BY : Ajai Shukla


On July 22 and 23, tank experts from across the world gathered in Delhi to advise the Army on designing its next generation of armoured vehicles — the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) and Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV).

Despite two years of labour, the Army’s tank managers, the Directorate General of Mechanised Forces (DGMF), have been unable to decide on a suitable design.

Several of these experts told Business Standard that the DGMF’s problems stem from its decision to start designing a tank all over again. Instead of building on two decades of experience in designing the indigenous Arjun tank, by moving onto an advanced version of the Arjun, the Army is going back to the start line.

Experts at the seminar — including Israeli tank legend, Maj Gen Yossi Ben-Hanan, who designed that country’s successful Merkava tank — pointed out that tank design is evolutionary, each design building upon the previous one.

The Israelis began designing their Merkava-1 MBT in 1970; today they have the world-class Merkava-4. The Russians started in 1940 with the T-32 tank; that experience led to the T-55; the T-72 followed, which was further refined to today’s T-90.

India has rejected this well-tested path. The Combat Vehicles R&D Establishment (CVRDE) in Chennai, which has designed the Arjun, is now offering an improved Arjun-2 with more modern electronics. But last month, the Army’s top tank-man, Lt Gen D Bhardwaj, trashed two decades of indigenous design work on the Arjun; he declared that the Army would buy just 124 Arjuns for its 4,000-tank fleet. On July 23, Maj Gen Yossi Ben-Hanan warned the audience, “A decision taken today to build an Indian tank will yield an MBT only 15 years hence.”

And for those 15 years, Russia is poised to fill the Indian inventory, just as it has for the last 35 years. It is learned that Moscow has seriously violated the 2001 contract to supply India with 310 Russian-built T-90s and then transfer the technology, materials and components to build another 1,000 in India.

Seven years after that contract was signed, not a single T-90 has rolled out of Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF), Avadi, where they are to be built. Senior MoD sources tell that Russia has failed to provide India with critical technologies and components needed for T-90 manufacture.

Russia has not been sued for this breach of contract; instead it has been rewarded. Last December, India ordered 347 more fully-built T-90s. A senior MoD officer dealing directly with purchases points out that this will delay the indigenous manufacture of T-90s even further, since the Russian plant cannot transfer any components or materials until it meets the fresh Indian order.

Meanwhile, the 310 T-90s, which have been delivered by Russia and introduced into service, are not battle worthy. The crucial Fire Control System (FCS), through which the tank fires at the enemy, has failed to function in Indian summers. An obliging Russian industry offered to sell India “tank air conditioners”, though no other tank in our inventory needs or uses air-conditioning.

The Russian air-conditioners were put through trials, during which the tank driver fainted from heatstroke. Now the MoD has floated a global tender for air-conditioning the T-90s.