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ROADIES' Number 235

~Malna.tlleTank PII!:e (ex-Andl)

Ib 14..~CI'Ore

,. • .,..70I(ph o-tIOIqIh 14..75 sec 1.iIrw)er Inn 1IS.,5 For MY;drG'pneumatic

, s\J&P~' i 'Kanchan' arrnour.,

b$¢Hfj y systems

~UhRroven in battle, ,rio alr'con system

The Arjun Main Battle Tank cos is Rs 14 CJ"Ol'e, but you can't have it even if you have the moneYi it's on sale to only €Ine demanding 'customer, the Indian A1'li1y., You can't get it insured> even a 'heavy' licence won't get you behind the wheel and decent ser, "ice, we assure you, will be impossible.

So why are we doing a story on the AFj1J1l M13TI Ow mostly homegrown Main Battle Tank, which will soon be entrusted with keeping the 'wolves from our door, is a phenomenal machine.

Spec-to- spec, a matels for anything currently mane around the world, the Arjun is a frontline MBT built to be the ultimate predator and tank-killer. What you are about to get is ar, exclusive peek at the awesome power and systems that come together to tum this beast into ORe of the most destructive machines in the world.

The Main Battle Tank is the pre mi er land-based weapon system, which can make or break the success of a military campaign. It has been so since the early days of the Second World Wa£, when Cennan Panzer divisions ran rings wound every other force in continental Europe. And so to kill the tank, was born the tankkiller. Twice as heavy, twice as well protected with twice the £i.pe]l!~wer; these WeIe the machines that dictated the balance of power. And it is these tanks that have become the main battle-tanks of today.

7G AUTOCAR INDIA SEPTI:i:MBER 2004

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

CON'TElltPORARY B.UTHEAvY DEIIGff,WlTHAU. ... BELLS' ANDWHlm.IS

Every military machine, fighter aircraft, battle ship or tank, is basically a weapons platform, meant to move a means of destruction as quickly as possible to the 'enemy. Ail essential part of the Mobility, Firepower, Protection triad that governs MBT design, the chassis has to gel it there at top speed, and also protect it. The' Arjun's Ch3$5i~ or hull is made UJl of whatis-called Rolled Homogenous Armour or RHA. 11'1 additon, the world's leading MBTs use additional multi-layered armour that G"OJ1- sists of a specially designed sandwich.structure.

The Arjun's 'Kanchan' armour is close to the British I Chobham' system, possibly the best i.n the world. Developed by the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) in Hvderabad, this material is said to' consist of composite steel, special alloys and ceramio bonded together. The differing densities puts II penetrating projectile off course, and the shell 'loses energy. This armour has been bested in combat like situations, and bas fared really well. Surprisingly, ride quality is vital to a tank too. Tanks DOW engage ta rgets while on the move. and a good ride pre-vents the gun from oscillatlng.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DR DO) developed a hydropneumatic suspension system that uses compressed nitrogen.as a springing agent, with hydraulic shock absorbers used to damp resonance. Currently onlv one other frontline MBT, Fra;1Ce's LeClerc, utilises the system effectively; but DRDO claims to have mastered the system, giving the Arjun a crucial edge, both In terms of platform stability as well as crew comfort, The progressive suspension is soft earlier in its travel and hardens when pushed. l"(us, each 'wheel is an iridividualunit, meaning the tank Call sustain a hit, lose a couple of wheels and still limp horne,

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AUTO CAR INDIA ROAD TEST NUMBER 235

ARJUN MAIN BATTLE TANK

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sal mass of hard, unyieldil'lg steel that feels as solid as the, sid of a mountain - you wouldn't even make a mlero-dent in its side with II sledgehammer. The AIjun is so high ... you need to unhook a footpeg to get a leg up to thetop of the hull, before. you cmnb clpwn to the drlNer's seat through what is basically a manhole. The enormity of the task ahead onIy sinks in once you're seated, $taring blankly <It allnY rectangu11l: slit Qf light, your only field of view. It's like trying to steer a bungalow around, seated in a manhole, And this isn't even a big battlefield: we're just outside the tank garages, with other tanks, trees and buildings to steer elearof. Thankfully the controls are Rot the normal tank pl1!S'h/pWI fare, with throttles for each of the tracks. The Arjun has a pretty

fte turret 'floats up' whan In stalllll.ed mod~ lIIe 1Z0mm gun can slew t .... ough

EIG!..~.l, GEAIUlUX&

PERFORMANCE

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AWES.OMEV1DPOWEa. PACKEXPINSIVIE. . EASY'0It SEllVlCETOD

With a combined weight of 58.5 tonnes, the ArjUIl needs some serious muscle to help it get going. The initial plan was to develop a Low cost. indigenous 1500bhp air-cooled motor, but the project was shelved as it· would have taken too Long to develop the engine 'fulLy.

