India To Develop New Generation Main Battle Tank

[Justin Joseph]

India To Develop New Generation Main Battle Tank

MUMBAI, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- India will develop its next generation main battle tank in the coming years to strengthen the Army's armor operational capability, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an Indian newspaper report Tuesday.

The new type of main battle tank, currently termed as the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT), will be developed by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), and is expected to cost about Rs 50 billion (about US$1 billion) for its development, Indian newspaper the Business Standard quoted V.K. Saraswat, the DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to the Indian Defence Minister A.K.Antony, as saying.

Saraswat said the FMBT will have a strong fire power by operating a newly-designed heavy 120mm main gun, which could have the double purposes of firing both shells and missiles. Among them, the missiles could be used to strike the low level flying aircraft, such as armed helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

The FMBT's crew will get the real-time information about the battlefields including the friendly and hostile actions, and can take the simultaneous steps of the attack or defense, according to the chief.

Different from the newly-deployed indigenous main battle tank Arjun with a total weight of 60 tonnes, the next generation main battle tank will be more flexible with a total weight of 50 tonnes.

The new active armour protection system will be fitted with the FMBT to neutralise the incoming anti-tank shells or missiles for greatly improving its survivability, said Saraswat.

The chief said it may need seven to eight years for the DRDO to develop the next generation main battle tank as the project is formally approved.

In March this year, the first Indian home-made main tank Arjun, which was developed by the DRDO and received the first order of 124 from the Army in 2000, outperformed the newly-inducted Russia- made T-90 in the comparative desert trials of the western state of Rajasthan. Following this, the Indian Army ordered 124 more Arjuns.

The Indian Army is a large ground force with a million soldiers in active service. It operates several thousand main battle tanks, including T-72s, T-90s and Arjuns. However, some 2,400 T-72s are old. The Indian Army's former chief of staff Deepak Kapoor once said about 80 percent of the Indian Army's tank fleet were unfit to fight at night.

The Indian Army says the FMBT is crucial for India's future battle readiness. Over the next decade, the Indian Army's 4,000 main battle tanks need to be replaced, and will cost about Rs1,000 billion, said Saraswat.

BERNAMA - India To Develop New Generation Main Battle Tank

 

[Justin Joseph]

DRDO to develop army's next-generation tank

Ajai Shukla / New Delhi August 10, 2010, 0:31 IST

In March this year, during trials in the Rajasthan desert, the Defence R&D Organisation’s Arjun tank conclusively outperformed the Russian T-90, the army’s showpiece. Buoyed by that success and by the army’s consequent order for 124 additional Arjuns, the DRDO is now readying to develop India’s next-generation tank, currently termed the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT).

While costs are still being evaluated, the projections are mind-boggling. The development cost alone could be Rs 5,000 crore. Then, the replacement cost of the Indian Army’s 4,000 tanks — at a conservative Rs 25 crore per FMBT — adds to Rs 1,00,000 crore. The bulk of this would flow, over years of production, to Tier-I and Tier-II suppliers from small and medium industries.

For the first time, the DRDO has outlined the FMBT project’s contours. Talking exclusively to Business Standard, DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, V K Saraswat, revealed, “While the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) has been handed over to private industry, the DRDO will develop the FMBT. We need about seven-eight years from the time the project is formally sanctioned. The army and the DRDO have already identified the major features of the FMBT, which are quite different from the Arjun. While the Arjun is a 60-tonne tank, the FMBT will be lighter… about 50 tonnes. It will be a highly mobile tank.”

Vital project
The FMBT project, says the military, is crucial for India’s future battle readiness. As army chief, General Deepak Kapoor pronounced 80 per cent of India’s tank fleet unfit to fight at night, which is when most tank battles take place. The bulk of our fleet, some 2,400 obsolescent Russian T-72s, are being shoddily patched up (see Business Standard, Feb 3, ‘Army to spend billions on outdated T-72 tanks’). More modern T-90 tanks were procured from Russia in 2001, shorn of crucial systems to reduce prices, after parliamentary dissent threatened to derail the contract (Business Standard, Feb 4, ‘Piercing the army’s armour of deception’). Only now, after nine years of stonewalling, has Russia transferred the technology needed to build the T-90 in India.

