Sam@Indian
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- May 29, 2016
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It's time that Both Indian Army and DRDO needs to accept that both these Organisations are at fault due to various reasons and that that the Arjun MK2 should be only used as a technology demonstrator now and there is an Urgent requirement to design a new MBTs for future applications.
Indian Army ordered the design of the Arjun Tanks in the early 1970's and almost everyone is aware about the fantasy of Indian Army's Leadership of that time with Western Weapon systems including MBTs and hence Arjun MBT was designed as a MBT with 4 Crew Members and a 120mm GUN which is very common in all the Western Tanks.
But the Main problem started when DRDO with it's limited Funds wasn't able to finish the project in the next 10+years and hence Indian Army started inducting T-72 Tanks which were designed on a totally different concept from the Western Tanks like M1Abrams, Leopards etc. as T-72 was designed as a 3 Member Crew with a 125mm GUN.
And the biggest problem that got created is that Indian Army bought these Tanks in Large numbers to fulfill their immediate requirements but No specific Instructions were provided to DRDO to change Arjun MBT's design to make it a 3 Member Crew MBT with a 125mm GUN.
Indian Army had a Chance to do the required design Changes in ARJUN MBT but for unknown reasons these Changes were not done.
Now, In the early 1990's Indian Army ordered Russian T-90's which were just like T-72 MBTs were designed with a 3-Member Crew and a 125mm GUN.
These T-90's were inducted in Indian Army in large numbers just like the T-72's were inducted.
This continous usage of Russian MBT's with a 3-Member Crew and 125MM Cannon had a great affect on both Indian Army and OFB as Indian Army developed it's strategies and training systems on the basis of the Weight class, 3-Crew Member and capabilities of T-90 and T-72 MBT's whereas OFB became well-versed in manufacturing various ammunitions for Russian MBTs or much more potent in making ammunition in the calibure of 125mm.
With such a Huge amount of Manufacturing, training and support system available for MBT's with 3-member Crew and 125mm Cannon it's much more sensible to Utilise ARJUN MK2 as a technology demonstrator and to DESIGN and DEVELOP a new Generation MBT with a 3-Member Crew and a 125 cannon in Weight classes of both T-90 and T-72 MBT's.
These New tanks should be an equivalent to RUSSIA's T-14 Armata MBTs.
India's Georgraphy makes it necessary for Indian Army to Operate Tanks in weight class of T-90 and T-72 MBTs as any MBT in T-90's weight class will be ideal to fight a War on WESTERN Border and a tank in the wieght class of T-72 will be ideal for fighting Tanks battles in EASTERN Border.
The new class of MBT's won't face any kind of ammunition issues as OFB already has a well-establised structure for manufacturing 125mm Ammunition on a Mass scale in any conflict.
It's very clear that Russian MBT's were designed on a 3 crew member design with a much bigger CANNON of 125mm and Western MBT's were designed with a 4 Member Crew and a 120mm Cannon.
This presence of an extra CREW member naturally made it necessary for designers to make Western Tanks like M1Abrams, Leopards, Merkava etc much bigger or I can term it as more spacious and this clearly increased the Weight of the Tank and with further enhancements especially addition of Protection Layers these Western Tanks for sure became very well protected but lost their Maneuvering capabilites or we can term it the Western Tanks lost their flexibilty.
This loss of Flexibilty didn't hampered the performance of Western Tanks in Conventional Wars as the best example is US Invasion of IRAQ but as the Modern Warfare started becoming a Mix of Conventional and Unconventional Systems especially when Modern Wars shifted from Open pastures to Small Roads, Streets and localities of Urban cities then Western TANKS lack of maneuvering capabilities became a big liability for the Western Armed forces.
But under the same scenario the results were very different for Russian Tanks as Russian Tanks failed to make a Mark in Conventional Warfare against Western MBT's and US-IRAQ War is a great example where Western MBT's just crushed Russian MBT's But in the Modern Unconventional Warfare that is being fought is highly develop Urban Areas the RUSSIAN MBT's maneuvering capabilities and the ehancement in Protection systems especially ACTIVE Protection Systems has drastically changed the MBT game and now RUSSIAN MBT's have an Edge in the 21st Century Warfare.
