Huh? Not at all. We have the T-90s. The Arjuns cannot, due to their weight. Existing bridges cannot handle all that weight. And we needed new bridge layers, which we are getting only now.
Huh? Not at all. We have the T-90s. The Arjuns cannot, due to their weight. Existing bridges cannot handle all that weight. And we needed new bridge layers, which we are getting only now.
If there is a generous time factor, the IA is looking for a foreign design and private player input a must... then why not go for something based on the K2? Hasn't the experience with SK thus far been quite good? Plus, it will help with getting "western" interoperability to help further the cause of the Quad rather than a Russian tank which will inevitably draw the ire of the US.
So what happens if this single platform has design fault , fault will propagate to every vehicle based on this design.
seriously , when are you planning to invade pakistan? Before crossing the canal please do take bath in it.
We need 100% IP. Plus we do not know the actual specs of the FRCV, for example, the IA was experimenting with the thought of giving the tanks amphibious capability.
Normally, it's not difficult to design a proper hull or fix any problems arising out of it. The only thing common in a UCP is the hull. There will be differences in internal layout though, for example, the engine will be in the back for tanks whereas the IFV and APC will have it in front in order to make space for troops. There may also be differences in fuel tank design. But the engine, tracks, wheels, electric motors etc will be the same, so I don't think it's going to be such a big problem.
Let's also not forget that during AUCRT, a tank will spend its entire life in just a few months. So all deficiencies come out during this time.
The Arjun Mk1A is expensive. It costs $10M vs T-90's $3.5M. And this is not counting the sustainment costs, which is quite high for the Arjuns. The costs are such that for the same price of equipping an Arjun armoured brigade (2 regiments), you can equip an entire armoured division (5 regiments) with T-90s. And those saying economies of scale will come into play with larger orders, the cost savings will actually not be enough to make up for the difference. Frankly, even NATO countries cannot afford the Arjun Mk1A, and the Arjun is not even up to modern NATO standards yet. It barely even meets standards NATO set in the 80s.
It's a red flag if you consider the new Challenger 3 costs $7M and has superior capabilities compared to the Arjun Mk1A, even if it reuses the chassis from Challenger 2.
But what's more important is the T-72/T-90 is properly integrated into the army's logistics machinery, they have been doing this since the 80s. So instead of throwing money at a whole lot of Arjuns, which we can't afford in the first place, and also spend a lot more money and time replacing the T-72/90's logistics chain, the army has decided to go for a whole new tank family, which will be inducted when we are a much more richer country in the future. In the meantime, the army will simply buy more of the 3 times cheaper T-90s, with all its infrastructure already in place that does pretty much the same thing as the Arjun to pretty much the same level. Yeah, some specs of the T-90 falls short of the Arjun since its an older design, but it doesn't justify the 3x price difference.
Dunno about the light tank story, but the Russians are developing light tanks around the Armata UCP as well. The Armata UCP has a heavy component and a light component. The heavy has the T-14, T-15, T-16 etc in it, whereas the light has Kurganets-25 tracked and Bumerang wheeled fighting vehicles. The light component is also expected to have a variant with a 125mm cannon. So the heavy and light share weapons and vectronics, including the Afghanit APS, whereas the hull and engine are different.
So FRCV = T-14, T-15, T-16 etc
FICV = Kurganets-25
Wheeled component = Bumerang
The army needs to make sure our wheeled component shares engines, vectronics and weapons with the FICV.
Arjun would have been better if the intention was to make it better in first place. Indian military is a very unprofessional force more like a zoo.
In proper Military where there is something called logic , accountability , honesty. jokers who were involved in this mess would have been court martialed. squandering public money has become a thing in this country.
This is what happens when you are more interested in kick backs.
Sir, good day, what components of the Arjun are the most expensive and contribute to this extraordinarily high price which is not even in a ballpark.
With ref to those components would Imports or Indigenous design helped? where did we go wrong?
Honestly I, for the first time stand clarified and convinced as to why the Army is reluctant to order more Arjuns.
Chinese tanks are even cheaper than that, Maybe India should try for those?
If you have money, you can cross off the word "consequence" from your dictionary.
imported powerplant from MTU, gear box, from Renk, FCS , alwcs from elbit to name a few.
The army had pushed for the cancellation of the Arjun program back in the early 90s and replace it with a new one based on a more modern design that will replace the T-55s and Vijayantas, but DRDO objected. So the army decided to ignore the tank.
Later on, DRDO, after a bare minimum of success, started pushing the narrative that the army is against desi maal and even made up stories, especially that sabotage story, which turned out to be due to a design change in the transmission. But the fact was lost on DRDO that the Arjun was a tank that could not be used against Pakistan. Or even if it was to be used against Pakistan, it would come at a cost that even NATO couldn't afford, and as I 've pointed out before, it was a tank that couldn't even meet NATO's requirements from the 1980s. Its firepower today is more or less equal to a Patton because DRDO failed to make a modern kinetic round all this while. They are probably testing a new round now which would put us on par with tanks in the early 90s.
You can drop the sir, there's no need to use it on me.
Apart from expensive imports, there is also the case of production inefficiences, which is pretty common within PSUs. Plus the tank being bigger and heavier also requires more raw materials.
Some of the core technologies going into the Arjun are far superior to the T-90, like the new automatic transmission system and of course the advanced suspension, so these things can jack up the price a bit. In terms of electronics, the Arjun carries a radar, which can jack up costs by at least half a mil, this is something the T-90 is yet to be equipped with, along with an EW suite. So you can say that a million to a million and a half of the Arjun's price also consists of some capabilities that the T-90 lacks.