As a result of the effectiveness of the Russian-supplied towed 130 mm Field Gun M-46 in the Indo-Pakistan conflicts, the Indian Army mounted some on Vijayanta tank chassis (originally the Vickers MBT). The conversion is now in Indian Army service, which originally had a fleet of about 2,200 Vijayanta MBTs and about 750 130 mm M-46 guns. The Vijayanta tank has now started to be phased out of Indian Army service.

The 130 mm gun has a range of 27,150 m and fires an HE projectile weighing 33.4 kg with a muzzle velocity of 930 m/s. It can also fire an APHE projectile weighing 33.6 kg, also at a muzzle velocity of 930 m/s, which can penetrate 230 mm of conventional steel armour at an incidence of 0° at a range of 1,000 m.

It would appear that the Vijayanta/130 mm M-46 combination can carry 30 rounds of separate loading ammunition. It is known to the Indian Army as 'Catapult'.

The latest information available indicates that a total of 170 Catapult systems were built of which 100 are operational and the remainder are in reserve. Some have recently been observed fitted with a horizontal shield over the gun and crew compartments to provide protection against top attack weapons. Some sources have quoted a much lower figure of only 20 mm Catapult 130 mm self-propelled artillery systems in service. It is also reported that India has a small quantity of Russian 152 mm 2S19 self-propelled artillery systems in service.

Production complete. In service with the Indian Army. This is expected to be replaced by a new 155 mm/52 calibre self-propelled gun which has still to be selected. It could well be a mixture of tracked and wheeled systems.