The Army Wants Inferior Tanks
Yeah, I know – Inflamatory headline. But that’s the gist of this post by Ajai Shukla (It also appeared as an article in today’s Business Standard)
Col Shukla’s post points to the Indian Army’s repeated attempts to discredit the Arjun MBT. It is now clear as crystal that the Army has its mind set on buying the T-90 MBT from the Russkies even though its own trials a few years earlier pointed to the fact that the Arjun is qualitatively superior to the T-90 in mobility and firepower, the two fundamental characteristics of a tank.
Also to be noted is the fact that though the Arjun’s developers, the CVRDE, have time and again called for comparative trials of the Arjun against the T-90, the Indian Army has refused to do so.
The way the army is dragging its feet over the Arjun pisses me off.
And now they are doing the same with the Akash – the missile passed IAF trials with flying colours (9 hits in 9 tries simulating different operational scenarios) and the IAF has placed its first orders. But the Army has now demanded that the system be mounted on a T-72 chassis instead of a BMP chassis. The result – more delay which plays into the hands of phoren arms manufacturers.