India Builds First T-90 Tanks at Home

August 24th saw the delivery of the first 10 T-90 main battle tanks assembled under license in India. The Russian-designed T-90, dubbed the Bhishma in India, was chosen by the Indian government after the failure of their indigenous Arjun tank project. The Indian Army has already bought roughly 700 of these tanks, but these were either partially or entirely built in Russia. The current contract for an additional 347 T-90s calls for the entire production run to be built in India under license, and it is hoped that the experience will help India with its next effort at an indigenous tank.

When India completes this contract, it may very well find itself operating more T-90s than Russia herself, and will certainly be at the head of the largest force of modern tanks in South Asia.

The T-90 is an evolution of the T-72, and it first entered production in 1993. The Indian Army uses a mix of T-90S and T-90M models. Both use French-made thermal sights, and either Russian or homegrown reactive armor systems. It uses a 125mm gun with an autoloader, 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, and a 12.7mm commander's machine gun. The main gun can fire shells or missiles. In addition to the thermal imager, the tank has a laser range finder. The turret armor is a composite of aluminum and plastics, and India is currently considering a contract to supplement the composite and reactive armor combination with a third tier of active countermeasure defensive system. It has a 12 cylinder diesel engine that can produce a top speed of 39 mph, and weighs 46.5 tons.

The T-90 is not much of a match for its Western counterparts, such as the American M-1A2, German Leopard 2A6, or the British Challenger. However, the Bhishma's opponents -- Pakistan and possible China -- are not armed with those Western-made tanks. The main battle tank of the Indian Army is at least moderately better than anything fielded by the opposition, and that margin of superiority looks solid until at least 2025.

The likely opponent for the T-90 Bhishma are the Chinese-made Al-Khalids and the Ukrainian-made T-80s of the Pakistani Army. All three tanks are similar in many ways, but it needs to be remembered that Pakistan's Ukrainian T-80s are modernized versions of a tank discarded by the Russians in favor of the T-90, while the Al-Khalids are derivatives of Chinese-made tanks and largely unproven. The margin of superiority is not huge, but in the hands of a good crew, a lot of small edges add up quickly.

Sources: www.finchannel.com/news_flash/World/45648_Indian_army_receives_first_T-90_tanks_made_under_Russian_license/; www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/t-90.htm