The new power-pack, as the engine, transmission and differential are called, may F10t be Indian, and may be horrendousIy expensive at RS3.$c~ote a pop (without duty) but the Indian Anny loves it. It is made by

famous heavy-engine mak r MTU of Germany, who also supply the powetlrain for Germany's Leopard 2, the·French LeClerc and the export version of the MJ Abrams. MID, incidentally, was founded by Karl Maybach"ofuber-lill1o.fame. The. colossal 'l0.litre VIO that sits behind the turret sends out a brutish 1400bhp via a four-speed semi-automatic transmission, and it even has a torgue converter. A seriously large piece of kit, this 39,700C;CID011Ster is about the size and height of the average dining table. Two watermelonsized turbos garnish it OQ each side, with massive suitcase-sized. intercoolers and air fUtera packed alons the flanks. Torque is 445.6kgm (an Ikon makes 131), huge in isolation, but only suffiden t when you see how much weight that torque has to shift,

Importantly, the powertrain is easy to service: the entire 52·

tonne unit can be lifted out of the rear and replaced by another one ill the field ill 45 minutes. Tanks also need to wade and silorl<el, and the Arjun is no slouch in this area. It can 'shallow forti' up to a height of.4.5 feet without preparation, and can duekunder rivers not more than seven feet deep after the tank bas been sealed, the big diesel breathing through the commander's hatch.

OITHE.GAD

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T'IE .. Cs-a ASSOF

TANKa, IT EVEN HAS DEC:ENTP'EIlFORMAIICE Imposing is an extr.emely mild word for the A1jun. Almost four metres wide, with a bull !hat's shoulder high, the AIjw:o dw¢s even everyday nucks - it's almost 10 metreatong.Irs a coles-

ArJ.n bur ... ' ....... at tile CYWDE track at,Ava"'''' Chennal; performance good lor 67 Es .. eml; .... re!ls that Infernal taxl- BOOOOM! 7Z AUiOCAR INDIA SEPTEMBER 2004

~sleel teota : even !with lis so I rootofilie wnto (hat is iormiIlks in llaring rslltot w,It's galaw s.And leficld:

tank

• trees ear of. re not U fare, of the pr~ttY

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AIlltH:ltrY .. aox geb lost o_n tu .. .w:; 111HI shells stand Inside the t.oNt; ammo loadell' can sllovel6-8 ......... a minute Into the brWecb. straightforward half steering with a growl fromtheMTU unit, But it Was out on the range that 120mm gwl, and the laser and wheel, accelerator and brake ped- J will never again write, "Feels the Arjun really impressed. It infrared-aided Fire Control als .. The big \\lleseJ comes alive qgile for its weight" in a road test powered up hillocks with ease, System, recen tly improved along

with a shudder that rocks even again: the steering is a revelation. languidly spanned massive WI.Ul the hardware suppliers.

this monster, and that's when the Turning the wheel makes the tank trenches that would have swal- Sat on the gu nner's stool, atthe butterllies start. Sam one has just slow one track, while the other lowed two Safaris whole, and feet of the commander, the guntold me that the Arjuneosts Rs 14 carries on at the normal speed. tackled broken ground with dis- ner can eith T lise his' day-sight crore, there are 14DO horses under This instantly shifts tank bodily in dam. Even big dips or massive or ali infrared one at night, ruyright foot and r don't think 58 the direction you steer, as if a giant boulders didn't seem to affect the Before you engage a I:aJ:ger. yoo

tonnes will handle very well - hand has held the tank and point- plush ride. A big Daimler-Benz have to place the turret into sta-

without wheels that steer. ed in the right direction. And it engine as well as.the magic carpet bilised mode, in which it literally

Lselect first on th fiddly-look- even darts the other way, as soon ride of an Sclass - this was just floa up Iike a hovercraft with a ing gearbox, get my right foot as you give ita quarter twistofthe too much. It even made light suspension of its own. This slowly off thebrake and gingerly wheel, Also unbelievable i(,)r a work of spinning around its own seems. to work really well, and squeeze the 'accelerator. The vehicle this heavy is the braking; axis in pivot mode - with tire the tip Q£ the'h"l1ll remains entire mass of the tank lurches there's a pair of massive discs at massive rear differential spinning absolutely still, however bUDlpy

forward with a surprising the Tear, but the majority of the both tracks in opposite directions. the terrain. The gunner uses an

amount of enthusiasm" as I strug- braking is handled by a retarder aircraft-like yoke, which elevates

gle to get a perspective on the that works with the torque con- STANDARD the gun and swings ·it around.

