Pakistan stations dozens of Chinese SH-15 self-propelled guns along the India frontier

Pakistan’s armed forces have moved a substantial number of Chinese-origin SH-15 wheeled self-propelled artillery pieces to positions facing India, chiefly in the northern Punjab districts of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Jalalpur Jattan and in the occupied Kashmir region. The 155mm, 52-calibre system—known in China as the PCL-181—was ordered in 2019, with initial deliveries beginning in 2022 and a second batch arriving in 2023, and is now also produced locally under a technology-transfer deal with Heavy Industries Taxila.

These guns, suited to plains and hilly terrain, complement Pakistan’s desert-area M-109 tracked howitzers supplied by the United States. The deployment follows Pakistan’s broader artillery modernisation drive and mirrors India’s parallel effort to standardise its own guns to 155mm, including acquisitions such as the M777, K-9 Vajra, Dhanush and the domestically developed ATAGS.