Na, he just mentioned it differently.
With the turret like system and full autoloading, drdo mgs will exceed 35 tons in weight, closer to 40 tons.
As Said before army doesn't want to sacrifice in range( mountains) or increase in weight(mountains).
Now we can also use Excalibur rounds for more increased range, but they are more expensive rounds in very limited quantity and army is not willing to increase their usage to more mainstay.
The auto loader of mgs that hold 6 rounds is the best compromise for our needs, In shoot and scoot mode you won't be firing more than 6 rounds too.
It's generally 3 rounds that are Fired in shoot and scoot mode, but can differ case by case.
In shoot and scoots, crew of mgs does not need to leave the armoured cabin, just like archer.
But archer holds total 21 rounds, all Inside it's turret that can be autoloaded.
Drdo mgs holds 24 rounds, out of which 6 are in autoloader, 18 are stored which needs manual loading( with the help of attached crane) to load into autoloader after 6 rounds are used.
Drdo mgs needs, 3-4 minutes to setup, fire 3 rounds, retract the gun, leave.
4-5 minutes In case of 6 rounds fired.
Archer needs 1.5-2.5 minutes for same 3 rounds.
2-3 minutes for 6 rounds.
Where drdo mgs will be significantly slow is if it needs to be used in short duration sustained fire, crew will need to come out to load the autoloader, but it will be as slow as normal towed artillary guns.
Archer in short duration sustained fire will be faster by miles until it empties its 21 rounds magazine.
Another advantage of archer is less in-between time between 3-7 different location for shoot and scoot, as all 21 rounds are in autoloader.
While in drdo mgs, crew will take minutes to load 6 rounds in its autoloader between two locations for shoot and scoot.
But again, both hold limited ammo of 21 and 24 rounds, and will need to move back to base reload them frequently.
Both will take 10-15 minutes to reload full magazine.
Also archer like fully automated turret will be lot more expensive.
Full his comment about tracked sph and auto turret, we locally produce k9vajra and it weighs ~50tons.
@Hawkeye
