1,500-horsepower FMBT to replace T-72 tanks beyond 2020

neo29

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The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on India's future main battle tank (FMBT) with a 1,500-horsepower (HP) indigenous engine. This tank will replace beyond 2020 the imported T-72 tanks, renamed Ajeya, with the Army. Various specifications for the FMBT have been finalised.

"For engine development, we have formed a national team comprising members from the academia, the user, industry and the DRDO. We have also gone in for an international consultant," said S. Sundaresh, Chief Controller (Armaments and Combat Engineering), DRDO. The first prototype of the indigenous engine would be ready in four to five years.

The DRDO is launching a project to develop the transmission for the tank; the indigenous engine and transmission will together be called Bharat Power Pack and it will meet the FMBT's mobility requirements.

"We are confident that we will be ready with the FMBT prototype in five to seven years," Mr. Sundaresh said. "We are trying to involve all the stakeholders — the user [the Army], quality control personnel and the production agency — in this project and the industry will be our partner. We will go for a modular design so that we can always upgrade the tank when new technology comes in."

The FMBT will weigh only 50 tonnes compared to Arjun-Mark II's 62 tonnes. The DRDO is simultaneously working on Arjun-Mark II. The volume occupied by the electronics package in the FMBT will be less. The FMBT's engine will be two-thirds the size of Arjun-Mark I's, but will generate 1,500 HP compared to Arjun-Mark I's 1,400 HP.

Improved technologies

Improvements in material, fuel injection and filtration technologies will contribute to the reduction in the engine size without compromising on power.

"The immediate task for the CVRDE [Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment] is to develop the Arjun-Mk II tank and demonstrate it to the user and go for the production of 124 numbers in the HVF (Heavy Vehicles Factory]," Mr. Sundaresh said. The CVRDE and the HVF are situated in Avadi, near Chennai.

The Arjun-Mk II tank will have a number of upgrades compared with Arjun-Mk I. Missiles can be fired from the former to destroy long-range targets and bring down attack helicopters. The tank's commander will have a panoramic sight with night vision. "With this upgrade, the commander can carry out his hunting job at night with his thermal sight and engage targets more effectively," Mr. Sundaresh explained.

Another upgrade will see the introduction of an explosive reactive armour panel which will comprise explosives in metallic brick form. These bricks will be mounted not only on the front slope of Arjun-Mk-II tank, but all round it as well. When the enemy ammunition hits these bricks, they will explode and retard the energy of the projectile, which then cannot penetrate the tank's armour.

"The penalty for using these bricks is that they will add 1.5 tonnes to the tank's weight. But we can prevent top attack and side attack. We can add to the tank's protection from missiles and rocket-propelled grenades," the DRDO Chief Controller said.

Automatic target tracking

The fourth upgrade is that Arjun Mk-II will have an automatic target tracking system which will add to the accuracy when firing on a moving target.

P. Sivakumar, CVRDE Director, said Arjun-Mk-II would have a total of 93 upgrades, including the advanced air defence gun system for firing at attack helicopters. The Army had placed an indent for production of 124 Arjun-Mk II tanks.

In phase I, 45 tanks will roll out with 56 upgrades, including the missile firing capability and the commander's panoramic sight with night vision.

In phase II, the remaining 79 tanks, with all the 93 improvements, will come off the assembly line. "By 2013-14, the first batch of around 30 tanks will go out," Dr. Sivakumar said.

According to Mr. Sundaresh, these 124 Arjun-Mk II tanks would cost Rs.5,000 crores.

idrw.org
 

Agantrope

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So these tanks will go without engines?
Vladimir, this about the Arjun Mk-II not the FMBT. FMBT prototype will roll out by 8-10 years from now. Engines will be offered as an upgrade for all the arjun tanks (as per my source). Engine will be around 1560BHP, now it has some choking problems. Engine will enter mass production by 2016 if everything goes well.
 

pankaj nema

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This new FMBT will be ready not before 2025 .

Indian Army 's Armoured Corps is well placed both in quantity and quality.
We do need and are trying for an indigineous engine as Arjun tank uses German engine
TATA and Cummins are making a new engine for Arjun tank

The T 72 M1 Ajeya is the principal tank of IA and is still getting upgraded .Around 1000 tanks would be upgraded soon.

If a completely modern tank with just 50 tonnes weight can be made then DRDO will be known as simply the Best Tank designer in the world

T 72 T 90 and Arjun tank are too much for Pakistan to handle
 

Agantrope

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This new FMBT will be ready not before 2025 .

