Image is for representation only.
It was actually tested on ARJUN MK2.
It is confirmed by one of my uncle working with DRDO
Had it been a different thread, I would have very strongly advised you not to spread insider info freely on a public domain forum. But you are the bearer of good news of my pet program. How can I be mad at you...
OnTopic: This is a big news guys. Not only CLGM is a big deal but the weight reduction with high Nitrogen no nickel steel is a huge step in right direction. HNS is not only lightweight as compared to RHS but about 40% cheaper. This is without any drop in penetration characteristics. One more thing to note is even with a cursory look on the mechanical specs sheet, you can see it is quite similar to SSAB's Armox 500T protection plates. They are regarded as one of the toughest protection plates in business.
DRDO HNS:-
Thickness: 8mm to 50mm
Hardness(HV min) : 370
Elongation(% min) : 20
Armox 500T
Thickness: 8mm to 50mm
Hardness(HV min) : 508(+37%)
Elongation(% min) : 10(-50%)
One major difference on general high nitrogen steels and the one developed by DRDO is the absence of Nickle. Ni-Fe allows are known to have dimensional invariance even @ high temperatures. There is a reason why FeNi36 is called Invar.
From chemical composition side DRDO's HNS has simpler composition than Armox 500T. DRDO uses following composition C :0.05%, Cr: 17.5%, Mn:17.5%, N :0.60%, Si:0.30%, P:0.06, S:0.015%. Armox T500 composition C:0.32%, Cr: 1.0%, Mn:1.2%, Si:0.4%,P:0.010%, S=0.003%, Ni=1.8%, Mo=0.7%, B=0.005%
It is clear from the chemistry that Armox is not a high nitrogen steel and is a considerable expensive than DRDO's alloy.
Even if this type of steel is good development for tank armor plating, I would like to see similar development of lighter titanium - iron alloys. Not only they have excellent weight characteristics, they are better than HNS in penetration characteristics.
On a separate note, how many nations have their own CLGM like projects and how do they stack against our CLGM...?