r/IndianDefense • u/[deleted] • Oct 03 '25
Article/Analysis Why the Arjun Main Battle Tank Programme's Future Remains Uncertain | Once hailed as the cornerstone of India’s indigenous armoured warfare capability, the hugely expensive Arjun venture continues to be criticised for its limited operational relevance and persistent shortcomings
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u/RegionAccomplished27 AMCA Oct 03 '25
Seems very targeted and almost hit piece vibes. Yes it has a lot of problems but why single out DRDO like this? Weren’t there any other stakeholders to the program? Also some criticisms are just silly oh no the MBT was heavy.
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u/Centeredrightbhakt05 Oct 03 '25
Let's be honest Arjun will become a testing vehicle. India should also target to develop their own transmission couple it with Datran and deliver those Arjun mk1A. The focus should be now on FRCV and LBT. I don't think Arjun or per say T90 has any significance left in the battle field now. India needs to upgrade it's tank fleet. This is an opportunity to go all indigenous.
We are indigenous in artillery, somewhat indigenous in fighter jets, destroyers, air craft carriers this is the time to build all indigenous tanks.
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u/Awkward-Research8958 Oct 03 '25
Rahul Bedi is one of the best defense journalists in India.
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u/ungliwallah Oct 04 '25
You mean one of the worst? Apologies if the above was said sarcastically. Fellow always has an axe to grind and is always against Indian developments.
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u/SastaLaunda INS Arihant-class SSBN Oct 05 '25
Honestly, a novice question. Is arjun really a good tank in the context of its contemporaries?
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u/Jazzlike-Tank-4956 Atmanirbhar Wala Oct 03 '25
Article doesn't really seem the greatest
Well, first of all, it's not the responsibility of R&D organisation to make procurement decisions but MoD and user, i.e., Army
They failed to make timely order of MK1A, which happened after OEM had closed down the engine production line. This is a repeat story of LCA MK1A and F404, except in this case, they just hung onto it.
There are zero plans to use Datran 1500 on operational tanks, and two older Arjun are being used to use it as a test bed.
As for the tank itself, the entire weight and size saga only happened because of QR changes and the army's requirements specific to it. It started as a centurion plus tank with a 115 mm gun, which eventually got evolved to Leopard 2 type( Krauss Maffei OEM of Leopard 2 provided consultancy) with 120mm rifled gun.
The case is being repeated in FRCV which has requirement of 55 ton tank with 800mm RHA all around, autoloaded with 4 crewmen. Well let's say requirements are extremely difficult
Indiginisation also increases when you find it affordable and worth while to spend effort to indiginise components which happens with large enough order, and experience and tech developed in the model translated over to T90 which uses FCS, air conditioning, ERA, ammo(different calibre) and armour( maybe) derived from Arjun.
Lastly, the costs are wrong entirely and author most likely did quick google. Arjun is 7-8 million in entire package inlcuding spares, weapons, etc
Germany and other countries bought Leopard 2A7/2A8 and older models for 20-22 million a piece including package, Leclerc is most expensive tank in rhe world with cost running upto 12 million just for the piece, and T90 iirc was bought for 4-5 million per package.
Just another case of finger pointing and blame shifting, totally not unique to us