The Chief Controller for Armaments and Engineering Systems of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of the Indian Ministry of Defense S. Sundaresh announced the details of the specification of a promising MBT being developed as part of the FMBT (Future Main Battle Tank) program.
The FMBT tank is intended to replace the T-72 MBT of the Indian Army after 2020. It is planned that a prototype FMBT will be created within 5-7 years. During the development, a modular architecture will be used, which will make it possible to quickly upgrade the MBT when new technologies appear.
The weight of the FMBT will be about 50 tons (for comparison: the developed Arjun Mk.2 weighs 62 tons). The MBT will be equipped with an improved powerpack-type engine compartment, designated Bharat. Size of the 1500hp FMBT engine will be two-thirds of the size of the Arjun Mk.1 power plant, which has a capacity of 1400 hp. The first prototype of the national engine will be ready by 2016. To fine-tune the engine of the tank, a national development group was formed, which included representatives of the customer, industry and DRDO. Foreign consultants will also be involved in the work. The design of the tank's transmission has already begun. It is planned to widely use compact radio-electronic equipment, which takes up little space.
Simultaneously with the development of the FMBT, a new version of the "Arjun" MBT - "Arjun" Mk.2 is being created. In total, 93 modifications are planned to be made to the current design of the Arjun Mk.1 tank, including equipping it with an improved anti-aircraft machine gun, as well as a missile system for hitting ground targets at long range and protecting it from attack helicopters.
The panoramic sight with night vision for the tank commander will be equipped with an automatic target tracking system, which will increase the efficiency of target search at night and the accuracy of hitting moving objects.
ERA will be made in the form of metal elements located throughout the MBT hull. The negative aspect of equipping the tank with dynamic protection is an increase in its weight by 1.5 tons, but this will protect the vehicle from attacks from above and from the sides. The protection of the Arjun Mk.2 MBT from missiles and rocket-propelled grenades will also be strengthened.
Currently, the Indian Army plans to purchase 124 Arjun Mk.2 tanks. The production of MBT will be carried out at the heavy engineering plant (HVF) in Avadi.
The delivery will be carried out in two stages. At the first stage, 45 "Arjun" Mk.2 MBTs will be transferred to the Indian Army with 56 completed modifications, including equipping with a missile system and a panoramic sight of the commander. At the second stage, the remaining 79 MBTs will be delivered, on which all the planned modifications will be implemented. The first 30 tanks are planned to be delivered in 2013-2014. The total cost of 124 MBT "Arjun" Mk.2 is estimated at 50 billion rupees (more than 1 billion dollars).