road ahead, even though I've lift- verter to reverse power and Once a type of shell and target is

ed the seat up and am peering torque. The scie.ntistsatCVRDEin EQUIPMENT selected, the gurmer acti va tes the

over the hull. Witl_, "Easy', this Chennai were so confident of their laser and presses the fire button-

thing is big" on repeat mode in U\y mount, they even let us figure it as Simple as that. The real hard

head, I progressively push the with our V-Box. Thezero to40kph I.ASE'lMHlmmFUtECOIf1'ROI. work is done by the ballisticcom-

throttle and select second. Lots of time of nine seconds is pretty SYS'nMCGULDBEVEIIY puters. They gather information

engine rpm ml:l boom instantly impressive fur something that EFFECnVE. aurHO~ CON on the distance to the target from

get converted to lots o( forward weighs as much as approximately We didn't fire a shell but actually the laser,take into account the motion. The tank, now in semi- 67 Maruti E,steems ... OK you do gol behind the controls of the wind velocity, air temperature, automatic mode, gallops forward the math. main weapon system, the air pressure and type o£ ammu-

SEPTEMBER 2004 AUTO<:AR INDIA 73

SEPTEMBER 20Q4 AlITOCAR INqlA 75.

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ninon selected, all in real-time. The computer fhen adjusts the off,set:.and fires .'FhlS takes place in milliseconds. Tile commander sitting above the gunner has his OWl'! 'panoramic sight', which rotates through 360 degrees. He can select another target while the 120mm gun is taking II shot, look onto it and then 'hand it over' to the guru:\(~I' with a press of II button - as the turret automatically aligns itself with the new target.

The Arjun's fa vourite weapon is the lethal fln-sta bilised armous-piercing sabot, basically a very high energy dart tha t explodes out of the barrel at almost fiv.e times the speed of sound; it carries more energy than a lO-to!" truck travelling at 120kph. Upon impact, this vel'y high density tungsten projectile concentrates all 'its energy into the area of a one-Npee coin, and bores deep inte its tatgetwithall that energy behind it. FsAPDS .rounds like these have been known to penetrate more than 10

inches of steel and even bore diagonally through gun barrels at over 11 2.5km range. The other type of snell, the High Explosive Squash Head, carries explosives of varying hardness for both soft and hard 1atgets. An Anti-Tank missile has also been successfu 1- ly fired tram the barrel of the Arjun, with no changes needed. It is lethal beyond a range of Iour kilometres at night and six during the day, and call be aimed by another tank or soldier SOUlewhere else on the battlefield.

THE Arjun MBT project took 30 years to see fruition. Completed useing expensive, foreign-made components, critics say the project could have been done faster and better. But this project, as originally conceived, was nothing short 01 an impossible dream. Building a complex, world-class weapon system without decades of experience or a competent component industry is simply not possible. This is true if you want to build a 'car, and doubly so for a weapons system of this complexity taking on the best in the world who have a lead of more than half a century. Just ask Tata or Mahindra, both of whom have struggled up the slippery slope and faced Similar problems and criticism. Even America's Abrams tank was initially riddled with failures and massive delays. And then the gun was replaced with the one from the German Leopard! We could not verify the effectiveness the Arjun as a weapons platform, we cannot tell you how effective the

b t lf CuphoIdInmlSllnp.butsenrai

gun or armour are, u I sheillhoIdenmauuptortlliS.

what is claimed is true,

then itls been worth the effort. The Arjun may not be the tank Indian planners had hoped for, but what it is, however, is a stepping stone, possibly a very effective one. Couid India buy the American M 1 A2 Abrams or the German Leopard II? No - these are almost twice as expensive and not for sale, especially not to India. This then, may be the next best thing. Plus, of course, itls the most bloodcurdling, most powerful and simply massive vehicle we have ever driven. Here's looking at you Pervez - through crosshairs.

TESTERS NOTES

rIndlng • paHdng .pot Is som.etllnes difficult. but you'll _ .get 1aW.a..

Wewanted_n alrcon, .... was __ oped but the Army said no.

FUEL ECONOMY

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ftUSGlAIIT HAS __ SERIOUS THIRST BUT DI&N IT WOULD

We couldn't test this, $0 we asked the engineers, who said happily, "6.7" Well, that sounded wonderful, better than arrSclass in the dly,tu1til we realised fl~ey meant 6.7 litres per kilometre. On ... hence the 2,OOO-litre fuel