Five hundred Arjun Tank orders needed for project break even
Unfazed by tantrums thrown by certain Indian Army officials, Indian defence establishment is looking forward minimum orders for 500 Arjun Tanks for project break even. Since the recent Summer trials were successful with DRDO outsmarting elements in Indian Army by placing a black box inside the tank to evade sabotage. The winter trials showed that the rest of the Indian Defence Establishment not agreeing with the Army reports on the Arjun Tanks.
Some of the state-of-the-art technologies incorporated in the ‘Arjun’ are modern integrated fire control system with Fire Control Computer and MRS, Hydro-pneumatic suspension, Kanchan Armour, highly lethal and accurate FSAPDS ammunition and NBC protection.
The latest immature delay tactics used by the Indian Army elements by organising a conference of Future Main battle Tank is not going to last long. MBT Arjun is strategically a very competent armoured vehicle. It has an excellent weight to power ratio, good mobility and very accurate firepower, which confirm to the QRs as laid down by the Army. It compares excellently with all the heavy class of tanks available across the world. It can be effectively deployed in most of the border areas of our country.
Five phases of accelerated user cum reliability trials (AUCRT) of MBT Arjun have been completed. Two tanks have covered more than 5000 km and fired 500 EFC each both in winter, and summer of 2008 at Pokhran and MFFR ranges Rajasthan. Initial so called troubles in transmission and firing have been overcome in the last two phases successfully and the performance and reliability of the tanks are very satisfactory. Of course, the Army is sitting on the report.
Army had cleared MBT Arjun for production and has placed an indent on 30 March 2000 for manufacture of 124 Arjun tanks, by 2009 for 2 Regiments. Bulk production of MBT Arjun has already commenced. First batch of five Arjun production tanks manufactured at Heavy Vehicle Factory (HVF), Avadi were handed over by RM to COAS at HVF on 07 Aug 2004. Till date a total of 64 tanks have already been developed at the Defence PSU and 14 have been delivered for evaluation. The remaining 60 would be delivered by 2009.
Teething problems during the process of productionisation are inevitable. The process of TOT for the MBT will mature and stabilize only after 200 to 300 tanks have been actually produced by the production agency. Hence, the project needs to have patronage from the government and Army in terms of more orders for MBT-Arjun. If elements in army manage to scuttle further orders for Arjun, India cannot even amortize the infrastructural investments made by the government for its productionisation, thereby resulting in wasteful expenditure. The Army should place orders for additional 300 tanks before the project can break even.
DRDO is working on the development of the futuristic Mark II MBT with suitable technological upgrades, which can be introduced later after completion of production of atleast 500 tanks of the present version. DRDO has tacit knowledge in this area of Combat Vehicle Engineering and possesses full competence in developing futuristic combat vehicles. Any battle tank has a service life of 30 years and goes through technology up gradation progressively. Since MBT-Arjun is an indigenous tank it is all the more easier to bring upgrades and in our opinion the MBT-Arjun will be a viable platform for the futuristic use as well.
The major imported systems in the tank are the powerpack and gun control system from Germany and Delft-SAGEM gunner’s main sight from OIP Belgium. The percentage of import content is 60% in the first lot of 124 tanks to be productionised, which will be reduced to under 45% with the manufacture of first 200 tanks and under 30% with the manufacture of about 500 tanks.
T-90S and MBT Arjun tanks are of different class. Both the tanks have their own special features. In MBT Arjun, we have more power to weight ratio, hydro-pneumatic suspension for better ride comfort and a stable platform to fire on the move, better quality class of Gun Control System and Fire Control System etc. Missile firing capability of Arjun was demonstrated. T-90S tank has missile firing capability and lower silhouette. Tanks of both the class are required by the Indian Army.
The present cost of MBT Arjun is Rs.16.80 crore and the cost of T-90 is around Rs.12.00 crore. The cost of Arjun compares favourably with contemporary Western MBTs of its class, costing in the range of Rs 17 to 24 crores. The T-90 with future upgrades is expected to cost similar to Arjun Mark II and long term maintenance and upkeep of Arjun Tank is expected to be lower since Indian component and sourcing costs will be lower. The Transfer of Technology of T-90S tanks are also under cloud as Russians have not transfered the critical technologies.
The most important feature of Arjun Tank is crew protection due to kanchan Armour. Though protection wise bit better than T-72, the Crew in T-90S tank directly sits over the ammunition making it a death trap for Indian Army personnel in case of being hit and penetrated.
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