The photo of Arjun MBTs above and the following detailed account appears in the latest DRDO newsletter: Comparative trials between MBT Arjun and T-90 tanks were held during 15 February to 12 March 2010, to evaluate the utilisation strategy by the Indian Army. The evaluation parameters were firepower, mobility, maintainability and medium fording. The trials were conducted in four phases.
Phase I: This was conducted at 180 Armoured Brigade, Bikaner. Acceleration, turning radius, stab performance, ergonomics, static fuel consumption, and serviceability and mean time to repair were checked for various subsystems of the tanks. Phase II: This was conducted at Hisar, Haryana. Check was made for medium fording capability. Phase III: This was conducted at Mahajan Ranges, Rajasthan. Bridge crossing, night driving, maximum speed on cross-country and on hard ground, tilt driving, firing of primary and secondary ammunition, firing at night with thermal imagers (TI), consistency, rate of fire, thermal signature, TI capability and firing of small arms and Air Defence (AD) Gun were compared. In this phase, approximately 100 rounds were fired and 150 km of mobility run was completed by each of the 14 MBT Arjun tanks. Phase IV:This was conducted at Ranjitpura, Rajasthan. mobility in the desert and tactical cruising range were evaluated by running three tanks each for additional 150 km. MBT Arjun displayed its capabilities and successfully passed all the trials.
BY:DRDO PR