After the Army chief General V. K. Singh warned to the central govt. that his entire tank fleet is devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks, the government is fast-tracking orders to arm the T-90S main-battle tanks with missiles and specialized ammunition to outclass Pakistan on the western front.
Contracts worth Rs. 6000 crore are in the final stages for 25,000 Invar missiles and 66,000 APFSDS (armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot) rounds for the Russian-origin T-90S fleet as well as 10,000 Konkurs-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).
Gen Singh had written a confidential letter to PM Manmohan Singh on March 12 detailing the critical ‘hollowness’ in his 1.13-million-strong Army’s war-waging capabilities.
The procurement process for the new contracts was initiated quite sometime ago but their swift conclusion has become a top-priority over the last few weeks.
There are two big contracts for the 3UBK-Invar missiles, which are potent anti-tank weapons with a five-km strike range, in the pipeline. The first contract is for 10,000 missiles worth Rs 1,386 crore which are to be purchased from Russia for which a draft note has already been prepared and circulated.
The rest 15,000 missiles will be ordered from and manufactured by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Ltd, at a cost of over Rs 2,000 crore, for which negotiations are in progress.
Another over Rs 2,000 crore contract will be for the 66,000 APFSDS rounds fired from the 125mm smooth-bore guns of T-90S tanks. According to the Army chief, reserve stocks for this specialized ammunition is down to only four days.
The Army is also going to get the 10,000 Konkurs-M ATGM’s directly from Russia for over Rs 1,200 crore.
The T-90S fleet, incidentally, has grappled with glitches in it’s missile and thermal imaging systems right since it’s induction after India first ordered 310 of these tanks for over Rs 3,625 crore under a February 2001 contract with Russia.
India had decided to purchase the T-90S tanks since Pakistan was inducting T-80UD tanks from Ukraine as well as the Al Khalid MBTs developed with China’s help. During the purchase of the T-90S, the indigenous Arjun tanks were then nowhere on the horizon.
After the induction of the initial 310 T-90S tanks, India had plans to manufacture another 1,000 T-90S tanks at the Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory, but Russia was eager to squeeze out more money and put several roadblocks in the Transfer of Technology (ToT) as promised.
It was only after India signed another Rs 4,900-crore deal with Russia in November 2007, to import another 347 of these tanks, coupled with Antony pushing the ToT case with his Russian counterparts, that Moscow eased controls.
Since then, the Avadi factory has built 170 T-90S tanks, with the annual production slated to touch 100 tanks in 2012. Moreover, the Army has ordered 124 more Arjuns after the initial order of 124 in 2004.
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