to exceed 150 years.
  • Conservation Status:
  • IUCN Red List: Vulnerable.

About K9 Vajra-T:

• It is a 155 mm, 52-caliber tracked self-propelled artillery system (howitzer).
• It is an Indian adaptation of South Korea's K9 Thunder 155 mm self-propelled howitzer.
• It is built by Larsen & Toubro with technology transferred from South Korean defence major Hanwha Defense based on its K9 Thunder.
• It is customised to suit the requirements of the Indian Army for operations in varied terrains, including deserts, plains, and high-altitude regions.
• Features:
  • It has all-welded steel armour up to 19 mm thick.
  • It is powered by an MTU MT 881 Ka-500 diesel engine producing 1,000 horsepower.
  • The main weapon is the 155mm /52 calibre gun capable of firing high-explosive, smoke, and guided projectiles.
  • It has a burst rate of fire of three rounds per 15 seconds and a maximum rate of fire of six to eight rounds per minute for three minutes.
  • It can strike enemy targets at around 50 kilometres.
  • It can also turn around at zero radius, basically at the same place where it is standing.
  • The K9 uses a digital fire control system by which it can fire multiple rounds that can impact a given area at the same time (this mode of operation is called Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact, or MRSI).