Indian Army 's Armoured Corps is well placed both in quantity and quality.
We do need and are trying for an indigineous engine as Arjun tank uses German engine
TATA and Cummins are making a new engine for Arjun tank

The T 72 M1 Ajeya is the principal tank of IA and is still getting upgraded .Around 1000 tanks would be upgraded soon.

If a completely modern tank with just 50 tonnes weight can be made then DRDO will be known as simply the Best Tank designer in the world

T 72 T 90 and Arjun tank are too much for Pakistan to handle
AS of now Cummins and Kriloskar are only working in the Engine, No Tata i think.
 

plugwater

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I have two questions !!!

Why 50 ton FMBT need 1500 HP engine ?

What happened to the indigenous engine of MK-II ?
 

sandeepdg

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Engines have always been a problem area for all our in-house defense developments ! Be it the LCA or the Arjuns ! I fail to understand, why don't we cooperate with others to perfect our engine tech developments, rather than waste time on experimenting with failure prone home-made solutions. Once we learn the nuances involved with it, we could on our own. This keeps happening every time and is simply very frustrating. I hope they build a good home grown engine for the FMBT at least since its still a decade away.
 

civfanatic

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What happened to the Tank-EX project (attaching an Arjun's turret to a BMP's chassis or something like that)? Is that being replaced by the Arjun Mark-II? Or FMBT?
 

Yatharth Singh

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Is there any blueprints, specification or design available about FMBT?
 

Agantrope

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Engines have always been a problem area for all our in-house defense developments ! Be it the LCA or the Arjuns ! I fail to understand, why don't we cooperate with others to perfect our engine tech developments, rather than waste time on experimenting with failure prone home-made solutions. Once we learn the nuances involved with it, we could on our own. This keeps happening every time and is simply very frustrating. I hope they build a good home grown engine for the FMBT at least since its still a decade away.
There is lot of difference between the tank engine and an aircraft engine. Aircraft engine requires lot of metallurgy and access to high-tech components. Tank engine is not that complicated as Areo-Engine.
 

shuvo@y2k10

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i think the army has issued a preliminary gsqr on fmbt which is nothing new but a copy paste of articles in jane's defence weekly regarding uk's stealth tank,us's fcs and russia's t-95 project all projected to be lighter and highly mobile tanks with same or better armour protection than existing 60+ton western tanks.by the way a 50 ton tank with a 1500 hp engine can take part in a formula one -grand prix.
 

jayz india

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i have a question
why there is so much emphesis on weight of the tank all the time,if it is regarding moving it from pointA to pointB then cant we have a little larger coaches,older ones can be easily upgraded if bridges r a problem then y cant they think of the bridges that carry tanks across bridges,ARJUN tanks defeated T90 hands down, so y is it treated like this.we can always use arjuns in defensive formations with t90 and t72 taking it inside the enemy territory,for a lighter tank to use in mountaineus terrain we can always go for a bigger BMP which can carry 85 to 105 mm main gun along with 12.7mm anti aircraft gun and 7.62mm machine gun,it shouldnt weigh more than 30 tonnes
 

sandeepdg

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There is lot of difference between the tank engine and an aircraft engine. Aircraft engine requires lot of metallurgy and access to high-tech components. Tank engine is not that complicated as Areo-Engine.
Well, everyone knows the technological difference between a tank's and an aircraft's engine, mate ! The thing I am implying is when you are having troubles with the tank engine, then obviously you can hardly do much about the aircraft engine !
 

san

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For 50 Ton FMBT a 1500 HP engine seems to be overrated. A 1200 HP engine shall be enough considering 48 Ton T90 uses 1000 HP engine. Also no mention about the gun?
 

Rahul Singh

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I have two questions !!!

Why 50 ton FMBT need 1500 HP engine ?

What happened to the indigenous engine of MK-II ?
1. FMBT is expected to be speedy, highly mobile MBT with very very small radius of turn in even marshy terrain . To achieve these specifications, i feel DRDO has gone safely to choose a 1500HP pack. Also due to rapid evolution in threat scenario specification changes and usually it leads to more weight. So it's better to develop an engine which packs enough power to meet future requirements. Also there is a need for 1500HP power pack for Arjun MK-2 and it is for sure that if FMBT's 1500HP power pack is successful then it will go into Arjun MK-2 as well and will take care of that 2 ton of extra weight. Basically it is an attempt to hit two with one.

2. May be this very engine is also the engine for MK-2. Or Kaveri gas turbine variant for MBTs could be the one. May be both belong to same project. I guess nothing concrete is out in air as of now.
 

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