Arjun Tank

The Arjun (Sanskrit: अर्जुन) is a third generation main battle tank developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), for the Indian Army. The tank is named after Arjun, the main protagonist, an archer prince of the Indian epic Mahabharata.

The Arjun features a 120mm main rifled 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. It is powered by a single MTU multi-fuel diesel engine rated at 1,400 hp, and can achieve a maximum speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and a cross-country speed of 25 mph (40.23 km/h). It has a four-man crew: commander, gunner, loader and driver. Automatic fire detection and suppression and NBC protection systems are included. All-round anti-tank warhead protection by the newly developed Kanchan armour is claimed to be much higher than available in comparable third generation tanks.

Subsequently, delays and other problems in its development from the 1990s to the 2000s prompted the Indian Army to order T-90S tanks from Russia to meet requirements that the Arjun had been expected to fulfill.

In March 2010, the Arjun was pitted against the T-90 in comparative trials and performed well. The Army placed an order for an additional 124 Arjun Mk-I tanks on May 17^th 2010 and 124 Arjun Mk-II Tanks on August 9^th 2010.

The Arjun entered service with the Indian Army in 2004. The tanks were first inducted into the 43 Armoured Regiment, Indian Army Armoured Corps while the latest induction has been into the 75 Armoured Regiment on March 12^th, 2011.

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  • Indian Army x 124 Arjun Mk.I - 124 x Arjun Mk.II on order