Indian Army ordered the design of the Arjun Tanks in the early 1970's and almost everyone is aware about the fantasy of Indian Army's Leadership of that time with Western Weapon systems including MBTs and hence Arjun MBT was designed as a MBT with 4 Crew Members and a 120mm GUN which is very common in all the Western Tanks.
But the Main problem started when DRDO with it's limited Funds wasn't able to finish the project in the next 10+years and hence Indian Army started inducting T-72 Tanks which were designed on a totally different concept from the Western Tanks like M1Abrams, Leopards etc. as T-72 was designed as a 3 Member Crew with a 125mm GUN.
And the biggest problem that got created is that Indian Army bought these Tanks in Large numbers to fulfill their immediate requirements but No specific Instructions were provided to DRDO to change Arjun MBT's design to make it a 3 Member Crew MBT with a 125mm GUN.
Indian Army had a Chance to do the required design Changes in ARJUN MBT but for unknown reasons these Changes were not done.
Now, In the early 1990's Indian Army ordered Russian T-90's which were just like T-72 MBTs were designed with a 3-Member Crew and a 125mm GUN.
These T-90's were inducted in Indian Army in large numbers just like the T-72's were inducted.
This continous usage of Russian MBT's with a 3-Member Crew and 125MM Cannon had a great affect on both Indian Army and OFB as Indian Army developed it's strategies and training systems on the basis of the Weight class, 3-Crew Member and capabilities of T-90 and T-72 MBT's whereas OFB became well-versed in manufacturing various ammunitions for Russian MBTs or much more potent in making ammunition in the calibure of 125mm.
With such a Huge amount of Manufacturing, training and support system available for MBT's with 3-member Crew and 125mm Cannon it's much more sensible to Utilise ARJUN MK2 as a technology demonstrator and to DESIGN and DEVELOP a new Generation MBT with a 3-Member Crew and a 125 cannon in Weight classes of both T-90 and T-72 MBT's.
These New tanks should be an equivalent to RUSSIA's T-14 Armata MBTs.
India's Georgraphy makes it necessary for Indian Army to Operate Tanks in weight class of T-90 and T-72 MBTs as any MBT in T-90's weight class will be ideal to fight a War on WESTERN Border and a tank in the wieght class of T-72 will be ideal for fighting Tanks battles in EASTERN Border.
The new class of MBT's won't face any kind of ammunition issues as OFB already has a well-establised structure for manufacturing 125mm Ammunition on a Mass scale in any conflict.
It's very clear that Russian MBT's were designed on a 3 crew member design with a much bigger CANNON of 125mm and Western MBT's were designed with a 4 Member Crew and a 120mm Cannon.
This presence of an extra CREW member naturally made it necessary for designers to make Western Tanks like M1Abrams, Leopards, Merkava etc much bigger or I can term it as more spacious and this clearly increased the Weight of the Tank and with further enhancements especially addition of Protection Layers these Western Tanks for sure became very well protected but lost their Maneuvering capabilites or we can term it the Western Tanks lost their flexibilty.
This loss of Flexibilty didn't hampered the performance of Western Tanks in Conventional Wars as the best example is US Invasion of IRAQ but as the Modern Warfare started becoming a Mix of Conventional and Unconventional Systems especially when Modern Wars shifted from Open pastures to Small Roads, Streets and localities of Urban cities then Western TANKS lack of maneuvering capabilities became a big liability for the Western Armed forces.
But under the same scenario the results were very different for Russian Tanks as Russian Tanks failed to make a Mark in Conventional Warfare against Western MBT's and US-IRAQ War is a great example where Western MBT's just crushed Russian MBT's But in the Modern Unconventional Warfare that is being fought is highly develop Urban Areas the RUSSIAN MBT's maneuvering capabilities and the ehancement in Protection systems especially ACTIVE Protection Systems has drastically changed the MBT game and now RUSSIAN MBT's have an Edge in the 21st Century Warfare.