If you think that US defense procurement programs have a problem, you will get a chuckle out of the Indian Arjun MBT.

Indian Army to get 14 Arjun tanks for field trials

The Indian Army has agreed to take 14 indigenously developed main battle tanks (MBT) Arjun for field trials by September 30, it was announced on Monday.

The decision was taken after successful demonstration of all modifications including medium fording or crossing a water body to Defence Minister AK Antony and other senior officials at Avadi in Tamil Nadu where the tank is being built, a defence ministry statement said.

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While not officially going on record, the army is known to be extremely unhappy with the Arjun, having listed 14 defects that need to be rectified.

These include a deficient fire control system, inaccuracy of its guns, low speeds in tactical areas – principally deserts – and its inability to operate in temperatures over 50 degrees celsius.

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50°C is about 112°F. It’s a temperature that was seen in France during their killer heat wave.

And it appears that this saga will continue.

The Indian Army laid down its qualitative requirement (QR) for the Arjun in 1972. In 1982, the DRDO had announced that the prototype was ready for field trials. However, the tank was publicly unveiled only in 1995.

Arjun was originally meant to be a 40-tonne tank with a 105 mm gun. It has now grown to a 50-tonne vehicle with a 120 mm gun.

Wiki lists it as being a 58.5 tonn vehicle with a crew of 4, so it would be similar to the Leopard II. (It’s about 5 T lighter)

It’s main gun is rifled, which implies some British involvement, as they are only ones staying with rifled main guns.

It uses a hydropneumatic suspension. This probably does not gain much by way of performance, torsion bar seems to match that, but is more efficient space wise, as you don’t have to have a sub floor over the torsion bars, and it can kneel, possibly allowing for very low profile hull down positions.

35 years?????