The Defence Ministry has just announced that the Indian Army has decided to place a fresh order for an additional 124 Arjun main battle tanks. This is over and above the existing order of 124 tanks, taking the total strength in service to 248 Arjuns. I wrote about the possibility of two more regiments being ordered here in March. The development follows the success of the indigenous MBT Arjun in the recent gruelling desert trials. After many years of “trials and tribulations”, it has now proved its worth by its superb performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, accurately hitting targets – both stationary and moving, with pin point accuracy. The total number still falls well short of the 500 tank target that the Mark-1 version was supposed to achieve to amortize investments on infrastructure.
indian army should replace all of its T-72s with arjun instead of upgrading them.
Since the Army has not placed the order let them place an order of 310 tanks instead of the 124 for the MK1 variant. The next batch of MKII's can be mass produced in thousands. If the Army can place an order of 310 Tincans, sure it can place an order for atleast 310 battle winning Arjun MK1 MBT's.
Would have loved to see a bigger order that Arjun deserves. IA is inexplicable. First they say it is late and when it comes they place weak orders.
Very small order.Was expecting the IA to do some soul searching and place for atleast 248 . 124 tanks means:
The new IA Chief is not that honest and quality conscious as he tries to project himself. Looks more like a foreign import.
The IA still wants to play with the fire – i e ., public opinion. IIn democracy, generally u get burnt doing this.
Govt should order CBI probe to catch corrupt army generals and their BMW riding children
Shiv, pls take some HD video for Livefist as well as some good pics of the cockpit.
what is the time frame?
as per previous reports it will take 3 years to restart Arjun deliveries as 2 years are required just for subcontractors to prepare materials/equipment. 30/50 tanks per year thereafter. So 124 new tanks will come by 2016/17 ! Hopwe Arjun 2 is ready by then.
SHIV SIR,
MY REQUEST TO YOU IS PLEASE POST SOME UPDATED VIDEOS ON ARJUN TANK, LCA-TEJAS, ETC…………….
THANX…………….
shiv how is the trials of weaponised ALH going on.will they be repeated with LCH or do they have commonality.what would be the price tag. do they have any plans of making a completely stealthy news variant like the Russians had started. any news on Air launched nag
Jai HO!……we should order 1000 more!…..by then mark II would be ready..indigenous is the way to go…
Yaaaaa……..
Thats the right choice
we want more of them…
Finally some good news regarding the Arjun so it means M2 is the future MBT and not some T-XYZ
I want to drive an Arjun too, like Shiv.
Hi….
Accidentaly i got a video of Dhruv given to Maurituis as a good will..
Hope all of you enjoy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFHv1t0oPno&feature=related
Hi Shiv,
Congrats on fighting the good fight… and coming out tops.
Don't be taken in by the small number of 124. Much bigger orders are ahead for the improved and upMarked Arjun.
Cheers!
Ajai
if we are producing the new engine for the tank better we design it for 2000hp and derate it to 1500hp it will come in handy if the mark 2 weight goes up since on seeing the new wishlist for mark 2 and any army's whining about lack of thrust later.
i think instead of jumping a long jump it is the time for the DRDO to either develop 2 engines of 1000hp try installing on the tanks
so that it may not suffer like kaveri or to rope in MTU to manufacture the engine in india under TOT and upgrading them like shakthi engines later.
it is better for the army to go the tejas way ie instead of upgrading the t72 they can go with the isrelis for some of their new advancements in their tanks + russian tanks + new upgraded things by DRDO and fuse it to ARJUN MK1 try it improve it and sqeeeeeeze it till the platform can handle like LCALSP3 —- 1000 tanks.
instead of upgrading the T72 it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better to pay the same money to the germans and add the extra capabilites possibe to include on arjun and ask for their participation in MK2.
then the new wishlist of the army….2000 tanks.
@Anon 2.15AM
Thanks a lot.
India should immediately order another 350 Arjuns.
Someone is trying to cover up the T90 acquisition fiasco. It's obvious that indigenous efforts to develop state of the art weapons system is being stymied as they don't involve multi million $ kickbacks. How sincere are our netas, babus and sipahis in protecting our country? Or are they trying their best to fleece the impoverished masses?
Another Tehalka type sting operation is required in this entire episode.
Ajai ji, do you mean the evolved Arjun2 or the laser firing stealth flying FMBT Shiv has written about?
Subhaan Allah ! 124 more Arjuns will give the Indian Army a punch no other Army in the subcontinent has !!
hi Shiv Aroor
first of all congratulation on finally winning a virtual battle.
I have a gut feeling that another 248 Arjuns are expected to be ordered by 2011-12, once the HVF Avadi starts 3 shifts and 3rd production line.
By the way, any news on the Columbia interest in Arjun.
PS: If had also congratulated others like Ajai Shukla, Manu Sood of 8ak.in and idrw.org it would have been great on your part of acknowledging others contribution.
this is all wrong.
Some thing is better than nothing in nos order .
Livefist is doing good work .
At this point, I think Army should give orders on a case by case basis. They should test each batch of MBTs delivered and place a new order . Slowly all T-72 s can be replaced this way.
The argument about Arjun being too better than T-72 and not required is very alse. T-72 upgrade will cost almost as much as a new Arjun.
Teh main consideration should be that the production lines should keep running till K 2 comes. DRDO should also try to market a downgraded version of Arjun to other countries instead of completely relying on IA
Good news. I personally think that IA will end up taking as many of these beasts as drdo can produce. The IA is simply short of good tanks….even the t-90 is entering in too small a number. Question is how quickly (with the expected quality) can drdo produce these?
anon, DRDO can't produe because DRDO is not a production organisation.
DRDO stands for DEFENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION, do you see the words production anywhere ?
Damn i am silly, i better go drink that can of cow urine.