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Arjun tank
·
On July 13,
2008 DRDO
shared
having
installed a
black
box-like
instrument
in the
indigenous
main battle
tank (MBT)
Arjun, under
development
for nearly
36 years,
following
attempts to
“sabotage”
its engine.
·
The
instrument
was
installed
after the
Army termed
the winter
trial of the
Arjun tank a
“failure”.
·
Attempts to
sabotage the
trials of
the Arjun
tank have
failed after
the black
box was
installed,
said
authorities.
·
“The
German
company Renk
AG,
which is
supplying
engines for
the Arjun
tank,
stumbled
upon the
tinkering
with its
engines
after a
complaint
from the
Army that
the tank’s
gear box
failed
during its
winter
trials in
Pokhran and
Mahajan
field
range,”
Mission
IAS’2009
·
Fourteen
Arjun tanks
were handed
over to the
Army for
user trials
last year
but were
returned to
the
manufacturer
- the combat
vehicles
development
establishment
- with a
list of
defects.
These
included a
deficient
fire control
system,
inaccuracy
of its guns,
low speeds
in tactical
areas -
principally
the desert -
and the
tank’s
inability to
operate in
temperatures
over 50
degrees
Celsius.
·
The
tank was to
supplement
and
eventually
replace the
Soviet-era
T-72 MBT
that was
first
inducted in
the early
1980s.
·
However,
delays in
the Arjun
project and
Pakistan’s
decision to
purchase the
T-80 from
Ukraine
prompted
India to
order 310
T-90s, an
upgraded
version of
the T-72, in
2001.
·
Of these,
186 were
assembled
from kits at
the HVF at
Avadi.
·
An agreement
was also
signed for
the licensed
production
of another
1,000 T-90s.
·
With the
development
of Arjun
delayed
further,
India last
year signed
a fresh
contract
with Russia
to buy
another 330
T-90s
·
The Army had
laid down
its
qualitative
requirement
(QR) for
Arjun in
1972.
·
In 1982, it
was
announced
that the
prototype
was ready
for field
trials.
However, the
tank was
publicly
unveiled for
the first
time only in
1995.
·
Arjun was
originally
meant to be
a 40-tonne
tank with a
105 mm gun.
·
It has now
grown to a
50-tonne
tank with a
120 mm gun.
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