Photos And Details On Vijayantas MBT :
Preserved Mk.I, now at Port Blair on static display. Another in a similar early green livery is on display at the Indian National War Memorial (Maharashtra).
vijayanta I in operations on the Indian-Pakistani border during the war in 1971, as stated by the text. The improvized camouflage seemed to have been made by brooms with washable paint, either white or beige.
Vijayanta Mark one in the 1980s standard camouflage. A variant added dark brown to this pattern.
Vijayanta Mark 1A, now on display without side skirts.
Vijayanta Mk.1B or Mk1C in operations, 1980s.
It was more or less equivalent to the soviet-built T-54/55 at the time, but this did\’nt make it a light tank either. The armour was seriously reduced compared to the centurion, with only 80 mm on the turret and glacis front plate. Still, this was good enough against conventional ww2-era tanks or early coldwar models like the Pakistani M47/M48 Pattons equipped with a 90 mm gun.
Furthermore, the L7 gave them the necessary “reach” to kill before even going into range. The placement of the turret, 1/3 to the front, and the large rear engine compartment make it similar in silhouette to the centurion. Both tanks had also roughly the same size and shared many components, which was a factor for its adoption, since maintenance and supply could be common with the Centurions in service.
The whole fleet of vijayantas, the figure of around 2200 tanks, Around 400 were upgrades like the Mk.1A,B,C and Mark 2.
- Marconi upgrade: 70 Vijayanta Mark 1 tanks were fitted with Marconi\’s SFCS 600 fire control system
- “Bison” upgrades. 1100 Mark I were planned but apparently only a small numbers were so converted.
- Kanchan advanced composite armour upgrade (From the Arjun tank)
- Engine upgrade: With the V-84 of 780 hp of the T-72
- New SUV-T55A fire control system, modern land navigation system.
- Mark 1A: Bharat Electronics Tank Fire-Control System AL 4420, improved sight mounts & muzzle reference system.
- Mark 1B: AL 4421 system, with a computer-assisted Barr & Stroud Tank Laser Sight to increase first round hit probability.
- Mark 1C and Vijayanta Mark 2 were the latest upgrades.
Did we complete any major modifications to the Vijayantas and T-55s?