Arjun (tank)

The Arjun (pronounced [ɐɽˈdʑʊn]) is a third generation main battle tank developed by the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), for the Indian Army. The tank is named after Arjuna, the archer prince who is the main protagonist of the Indian epic poem Mahabharata. Design work began in 1986 and was finished in 1996. The Arjun main battle tank entered service with the Indian Army in 2004. The 43rd Armoured Regiment, formed in 2009, was the first regiment to receive the Arjun.

The Arjun features a 120 mm rifled main gun with indigenously developed armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot ammunition, one PKT 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a NSVT 12.7 mm machine gun. Powered by a single MTU multi-fuel diesel engine rated at 1,400 hp, it can achieve a maximum speed of 70 km/h (43 mph) and a cross-country speed of 40 km/h (25 mph). It has a four-man crew: commander, gunner, loader and driver.

In 2010 and 2013, the Indian Army carried out comparative trials in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, pitting the newly inducted Arjun MK1 against the Indian Army's frontline Russian-designed T-90 tanks, during which the Arjun reportedly exhibited better accuracy and mobility.

The fire-control system (FCS) originally developed for the Arjun main battle tank has been integrated into the T-90 tanks built in India under a transfer of technology (ToT) agreement by the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) at Avadi.

After the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the Government of India decided to develop a new main battle tank. The Indian Army issued a general staff qualitative requirement (GSQR) for a new battle tank, called for a 50 tonne main battle tank equipped with a 120 mm rifled gun, computerised FCS and powered by a 1,400 hp diesel engine. The programme to develop an indigenous tank was authorised in 1974 and funds were released for its development. In 1976, the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) was established under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to undertake the development of the Arjun main battle tank and to carry out research and development (R&D) on future combat vehicles for the Indian Army.

In 1983, the project began following a consultancy agreement with Krauss-Maffei, who had previously developed the Leopard 2, to oversee design, development and evaluation, while Indian state owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and HVF were joined with the CVRDE in the development of the Arjun. The original plan envisaged the development and rollout of the first tank prototype by 1980, which was later revised to 1987. The first prototype was delivered in 1989. The prototype tank resembled the Leo2A4 main battle tank of Germany.

From 1993 to 1996, the Indian Army carried out an extensive series of trials, which revealed some major defects in the tank, including the engine overheating and suboptimal performance of the weapons system. By the end of 1996, 14 pre-production series (PPS) tanks (PPS-1 to PPS-14) were built and delivered to the Indian Army to conduct trials. Based on these trials, the Army identified 10 shortcomings that needed to be addressed before inaugurating the tank into the service. During this period, the cost of the Arjun programme increased significantly from the 1974 estimate of ₹15.50 crore (equivalent to ₹464 crore or US$54.9 million in 2023) to a developmental cost of ₹307.48 crore (equivalent to ₹18 billion or US$216.7 million in 2023) in 1995.

The initial delays and cost escalations were attributed to the sequential revisions done to the original General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) issued in 1974 to accommodate new features. In 1996, the development of the PPS-15 tank prototype was initiated to address the shortcomings listed by the Army. In 1997, a 'joint action plan' was formulated to address the identified flaws and to make the tank ready for induction. By 1999, both the Army and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave clearance for a limited production run of the Arjun main battle tank based on the PPS-15 prototype. In 2000, the Indian Army placed an order for the procurement of 124 Arjun MK1 tanks.