Urgently in need of capable tanks, the army has worked with DRDO to finalise a broad range of capabilities for the FMBT. These have been formalised in a document called the Preliminary Specifications Qualitative Requirement (PSQR). The detailed specifications of the FMBT, once finalised, will be listed in General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR).

Amongst the capabilities being finalised for the GSQR are: active armour, which will shoot down enemy anti-tank projectiles before they strike the FMBT; extreme mobility, which makes the FMBT much harder to hit; the capability to operate in a nuclear-contaminated battlefield without exposing the crew to radiation; and the networked flow of information to the FMBT, providing full situational awareness to the crew, even when “buttoned down” inside the tank.

Also being finalised is the FMBT armament, a key attribute that determines a tank’s battlefield influence. The Arjun already has a heavy 120mm ‘main gun’, and two small-calibre machine guns; the recently ordered batch of 124 Arjuns will also fire anti-tank missiles through their main gun. The army wants all of those for the FMBT, with ranges enhanced through technological improvements.

However, the DRDO chief ruled out an electromagnetic gun, the next generation in high-velocity guns towards which armament technology aspires. “The Future MBT is not so far in the future,” Saraswat quipped.

FICV, too
With the FMBT project squarely on its agenda, the DRDO also envisages a major role in developing the FICV. Says the DRDO chief, “The FICV is not just a conventional armoured vehicle for transporting soldiers. It involves advanced technologies and multidisciplinary integration, which private industry has never done. Only the DRDO and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have that experience. DRDO teams are already thinking about the technologies that should go into the FICV. But this is only to support private industry in making the FICV project a success.”

While private industry weighs its options about where to manufacture the FICV, the DRDO has already chosen the Heavy Vehicle Factory (HVF) in Avadi —- the OFB facility that builds the Arjun —- as the FMBT production line.

“It will definitely be produced in HVF. I see no way that we can go away from HVF,” says Saraswat. “The HVF will work with us from the preliminary design of the FMBT, so that we can go from prototype to mass production without any hiccups.”

DRDO to develop army's next-generation tank

 

[Tshering22]

What happened to that JV with Uralvagonzavod of Russia? I thought we had Russians involved in our project.

 

[flanker143]

it wont be inducted in IA before 2020-25

 

[Malik Usman]

Post the thread here if you alraedy developed something.....don't predict about future things...

 

[flanker143]

Post the thread here if you alraedy developed something.....don't predict about future things...

who the hell are you to say that ......

u got a problem ??....

then report to mods .... they will see what is to be done ...

why are you posting ur unwanted crap here .....

 

[nForce]

Post the thread here if you alraedy developed something.....don't predict about future things...

Is that a new forum rule that we are not aware of???

 

[CONNAN]

What happened to that JV with Uralvagonzavod of Russia? I thought we had Russians involved in our project.

proposed designs but still on drawing boards

 

[anathema]

^^ Source ?

 

[gurjot]

we shud include israel

 

[CardSharp]

^^ Source ?

It's a fake. That's a russian tank prototype

Saraswat said the FMBT will have a strong fire power by operating a newly-designed heavy 120mm main gun, which could have the double purposes of firing both shells and missiles. Among them, the missiles could be used to strike the low level flying aircraft, such as armed helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

So in other words a 120mm smooth bore? All modern tanks are armed with smoothbores with the exception of the Indian Arjun and British Challenger 2 and the British are switching over to the 120 mm Rheinmetall L55 smoothbore gun.

 

[!!craft!!]

Post the thread here if you alraedy developed something.....don't predict about future things...

sorry for wasting your time sir ..but next time do read the tread heading carefully,but that our time wont be wasted addressing to your crap...

 

[jha]

It's a fake. That's a russian tank prototype

So in other words a 120mm smooth bore? All modern tanks are armed with smoothbores with the exception of the Indian Arjun and British Challenger 2 and the British are switching over to the 120 mm Rheinmetall L55 smoothbore gun.

Not exactly...Rifled gun in Arjun also fires both shells and missiles ....

 

[Dark Angel]

 

[xuxu1457]

proposed designs but still on drawing boards

this pic is a image of Rassian T95