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Subject:
Indian Army Faces Tank Shortage ( INDIAN REPOTE)
Vision Hawk
7/25/2005 4:53:59 AM
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By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI, NEW DELHI
The Indian Army is losing its aging tanks faster than new and modernized ones are ready for service, according to service sources here.
The Army expects to lose* 50 percent of its fleet in the next three to four years.* The government in April decided to scrap all 800 of the service?s Vijayanta tanks. They will be stripped of guns, communication and surveillance equipment and auctioned off later this year, a Defence Ministry official said.
Developed for India by the British company Vickers, now part of BAE SYSTEMS, the Vijayanta has been in service since 1966.
Army sources say that by 2008, an additional approximately 1,000 of the Army?s more than 3,000 tanks will be ready to be junked.
An Army official said the service?s 500 T-55 tanks are due to be scrapped in that period, and about 400 T-72s will be nonfunctional in another two or three years, leaving the Army with a serious tank shortfall in that time frame.
At the same time, the Army continues to await full induction of its Arjun main battle tank 30 years after the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) began developing it, and the program to modernize its T-72 tanks is not yet in full swing. Around 500 of India?s T-72 tanks are slated to be fully modernized by 2014.
?With the depleting tank strength, there would be an attempt by DRDO to procure another tank project for its laboratories,? said defense analyst Sament Harish, a retired Indian Army captain. ?Such a move would be a blunder ? India should buy advanced tanks from overseas markets at an urgent pace, along with undertaking the upgrading of the T-72 tanks.?
The Army?s fleet today includes the Russian-made T-55, T-72 and T-90, the Vijayanta and the Arjun, which still is used only for training.
The Army official said only 180 of about 1,600 T-72 tanks have been upgraded, around 125 T-55s are functional and the Arjun still is too cumbersome for combat.
* Arjun?s * Troubles
The Army is not happy with the homegrown Arjun. The first five were delivered by the Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory, Chennai, last year as part of a 124-tank order.
Originally slated for first delivery in 1990, with mass production planned to begin in 1997, the 124 Arjuns now are expected to be inducted for Army service by 2012.
DRDO began developing the tank in 1974 and delivered the first prototype in 1984. But problems ? including the tank?s weight, its overheating engine and the level of armor protection ? delayed the program.
The 58.5-ton Arjun, longer and much heavier than the Russian T-90 tanks the government is buying as an interim solution to the Arjun?s delays, has poor operational mobility, the Army official said.
India in 2001 signed a deal with Russia?s Uralvagonzavod State Enterprise to procure 310 T-90s. So far, about 180 partially assembled tanks have been delivered and the remaining 130 will be built under license at Indian facilities.
The Army official said India urgently needs to accelerate T-72 modernization to a rate of around 50 each year.
The Defence Ministry official noted the government already is upgrading around 300 T-72s with a new 125 gun, a more powerful engine, mounted land navigation systems, nuclear, biological and chemical protection equipment, laser warning systems, thermal imaging systems, night-vision devices and frequency-hopping radios. |
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