The Arjun main battle tank (MBT), named after the warrior prince Arjuna in the Indian epic Mahabharata, was developed by…
www.army-technology.com
Indian defense experts were surprised when, at the end of 2019, the government signed a licensing agreement with Russia for Indian production of another 464 Russian T-90 tanks India already has a little over a thousand of these tanks, most of them assem
www.strategypage.com
i found these interesting pages.
both these pages talk about Arjun tank development from MK1 to MK1A to MK2.
and both state that arjun MK2 will be a 50 ton futuristic FMBT. that is similar to T-90S in its configuration, that could replace all old T-72s. so it will have 6 road wheels instead of 7.
the T-90S tanks that we use are literally knocked down versions of T-72 B with just a better fire control systems etc. but the gun is the same one used on T-72 B. and the armour is the same steel version of that of T-72 B.
so we don't even have good armour tank or a good gun until now. thats why local kanchan armour is used on T-90S. thats why our T-90S are heavier than russian T-72 B even though T-72B has better and heavier gun.
thats why even russia has less than 300 T-90 that too MS with an APS hard kill.
T-72 B3 of russia >T-90S of india . also T-72 B3 is much cheaper than our T-90S.
we didn't even get 2A46 125mm gun during recent technology transfer.
even the army's FMBT programme failed. because no one is ready for TOT more than some 30-40%
our army is basically that one "character" that gets rejected all the time. no one would give atleast a reasonable Transfer of technology. be it the brits in 60s and 70s or soviets in 80s, 90s. russians in 2000s and 2010s. or even americans in any of their sold platforms.
(if you knew, you should have supported DRDO right from the start, crying won't get you anywhere)
while its too tsundere to accept the weapon systems of DRDO.
in the end modi, rajnath sing and bureaucrats of MOD have tried so hard and pushed the 118 arjun MK1A on to the baboos of army that lick russian equipment.
basically its
corrupt bureaucrats vs army baaboos.
my guess is that army baaboos might made a condition with bureaucrats that they would accept arjun only if there is T-90S TOT. so it happened. so if in future any DRDO tank project fails, we have T-90S as standoff platform (which again is literally a T-72 B with kanchan armour and a bit better gun and fire control systems, engine etc and kontakt-5 ERA). it still doesn't have an heater or AC BTW.
we need to wait for the negative list. i'm sure tanks might be under negative list. its also another reason for army to have a standoff platform T-90S with some 70% TOT.
so yeah CONCLUSION.
FMBT = ARJUN MK2.
( GNMBT won't exist until atleast 2035-2040). even the requirements for GNMBT doesn't exist on paper. so another 10-20 yrs for GNMBT to be in service)(don't ask about mass production of GNMBT)
MK2 is a real project. not some fake news.
will mostly look like this. 6 wheels, 50 ton, 3 crew, auto loader, kanchan armour, advanced electronics, APS. ( commander sight and 12.7mm guns were made keeping MK2 in mind not MK1A. and that too by 2020. CLGM was ready by 2020 & etc.
someone beat me to it
much appreciated!!
