India
Indian Army's T-90
Bhishma tanks take part in a military training exercise in the
Thar Desert, Rajasthan. The tanks have two different turret armour arrays.
In 2001, India bought 310 T-90S tanks from Russia, of which 120 were delivered complete, 90 in semi-knocked down kits, and 100 in completely knocked down kits. The T-90 was selected because it is a direct development of the T-72 that India already employs with 60% logistics commonality with T-90 simplifying training and maintenance. India bought the T-90 after the delay in production of the domestically developed
Arjun main battle tank, and to counter Pakistani deployment of the Ukrainian
T-80UD in 1995–97. These tanks were made by
Uralvagonzavod and the updated 1,000 hp (750 kW) engines were delivered by
Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. These tanks however did not feature the Shtora-1 passive/active protection system though there are reports that a separate contract for shipment of a modernised version of this suite is being discussed.
[16]
A follow-on contract, worth $800 million, was signed on October 26, 2006, for another 330 T-90M "Bhishma" MBTs that were to be manufactured in India by
Heavy Vehicles Factory at
Avadi, Tamil Nadu.
The T-90M Bhishma (named for the
almost invincible warrior in the
Mahabharata) is a customised, improved version of the T-90S, which India developed with assistance from Russia and France, with both of whom India has very close ties. The tanks are equipped with the French Thales built Catherine-FC thermal sights
[17] and utilises Russian Kontakt-5 K-5 explosive reactive armoured plates.
[18] Kontakt-5 (K-5) ERA in its export variant provides a protection level of 1.2 [20%] against Kinetic Energy (APFSDS) rounds and 1.7–1.8 [70 %] against Chemical Energy rounds (Tandem HEAT). Semi-active baffle plates and ceramic layers with high tensile proprieties are employed in T-90 base armour. Even more advanced armour composition was implemented in the welded turrets of domestic T-90s and on export T-90 Bhishma tanks for India. In several tests conducted in front of an Indian delegation the latest foreign M829A2/KEW-A2 APFSDS ammunitions were fired from 250 metres against a T-90S lacking the normal built-in explosive reactive armour (ERA) Kontakt-5 (K-5) The turret proved completely impenetrable, which proved to be crucial in selling the T-90 Bhishma MBT to India.
[19]
In April 2008, the Indian Army sent a
request for proposal to
Rafael,
BAE Systems,
Raytheon,
Rosoboronexport,
Saab, and
IBD Deisenroth Engineering for an active protection system for the T-90S
Bhishma.
[20] The contract is expected to be worth US$270 million. Saab's
LEDS-150 won the contract in January 2009.
[21]
A third contract, worth $1.23 billion, was signed in December 2007 for 347 upgraded T-90Ms, the bulk of which will be licence-assembled by HVF. The Army hopes to field a force of over 21 regiments of T-90 tanks and 40 regiments of modified T-72s. The Indian Army would begin receiving its first T-90M main battle tank in completely knocked-down condition from Russia’s Nizhny Tagil-based Uralvagonzavod JSC by the end of 2009.
[22][23]
The T-90M features the 'Kaktus K-6' bolted explosive reactive armour (ERA) package on its frontal hull and turret-top (the T-90S has 'Kontakt-5' ERA), is fitted with an enhanced environmental control system supplied by Israel's Kinetics Ltd for providing cooled air to the fighting compartment, has additional internal volume for housing the
cryogenic cooling systems for new-generation
thermal imagers like the THALES-built Catherine-FC thermal imager (operating in the 8–12 micrometre bandwidth).
[22] In all, India plans to have 1,640 T-90 tanks in service by 2018–2020.
[24]
The first batch of 10 licence built T-90M "Bhishma" was inducted into the Indian army on August 24, 2009. These vehicles were built at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at
Avadi, Tamil Nadu.
A
₹10000
crore (US$1.5 billion) purchase of 354 new T-90MS tanks for six tank regiments for the China border has been approved
[25] which would take the total number of T-90 tanks in the
Indian Army's inventory to 2011 and with a total of nearly 4500 tanks (T-90 and variants, T-72 and Arjun MBT) in active service, the world's third largest operator of tanks.
India plans to have 21 tank regiments of T-90s by 2020, with 45 combat tanks and 17 training and replacement tanks per regiment, for 62 total each.
T-90MS – New modernised (M) version of the export tank T-90S, with a 1130HP engine, a PNM Sosna-U gunner view, a 7.62 mm turret UDP T05BV-1 RWS, GLONASS, inertial navigation systems and new
explosive reactive armour (ERA).
[61][62][63] A new removable turret bustle is included, which provides storage for eight additional rounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-90