Recently, according to media reports, Indian President Modi went to the India-Pakistan border to inspect frontline officers and soldiers on November 14 and experienced riding in an Ajun main battle tank equipped by the Indian army. Modi said in a speech: The expansionism that a small number of people uphold has become an obstacle to the development of the international community, and India will actively oppose this behavior.
Subsequently, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India announced that it hopes that the Indian Army will purchase 118 latest Arjun Mk1A main battle tanks as soon as possible, which is approximately equal to the number of equipment in its two regiments. Although the equipment is made in India, Arjun’s equipment in the Indian army is not large. Currently, only 124 Arjun Mk1s are equipped and deployed in the desert area along the border between India and Pakistan.
Out of distrust of domestically produced equipment, the main tanks of the Indian Army are still T-90S and T-72M1, totaling 3,000, of which 1,000 T-90S were produced after 2000, and the remaining nearly 2,000 T- The 72M1 has a complicated source and has been in service for many years. Due to the slow development of the domestically produced Arjun tank, the Indian army also plans to purchase another 450 T-90S to replace the early batch T-72 in service. Taking advantage of this opportunity, DRDO officials recommended their new Arjun to the Prime Minister.
The new Arjun Mk1A claims to be reborn. It can be equipped with explosive reactive armor and minesweeping ploughs. It can even be equipped with an external remote control weapon station on the turret. It weighs 68 tons, which is comparable to the latest U.S. M1A2SEPv3. About the same, compared to the early Aqiong, it has weighed a full 10 tons. Because the engine is still the original 1200 horsepower diesel engine, the maneuverability is very poor. The Indian army is not very attractive.
In addition, the original suspension system was barely usable. After a substantial increase in weight, the failure rate will be higher and the service performance will be further reduced. DRDO originally wanted to introduce Ukraine's 1800 horsepower 6TD-5 diesel engine, but it involved too many improvements and affected the whole body. They could only hope that the future Arjun Mk2 would be replaced by a new engine. The Indian official announced in 2011 that the development was completed. Mk2 prototype, but there is no news so far.
At present, the Indian army has not shown its willingness to increase the purchase of Arjun tanks, and there should not be any in the future. Generally, tanks have a proper rate of 80% to be considered useful. For example, the Tiger and Leopard two tanks equipped by the German army during World War II were known for their inconvenient maintenance and difficulty in logistical maintenance, and were criticized; but during the previous battles, the accuracy rate of the former was 75%, while the latter also had 73%, compared with the main No. 4 medium-sized tank. The tanks did not differ much. And India's Aqiong's compliance rate is even lower. Depending on the equipment unit, it is only between 25-50%. It can only maintain basic training and cannot meet combat needs at all.
In fact, due to the low compliance rate, a considerable part of the Aqiong tanks in the Indian army are in a sealed state. They are placed in the warehouse as parts, and only a small part can be moved. With low cost, these tanks are scrapped, so we can see a neat row of Arqiong parked in the workshop. They are not waiting to go offline, but to be scrapped.
At present, to a certain extent, the Indian army has already given up treatment to Arjun. The main tank models equipped by the army in the next two to three decades will be Russian T-90 and T-72. They are currently focusing on the development of a new generation of tanks, namely India’s FMBT (Future Main Battle Tank), which requires the use of a two-man vehicle, with a total weight of about 50 tons, an unmanned turret, a tail compartment automatic loader, and a new 140mm smoothbore gun. , Equipped with 1800 horsepower engine. This kind of project is entirely a PPT project. It is definitely impossible to expect Indians to do it themselves, and it is also unrealistic to come out on time. In the end, I'm afraid I still have to look for Russia and honestly buy the T-14 "Amata" tank.
