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| ARJUN - MBT Mark-1 |
Arjun MBT has taken several years to develop as a reliable and formidable advanced armoured vehicle for the Indian Army. Experts view it as one of the best contemporary tanks in operation today. Despite this, the army due to its misplaced idiosyncrasies has been backpedalling on user/comparative user trails in the past, which forced DRDO to initiate an accelerated user trails program of their own in 2008. In June 2008, DRDO conducted stringent trails under the watchful eye of the army and had successfully completed 6000 kms of gruelling runs in Rajasthan. However, earlier results had proved that the tank had some issues with the transmission but the vendor sorted this problem and the tank performed flawlessly without failing even once during the accelerated trails in Rajasthan. The 43rd Armoured Regiment operates the Arjun tank for well over a decade now and they are completely satisfied with it. Brigadier Chandra Mukesh remarked in his report after the AURCT, “The accuracy and consistency of the Arjun has been proved beyond doubt.”
Another extensive comparative trial was conducted by the Indian Army in March 2010, in which the Arjun was pitted against the T-90. Arjun emerged a conclusive winner from its showdown with the Russian tank and it demonstrated excellent performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, accurately hitting targets – both stationary and moving, with pin pointed accuracy. It displayed accurate and quick target acquisition capability during day and night in all types of weather and shortest possible reaction time during combat engagements. An army officer remarked that the Arjun could have performed even better, had it been operated by experienced crewmen. Nevertheless, the result was heartening vindication of DRDO technological capabilities, the Arjun MBT out-gunned and outran the T-90 on every crucial parameter. Besides, the Army was constantly changing its battlefield requirements which had a direct impact on Arjun's delivery timelines.
The Kanchan class armour of Arjun is probably the best of the technologies employed which derives its name from Kanchan Bagh, Hyderabad, where the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is located. The amour has been able to take the brunt of high precision and deadly Israeli anti tank munitions. The T-72 Ajeya and the new T-90 MBT has shown alarming vulnerability in the Georgian conflict a couple of years ago. I wonder why our Army generals are making whoopee for such sitting ducks. There is lot of money involved in importing military hardware and they are also on the lookout for those foreign jaunts and romp.
Another extensive comparative trial was conducted by the Indian Army in March 2010, in which the Arjun was pitted against the T-90. Arjun emerged a conclusive winner from its showdown with the Russian tank and it demonstrated excellent performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, accurately hitting targets – both stationary and moving, with pin pointed accuracy. It displayed accurate and quick target acquisition capability during day and night in all types of weather and shortest possible reaction time during combat engagements. An army officer remarked that the Arjun could have performed even better, had it been operated by experienced crewmen. Nevertheless, the result was heartening vindication of DRDO technological capabilities, the Arjun MBT out-gunned and outran the T-90 on every crucial parameter. Besides, the Army was constantly changing its battlefield requirements which had a direct impact on Arjun's delivery timelines.
The Kanchan class armour of Arjun is probably the best of the technologies employed which derives its name from Kanchan Bagh, Hyderabad, where the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is located. The amour has been able to take the brunt of high precision and deadly Israeli anti tank munitions. The T-72 Ajeya and the new T-90 MBT has shown alarming vulnerability in the Georgian conflict a couple of years ago. I wonder why our Army generals are making whoopee for such sitting ducks. There is lot of money involved in importing military hardware and they are also on the lookout for those foreign jaunts and romp.
Image: Arkem8
