FLASH! Indian Army Orders 124 More Arjun Tanks!

The Defence Ministry has just announced that the Indian Army has decided to place a fresh order for an additional 124 Arjun main battle tanks. This is over and above the existing order of 124 tanks, taking the total strength in service to 248 Arjuns. I wrote about the possibility of two more regiments being ordered here in March. The development follows the success of the indigenous MBT Arjun in the recent gruelling desert trials. After many years of "trials and tribulations", it has now proved its worth by its superb performance under various circumstances, such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets, accurately hitting targets – both stationary and moving, with pin point accuracy. The total number still falls well short of the 500 tank target that the Mark-1 version was supposed to achieve to amortize investments on infrastructure.

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