What I'm watching for now...
http://www.armyrecognition.com/febru..._31002163.html
With the exception of what would become the Russian
ARMATA starting with
Post #1 on the
BLACK EAGLE, the ARJUN Project might succeed it as the longest on going developmental program I've been tracking. With that being said India has been dealing with the "concept" of the ARJUN Mk1 for over 40 yrs. now. These tanks overall are very good, though I would consider the
ARJUN Mk2 as excellent based on the almost 200 improvements made to it. What we have below has given me some new information concerning the both the ARJUN Mk I & ARJUN Mk II.
ARJUN Mk I...
1. They continue to seem to have issues with the
LAHAT. I have seen nothing to indicate that they have abandoned the project. This has to be some kind of FCS issue. I was going to recommend taking the
LAHAT firing Mk I out of game play until this issue is finally settled but life side tracked that three years ago, however, with the game extension out to at least 2025 it would seem this is still a viable option vice deleting it all together.
2. I was surprised to see it seems like the
KANCHAN ceramic tiles were added on this tank though I need to verify (
Verified as baseline KANCHAN during edit window. It now has the improved version as dicussed below for the Mk II.) it wasn't already accounted for when submitted. What's new also is we didn't have the information "directly" believing that KANCHAN
can resist APFSDS rounds.
http://www.armyrecognition.com/india...elligence.html
ARJUN Mk II...
1. They have worked out the
LAHAT issue on the Mk II and is operational though the Mk II isn't yet.
2. Taken from ref 2 below..."The all-round protection has been enhanced with
improved (This is the key word and tells me again of advanced development and they upgraded the ARJUN Mk I to carry it as well above the "baseline" product it had.) KANCHAN armour, a modular composite armour developed by India. It has been described as being made by sandwiching composite panels between Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA). This armour is able to defeat APDS and HEAT rounds and is believed to withstand APFSDS." The structure is described as being very similar to what's on the ABRAMS. It can't be ruled out that they might not be using "
DU" in the manufacture of the
KANCHAN armor.
3. It has an highly advanced self protection system which is better then what I believe was initially intended but, this program was delayed and certain sectors of the ARMY have been against the ARJUN tank program in general from the start. The delay just offered extra time for the technology to improve and I believe that's what we're seeing here.
As taken from ref. 2... "To increase the self-protection of the Arjun Mk-II, a laser warning and countermeasure system (ALWACS) developed in collaboration with the
Israeli Company Elbit Systems is mounted on each side of the turret. The four ALWACS elements are mounted at each corner of the turret to provide 360-degree coverage."
http://www.armyrecognition.com/defex..._13003161.html
http://www.armyrecognition.com/india...elligence.html
Finally on the APC and MRAP side we finally get to see what the
KESTREL APC looks like from ref. 1 (MkII section.) above ...
http://www.armyrecognition.com/india...res_video.html
Also from ref. 1 the TATA Motors 4x4 MRAP already in the field.
There was a lot posted on this from the start some might find the process interesting and informative.
Alright my Tornado watch duties are over while the family sleeps and I'm off to bed-one more watch to go. Hope you all have a great weekend!!
Regards,
Pat
