Indian Army’s claims over Arjun Tank was expected
Indian Army has a new claim against the Arjun Tank. It claims that the engine of the Arjun Tank has failed four times. Before I get into the details further, its necessary that the background of this new claim has to be told.
Last year, Combat Vehicle Research Development Establishment (CVRDE, a unit of Defence Research and Development Organisation) was ready for a comparative trial between Indian Army’s imported T-90S and the license produced T-72 versus the home grown Arjun Tank as asked by army. The Indian Army officials realizing that the national media is scrutinizing the tanks performance, pulled out of the trials and went for a “accelerated usage cum reliability trial” (AUCRT).
The trials are for over 5 months and 5000 kms from November 2007. Out of this 2000 kms have been run in the below 40 degree centigrade (winter) conditions. Rest 3000 kms will be done in the above 40 degree centigrade conditions.
The AUCRT trials are army’s internal trials and hence is out of scrutiny of the media and the third parties. Right from the beginning of the (even before) trials, it was forgone conclusions about the color the Indian Army would give to the Arjun Tanks performance during the trials. Now since the trials were Army’s readiness for inducting Arjun tank, but, being the user, it has the right to comment about the performance of the tank in trials. As was expected this particular loophole seems to have been exploited by some officials. Here is a simple logic, if the Arjun Tank engine has a problem, simply replace it in 40 minutes flat and move on. Rectify the faulty engine and keep it as a stand by. Its very very simple. What actually happened was the transmission had a problem (something related to the ball bearings), which was rectified. The transmission is imported from the finest transmission maker in the world. Mind you, the tank did not stop for the reason, it got a different engine in 40 minutes and moved on. If the same transmission failure had happened in the imported T-90S tank of T-72 tank, it would have been grounded till the repairs were affected. So, Arjun Tank engine failure does not has same meaning as T-90S or T-72 engine failures. This is another loophole that is been used to exaggerate the engine issues of Arjun Tank.
Now the claim it failed 4 times has be be really proved by the concerned Indian Army officials. Four engines changes with just 1000 kms (by each tank) being run is bit too much for a knowledgeable person to digest.
The solution lies in third party auditing. Its high time we the tax payers know the truth.