“We will have the modifications (onArjuns) that the Army is looking for,” Defence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation chief V K Saraswat said here Thursday.
He was askedif the DRDO had any plans of delivering a more advanced version ofArjun to the Army as part of the next order. The DRDO chief was talkingto reporters on the sidelines of a function to mark the golden jubileeof the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS).
Saraswatsaid that the DRDO had already started working on the mark II versionof the tank, which will incorporate a number of modifications that havebeen sought by the Army.
“We have to make certain modificationsin the tank, which we call the Arjun mark II version. Developmentprocess on mark II is already in progress and our scientists and theArmy are working together,” Saraswat said.
The DRDO chief saidthe decision by the Army to place orders for 124 more Arjuns willensure that the assembly line of the tanks is “engaged”.
Armyhas till date placed orders for 248 Arjun tanks of which 124 havealready been delivered to it. The order for additional 124 tanks wasplaced after the comparative trials in March and April 2010.
Thecomparative trials between the Arjun and the Russian T-90 were carriedout to decide the future of the tank in the Army, during which theindigenous tanks reportedly performed satisfactorily.
The DRDOwants the Army to place orders for at least 500 Arjuns to recover itsinvestments before starting work on the futuristic main battle tank forthe service.
