Pak says our tanks better, India wants to test

According to South Block sources, the five Arjun production-series tanks, handed over by the DRDO in August, will be tested against the T-90s before any decision is taken on inducting more indigenous tanks.

Apart from these five Arjuns, the 43rd Armoured Regiment had been given 14 Arjuns in the past decade, but these were from the pre-production series.

While the DRDO continues to stress on technical parameters like ‘‘specific ground pressure’’ to showcase Arjun, the Army knows that Musharraf may be right as the power-to-weight ratio of Al Khalid is better than the Indian tank.

The Army brass admit that though the Arjun has an excellent armour, a South African gun, an Israeli fire-control system and space, its bulk is still a hurdle. At 56 tons, the Arjun is 13 tons heavier than the Al Khalid, which is a joint effort of the Chinese-Pakistan-Ukrainian industries. Arjun has a 1500 horse-power engine against the Ukranian 1200 horse-power engine in Khalid, but the former churns out 24 hp per ton as compared to the latter’s 26 hp per ton.

It is this power-to-weight ratio — a direct function of the tank’s agility and mobility — that can be a matter of life and death during a war. Besides, at Rs 16 crore a piece, the Arjun is costlier than the Khalid.

While the Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence declined comment, defence analyst K Subrahmanyam said the Arjun was begun with a ‘‘wrong philosophy, just like every other DRDO project of that period.’’

Speaking to The Indian Express, the former Secretary of Defence Production said: ‘‘The DRDO chose not to collaborate with the Russians. It understated the cost of development and this led to time and cost overruns. I knew the Arjun was nowhere close to being operational.’’ However, Arjun has a votary in the former Army chief and Rajya Sabha MP, General Shankar Roy Choudhary. ‘‘I pressed strongly to get Arjun MBT productionalised and put into service while I was in service. But I was also very critical about the delays.’’

‘‘The Arjun project is a case history in bad project management. I still maintain that Arjun, even if it is more costly, will in the long run improve the industrialisation in the country.’’ But at Army Headquarters, they are taking no chances. It is already clear that the missile-firing T-90, not the Arjun, will be India’s main battle tank.

Due to shortage of attack helicopters, the Army has to rely on tanks in case hostilities break out. The Army has also instructed the DRDO to speed up production of Arjun tanks rather than handing them over in piece-meal basis.

But before placing its next order, it will wait for the result of the Arjun versus T-90 tests this winter.