http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story...%206:56:00%20PM

Arjun tanks to be history for Army


Press Trust of India
Saturday, July 5, 2008 (New Delhi)
As doubts over viability of the three-decade-old Arjun Main Battle Tank (MBT) are being raised, the Army has indicated it would place no more orders than 124 already made to Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi, sounding the death knell of the DRDO project.

''Army will no more place orders for Arjun beyond 124 that was already contracted. That is because Army is now looking 20 years ahead and wants a futuristic MBT,'' Lt Gen Dalip Bharadwaj, Army Director General (Mechanised Infantry), said.

Though Bharadwaj discounted suggestions that it would mean the end of DRDO's Arjun project that began in 1972, he did point out that induction of more 'Arjun' MBTs at this stage would only mean India lagging behind in the technological race in armoured fighting vehicles.

''Arjun is a contemporary tank and may be used in the next decade or so, but not for a technologically advanced, next generation warfare some two decades hence,'' Bhardwaj said on the sidelines of an interactive session with defence private industry at CII.

After 36 years into its design and development, Arjun had as recently as in December 2007 failed winter trials, as stated in a Parliamentary report. It is yet to go through crucial comparative trials with Russian tanks, a mandatory process before induction into Army.

With uncertainty looming over Arjun tanks, Army had already increased its orders for Russian T-90 tanks by another 330 in 2007, over and above the 1000 it had ordered, clearly indicating T-90s would be the MBT of Indian Army for the next decade.

Chennai-based Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) had in 2007 handed over 14 Arjun tanks to the Army for trials, but they were returned with a list of defects in its fire control systems, inaccuracy of guns, low speeds in tactical areas such as deserts and inability to operate in temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius.

This summer too, Army and the DRDO took out Arjun MBT for trials, but the results were yet to be made public. Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry claimed it suspected an effort at ''sabotaging'' Arjun tanks, though reasons for the suspicion were not spelt out by Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh.

The DRDO's new project 'Tank-X' too did not find favour with the Army. ''Tank-X is a hybrid of T-90 and T-72, which are both contemporary technology tanks. There is no point in having technologically obsolete tanks for warfare two decades hence,'' the DG (Mechanised Forces) said.

Bharadwaj also announced that the Army, along with CII, would organise a two-day international technology seminar on Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) and Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) on July 22 and 23 to discuss global challenges in designing, developing and producing FMBT and FICV.

To be inaugurated by Defence Minister A K Antony and Rao Inderjit Singh, Bhardwaj said the seminar would debate the kind of MBT Army needed, considering that might of the military was judged by both deterrent and offensive capabilities of Mechanised Forces and on the quality and quantity of equipment.

''Time has come to reassess our requirements. We are at the threshold of formulating qualitative requirements of FMBT and FICV. This is the future, as it takes about a decade for completing the process of designing and being ready with a prototype of FMBT and FICV. It could take another 5 to 10 years to finally induct futuristic MBTs and ICVs into the forces,'' he said.

The meeting would also provide defence planners, end-users, scientists and both private and public defence manufacturers a holistic view of applicability of tanks, be they heavy, medium or light, and wheeled or tracked in modern warfare.

''Considering India's expanding strategic reach and widening global standing as a military power, future armoured vehicles should be capable of performing roles during out-of-area contingencies beyond its territorial boundaries,'' Bharadwaj said.

The meet would also try to provide defence industry an insight into Mechanised Forces' aspirations and try to gauge their capability to meet Army's future requirements.

Apart from looking at varying global perceptions on use of armoured vehicles, the seminar would identify critical emerging technologies in the field to meet Army's requirements of FMBT and FICV.

Already, seven foreign countries have confirmed their participation in the seminar including US, Israel, Russia, Germany, UK and France

<chuckle> Leopard 2A6 Ex and M1A2 Abrams SEP are contemporary technology tanks...

Thats not right at all .... I wanted Indian army to spend or waste billions more on this project .... Please carry on with this project for another decade or so ... please ... pretty please

DRDO and other indian organisation's are pakistan's first line of defence.

(now that's funny without saying someting vile :o)

I doubt this wasn't obvious to even the most nationalistic of Indians .

