After receiving orders for 124 more Arjun main battle tanks,
the DRDO has decided to supply an advanced version of the weapon system to meet
the requirements of the Army. “We will have the modifications (on Arjuns) that
the Army is looking for,” Defence Research and Development Organisation chief
V.K. Saraswat said here on Thursday. He was asked if the DRDO had any plans of
delivering a more advanced version of Arjun to the Army as part of the next
order. The DRDO chief was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function
to mark the golden jubilee of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied
Sciences (INMAS).
Mr. Saraswat said the DRDO had already started working on
the mark II version of the tank, which will incorporate a number of
modifications that have been sought by the Army. “We have to make certain
modifications in the tank, which we call the Arjun mark II version. Development
process on mark II is already in progress and our scientists and the Army are
working together,” Mr. Saraswat said. The DRDO chief said the decision by the
Army to place orders for 124 more Arjuns will ensure that the assembly line of
the tanks is “engaged.” The Army has till date placed orders for 248 Arjun
tanks of which 124 have already been delivered to it. The orders for additional
124 tanks were placed after the comparative trials in March and April this
year. The comparative trials between the Arjun and the Russian T-90 were
carried out to decide the future of the tank in the Army, during which the
indigenous tanks reportedly performed satisfactorily.
The DRDO wants the Army to place orders for at least 500 Arjuns to recover its investments before staring work on the futuristic main battle tank for the service. Commenting on the role of INMAS during the recent Mayapuri radiation leak case here, Mr. Saraswat said, “INMAS also has the expertise of detecting nuclear radiation and we provided the fastest response to the casualties there. We were able to send our teams within four hours and we also found out the level of radiation.
The DRDO wants the Army to place orders for at least 500 Arjuns to recover its investments before staring work on the futuristic main battle tank for the service. Commenting on the role of INMAS during the recent Mayapuri radiation leak case here, Mr. Saraswat said, “INMAS also has the expertise of detecting nuclear radiation and we provided the fastest response to the casualties there. We were able to send our teams within four hours and we also found out the level of radiation.
