NEW DELHI, June 11 (UNI) Project 'Rhino,' the Indian Army's move to upgrade its T-72M1 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to meet the requirements of the modern-day battlefield, has suffered delay with a key component being found unsuitable.
"The Fire Control Systems (FCoS) supplied by the polish manufacturer PCO-Penzin have been found to be unsatisfactory after several rounds of tests.
A new tender will be floated next month or in August," defence sources told UNI.
The T-72 'Ajeya' tanks, in service with the Indian Army over the last three decades, form the backbone of the Indian armour with over 1500 in service.
The 'Ajeya' is an ideal tank, due to its ruggedness, low silhouette and weight (41.5 tons) as well as firepower (125mm 2a46 smoothbore main gun, 12.7mm anti-air machine gun and 7.62mm co-axial).
A two-pronged strategy was to be followed with regard to the T-72 modernisation programme.
Given the huge size of the fleet, only a few were to be upgraded to 'gold standard', while a more modest upgrade was to be the fate of the rest.
The gold standard upgrade included a new fire control system (FCO), a thermal imaging capacity integrated with the FCO, new radios, capable of frequecy hopping, a fibre optic gyro-based navigation system and a laser warning system.
The DRDO's Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) package, developed for the MBT 'Arjun,' was also to be part of the upgrade.
Commencement had begun by bringing 250 tanks to the DRDO's (Defence Research and Development Organisation) 'combat improved' Ajeya standard, with upgrades in the FCO systems and the new radios.
The project had drawn proposals from several international manufacturers including the Russians, who offered their own T-72M1 improvement programme, which covered all the aspects of the Indian programme, albeit with Russian-made components, promising the T-72M1 would be modernised on lines of the T-90s which India already operates.
Others included the Poles, which had offered to upgrade the tanks to its own PT-91 standard, with a polish reactive armour package and laser warning receivers as well as the Israelis and the Ukranians.
