Vehicle Factory Jabalpur

Vehicle Factory Jabalpur

Company type	Defence Vehicles Manufacturer
Industry	Defence
Founded	1969; 55 years ago (1969)
Key people	Ashok Gupta, IOFS (Chief General Manager)
Products	Military vehicles
Number of employees	2,600
Parent	Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (current) Ordnance Factories Board (former)

Vehicle Factory Jabalpur (Hindi: वाहन निर्माणी जबलपुर), is a military motor vehicle factory, located in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, part of Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited which was previously a part of Ordnance Factory Board, controlled by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.^[1]

History

The production of Shaktiman trucks (MAN 415 L1 AR), Jonga (Jabalpur Ordnance and Guncarriage Assembly) Light Utility Vehicles and the Vahan 1 ton (Nissan 4W73 Carrier), began at the Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur, in 1959.^[2] Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, was present to witness rolling out of the first batch of vehicles at GCF. It was shifted to the present location in 1969.^[3] It started manufacturing Shaktiman trucks with license from MAN SE of Germany, ^[4] along with Jonga^[5][6] and Vahan 1 ton under license from Nissan of Japan.^[7] All three of the above products have been retired and replaced by the new products.^[8]

Products

VFJ manufactures and assembles general staff vehicles, logistics vehicles, light armoured vehicles like bullet-proof vehicles, mine protected vehicles^[9] and specialist role vehicles such as rocket launchers, self-propelled howitzers, water bowsers, fuel tankers, field ambulances, tippers, battery command posts, generator sets, light recovery vehicles, field artillery tractors, kitchen containers etc. It also has some variants for civilian applications.

Gallery

• Past products and their variants
• 
  Matang Truck for the Indian Army
• 
  Jonga mounted with 105 mm RCL guns which destroyed most of the tanks during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars
• 
  Jabalpur Vehicle Factory (VFJ )'s Tipper on Shaktiman; India's first 3-way tipper was built on the Shaktiman platform

• Present products and their variants
• 
  Stallion Mark I, now being replaced by Stallion Mark IV
• 
  5000 Litres Water Bowser
• 
  2000 Litres Water Bowser on LPTA
• 
  LPTA 715
• 
  4X4 Mine Protected Vehicle, also in 6X6 configuration, with RCWS, recce and recovery variants
• 
  4X4 Bullet Proof Vehicle
• 
  LPTA Armoured variant
• 
  4X4 Riot Control Vehicle
• 
  Integrated Communication Electronic Warfare System
• 
  Nuclear Biological Chemical Water Purification System
• 
  Mobile Base Transceiver Station
• 
  LPTA Field Ambulance

• Future products and their variants
• 
  6X6 multi-barrel rocket launcher, soon to be produced
• 
  VFJ-GCF 105 mm Truck-mounted Self-Propelled Gun System, in 6X6 and 4X4 configurations
• 
  VFJ-GCF Sharang Towed Gun
• 
  Flyer Internally-Transportable Vehicle (ITV), Light Strike Vehicle (LSV)
• 
  6X6 Dhanush Field artillery tractor
• 
  VFJ-GCF 8X8 155 mm Truck-mounted Self-Propelled Gun System
• 
  High Mobility Vehicle Launching Platform for Smerch Rockets, the same used for Pinaka

Technology

VFJ has an R&D centre responsible for development of future vehicles and related technologies. It has tie-ups with Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors. Its research partner is Vehicle Research & Development Establishment of Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Customers

Since VFJ produces defence vehicles, its primary customers are the Indian Armed Forces, Central Armed Police Forces,^[10] State Armed Police Forces, Paramilitary Forces of India and Special Forces of India, which have land-based operations. It also supplies vehicles to civilians, government and private organisations.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vehicle Factory Jabalpur.