The Arjun project is a disaster end of discussion and has been moving at a snails pace for many years now with hurdle after hurdle plaguing the objectives it aims to fulfill. I agree with Al-Khalid i would love to see the Indians squander much more on this pointless project.

For me the Indian interest with the T90 essentially closed the Indian army's interest in the Arjun because it simply couldn't compete with the T90. This may bother Indians to the point of ad nauseum but it is true. The Arjun project has been very dilatory and wasteful to say the least, it was a total and utter waste of resources.

All hope is not loss. There is still the LCA.

Lol these 2 posts just about made my day ... thanx DODO for providing us with quality entertainment. At least it ain't like your Copywood film industry known as Bollywood... damn can't even come up with an original name for their film industry lol... At least DODO Entertainment is original.

Keep up the good work... and shame on the Terrorist Army of India which has stopped ordering more of these classic state of the art pieces of junk.

An original joke there my friend .

In an 8 part article, in november 2006, Indian Express cited Brigadier D K Babbar, the Army’s pointsman for the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun project at the Mechanised Forces directorate until he retired last year from the 94th Armoured Brigade, “The Arjun tank has no future. It still cannot fire straight. The T-90, a far superior tank, can kill the Arjun. We would not cross any border with these tanks.”

Few days ago i thought that Arjun is the most expensive project n now it is clear.

How India bought the best components from around the world and assembled them into the worst product one can imagine is beyond me. Their system intergration needs some serious work.

Here's one of myriad explanations:
Those suppliers from around the world were definitely at fault because they didn't work together and resolve all the problems (system integration) before handing over their ware. Additionally, these foreigners were very bad teachers which further aggravate the situations. As a good customer, the Bhindians always have the highest level of trust and full faith in the suppliers' advertisements and sale pitch; therefore the blames lie squarely on firms like MTU, Oldelft, GIAT, Renk, Lahat, Siemens etc., etc....

Maybe the indians were confident enough to assemble all the parts by themselves so that the project can be made indi-genious!!

Indian T-90 Tanks Struggle in Summer Desert Heat

NEW DELHI - The Indian Army has floated a request for information to integrate an air-conditioning system along with additional power sources in its fleet of Russian-made T-90 tanks, which have had difficulties when operating in desert conditions of temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius

An Indian Army official said that some of the tanks' computerized systems failed in summer desert heat.

India purchased the T-90 tank from Russia in 2001 as the homegrown Arjun tank did not meet Army expectations while Pakistan had acquired T-80 tanks from Ukraine.

Under the $795 million deal, 310 T-90 tanks were procured from Russia. In 2007, the Indian Army gave a fresh order to buy an additional 330 T-90s and there are plans to license produce another 1,000 by 2020 at Indian facilities.


http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=362...c=ASI&s=LAN

Take my civic, its AC is pretty good.

This statement was made by DGMO, who's close to retirement and has been known to be (not unjustifiably) biased against the Arjun. If he thinks he can cut the MoD right out of the loop, he's sadly mistaken.

Two possibilities- either the Army will place no further orders for any tank or they will place further orders for the Arjun.

The new acquisition rules are very clear about some things. In the event of any new orders being placed the competing products(the Arjun and T-90S in this case) will be required to go through competitive theoretical and field trials. Cases in point: Eurocopter vs Bell trials, Bofors vs Denel vs Soltam trials.
And a direct competition between the Arjun and T-90S on a level playing field is something the DRDO has been hankering after for quite a while. The present delivery of 60 tanks(14 delivered) is likely to be completed by 2009. That's plenty of time for the Arjun to prove itself. The Russians aren't going to like the results of a Arjun vs T-90 competition.

And then we have all of us to help as well!! Lets all of us get together and show them some good will by proposing new projects that indian DODO can start work on immediately!!!

The laughable thing would be when the arjunk tank would fail against Russian tanks!! But even if does win against the T-90 (not in a million years), its no accomplishment for a project that has been draggin @$$ for the last 20 odd years!

forget about the arjun, whats the competition between Al Khalid and T90

Because they know that Arjun is more JUNKY then T-90!!!!