The Indian Army is conducting un-official trials of India's indegenious Main Battle Tank - Arjun - during its summer war games being held currently in Rajasthan.
So far, report sources, the Army has absolutely 'zero complaints' from the performance of the Arjun Tank in dusty, hot desert conditions in Rajasthan. The Army had previously some reservations about the performance and effectiveness of the Tank in operational conditions.
Indegenious Development?
While the project had started as an in-house project, there has been a significant level of foreign involvement in the past few years in this project. Israeli contracters working with DRDO on the Tank has already been well documented in the public media, but sources confirm participation of American and South Korean entities in the recent stages.
In fact American firms are said to have been consulted for setting up large scale production facilities for the Tank.
NERA Armour
Indian developers are believed to have come up with a revolutionary 'honey comb' design for the NERA (Non-explosive and non-Energetic Reactive Armour) Armour and, according to our sources, is said to be performing 'perfectly'.
NERA is a reactive armour which works like any explosive reactive armour but with the crucial difference being the using of energy in form of a charge instead of explosives. Israel, America are reportedly interested in seeking access to this technology.
Arjun Project: Future?
The first 15 tanks of the 124 have already been activated. Of the remaining 109 tanks, the Indian Army is currently putting the first five tanks from the production lines at Avadi, through accelerated build quality and reliability trials. The intent is to verify whether the Arjun production has stabilized, with the requisite quality and performance requirements. Upon successful completion, the remaining 104 tanks will be manufactured in batches. The planned production rate is currently pegged at thirty tanks per year, with the Army requesting fifty per year as the ideal.
On Oct. 13th 2006, the Indian Minister of Defence reported that the Arjun was slated for full scale production soon. He also stated that five tanks had already delivered to the Indian Army and 23 were ready for delivery.