Brig.Gurbux Singh Retd.
WHY HAS MBT ARJUN TAKEN OVER 36 YEARS TO DEVELOP? BRIG.GURBUX SINGH (RETD)
The Design of MBT 70 as it was called started in right earnest in May 1974. A design based on GSQR for a 48 Ton Tank was completed using the Rolls Royce (PERKINS) CV 12 1200 HP DIESEL Engine de rated to!000 HP to suit the extreme hot weather conditions in India, coupled to Modified TN 12 transmission and a newly designed epicyclic final drive. The final drive prototype was fitted on one Vijayanta tank with newly designed tracks and had done over 100 kilometres and handed over to ACCS (ARMOURED CORP SCHOOL AND CENTRE ) for trials The Turret was designed around British 120 mm L11AS Gun. The turret ring was based on the design developed at VRDE AHMEDNAGAR for 105 SP GUN project .The suspension had six road wheels evenly pitched with torsion bars and manganese steel tracks with removable rubber pads and rubberised bushes. The armour protection could have taken the weight to 50 Tons max using what was best available at that time. The sub assemblies like digital fire control system, night vision devices etc readily available in open market were to be incorporated after user trials and the prototype could have been produced within three years for trials and production could have started in HVF in another two years. Why this project was not pursued is left to any body’s guess.
The MBT 80 design was based on purely hypothetical subassemblies which did not exist. It presumed that 1970’s India had infrastructure provided Allison and General Electric in USA, Rolls Royce and David Brown in United Kingdom; MTU, Porsche, RHEINMETALL and Wegmann in Germany or the consortium headed by GIAT in France. The basic design of the tank was completed by in 1975 and had a layout of MBT ARJUN. The design of sub assemblies was taken up simultaneously and for next ten years nothing was available to put in the prototype tank!
The project was unduly delayed, because the first 12 years from 1974-1986 of development were wasted in 'recreating the wheel', i.e. the whole design including that of vital sub assemblies like the power pack, fire control system etc for which no technology was locally available at that time was simultaneously under taken from scratch. The Scientific Advisor was repeatedly informed from the commencement of the project in 1974 that there could be no worthwhile progress unless these systems were imported. Unfortunately the Scientific Advisor was obsessed by the views of retired/re employed officers holding the key positions in CVRDE. Import of vital sub assemblies took place after the failure to develop them indigenously. Due to the lack of availability of a modern battle tank for the Indian Army, import of T 72 and T 90 from USSR had to be resorted to, incurring a huge loss of millions of dollars to the national exchequer. The designers who produced the design layout drawings of the tank left one after another in anguish. Whether the design layout drawings of the tank originally produced in 1974-1975 were configured to the parameters of the imported sub assemblies or not? If this has not been done, optimised performance of the tank as a whole would not possible and serious technical problems my appear after extensive use after the tank goes into service with the users to get its spurs.
Speedy deletion nomination of WHY HAS MBT ARJUN TAKEN 36 YEARS TO DEVELOP?
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