You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
India-Pakistan
India Seeks Local Production of 'Total Kill' Ammunition for Russian-Origin T-72, T-90 Battle Tanks
2020-01-09
[SPUTNIKNEWS] New Delhi (Sputnik): Kinetic energy penetrator Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) is the primary ammunition of any armoured regiment. It can effectively engage targets at ranges even beyond 2,000 metres.

India has moved to produce the primary ammunition for its Russian-made T-72 and T-90 tanks at local factories. Issuing an Expression of Interest (EoI) to local vendors, the Indian Army aims to purchase 85,000 rounds of 125mm ammunition in a bid to expedite the supply of the ammunition that it has been importing from Russia. EoI is the first step in the procurement procedure.

“The armour protection on the adversary’s tanks is gradually increasing, which requires higher penetration capability to defeat. There is a requirement to indigenously develop an improved 125mm APFSDS ammunition for tanks T-72/T-90", the EoI document reads.

The current T-72 and T-90 tank barrels are incapable of firing high penetration APFSDS rounds due to a limitation of safety margins of 600 Mega Pascals. Therefore, the Indian Army has put up a requirement to domestically develop ammunition with a minimum depth of penetration of 530mm in order to enhance the lethality of the armament, within the existing “safety”, “consistency”, and “shelf life” criteria.

The Indian Army expects the supply of the ammunition by the end of this year.

In September 2019, maintaining focus on the "Make in India" initiative, the defence acquisition council - the Indian defence ministry's apex procurement body - accorded approval for the domestic development and production of the main gun to provide more lethality to its armoured regiment.

India imports such kinetic energy penetrators for approximately 3,500 T-90 and T-72 tanks, worth over $70 million annually.

Since 2012, the Indian Army has been relying on Russia for such critical ammunition, following the blacklisting of the Israeli military Industry by the Indian government for alleged wrongdoing in military purchases.

Posted by:Fred

#1  'Local production'. Hyeh !!

Because of the utterly useless nature of the Indian bureaucracy, a procurement process created by politicians for graft, an overstaffed defence ministry, and thoroughly incompetent REMFs hogging policy discussions - unfortunately India is never going to achieve parity with other nations in this regard.

Nobody in the Indian political class trusts the military with direct purchase budgets or even entertains our requests for a fucking meeting about the needs of the fighting arms, unless it's for political posturing. Right, Left, the gummint doesn't matter. Policy is determined by civil servants with no clue about reality. And the entire decision tree is populated by prize assholes and their petty departmental fiefdoms, not one soldier.

Eventually, an engineering firm with no clue about battle or even explosive - all lawyers, accountants and MBAs will purchase a license from the same Russian manufacturer we could directly buy from, and build a facility somewhere in India inflating the costs. They'll also present a nice jingoist AV presentation to the cabinet. And we'll buy it, telling ourselves it's all us. Indian ammo is finally made in India !

Pakis will laugh as they unbox the next shipment of ammo for their Al-Khalid tanks, with 125 mm smoothbore ESR molded cannons. They can fire APFSDS, HEAT-FS, HE-FS, DU ammo all out of the crate; with integrated night fighting and thermal; and integrated battlefield tech. No mods and upgrades necessary.

We'll still slay them in any war of course, that's not the point.

An officer was being felicitated after Kargil by a minister who was eulogizing about Indian hubris. Quite pissed after ten minutes of froth, he said to his face, 'No thanks to you. We don't win wars because we're Indian, we win wars despite being Indian, our boys will fight with sticks and knives and still win'.
Posted by: Dron66046   2020-01-09 10:57  

00:00