Minister of State Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh revealed in the parliament that the government is closely monitoring the Arjun Tank AUCRT trials. This comes shortly after the talk of sabotage of Arjun Tanks during the winter trials. As per an unbelievable Indian Army report to parliament showed defects in Arjun Tank that virtually means that the entire tank is faulty. This led to the assumption that sabotage is suspected.
As per the Army the defects are Failure of power packs, Low accuracy and consistency, Failure of Hydropneumatic Suspension Units, Shearing of Top Rollers, Chipping of Gun Barrels. If there is a sabotage from within the army and this kind of report was presented to the parliament, it means some one bit more than he can chew. For example the engine failure claim has not been believed by any one and the cause was said to be the gear box.
The manner in which the Army scuttled the comparison trials between T-90S tank and Arjun Tank and then bringing out unbelievable claims during internal trials has also added to the feeling that sabotage has taken place.
Earlier the Arjun Tank trials used to take place away from the prying eyes of media and routine statements of Arjun Tank failure were leaked by unammed Indian Army sources to some selected media. This time some section of the media has been active and brought out the truth to the general public. later more unnamed sources from Indian Army told media that the “sabotage theory” was wrong.
The minister said that the manufacture of Arjun tank is being regularly monitored through Working Group headed by Director General Mechanised Forces and Steering Committee under the co-chairmanship of Secretary (Defence Production) and Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri.
