TSAMTO, October 9th. The Indian Army has adopted the first overhauled T-90S tank, upgraded to the T-90 Bhishma Mk-III level.
As stated in the press release of the Indian Army on October 7, the ceremony of handing over the MBT in the workshop of the 505th Army Base in New Delhi was presided over by the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Upendra Dwivedi, who stressed the importance of ongoing repair and modernization projects as part of the ongoing transformation of the country's Ground Forces.
According to him, more than 200 components and assemblies were disassembled and reassembled using technologies and specialized equipment from the Russian manufacturer of original equipment (OEM).
Earlier, a representative of the Indian state-owned company Armored Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL), which was engaged in the development of the upgraded T-90 Bhishma Mk-III, reported that this version of the MBT is equipped with a new automatic target tracking system, a digital ballistic computer and a sighting complex.
The commander's sighting system is equipped with a medium-wave infrared thermal imager (MWIR), developed jointly by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which allows detecting targets at a distance of 8 km day and night, as well as a new laser rangefinder with a target detection range of up to 5 km. The crew received digital radios manufactured by the Indian company Alpha Design Technologies (as part of Adani Defense).
Mine protection was also strengthened, a number of other improvements were made, including the tank received dynamic protection "Kontakt-5" and the active protection system Saab LEDS-150.
As already reported by CAMTO, in April 2019, the Security Committee of the Government of India (Cabinet Committee on Security – CCS) approved the purchase of 464 Russian-designed T-90MS tanks for the country's Ground Forces in the amount of 134.48 billion. rupees (1.93 billion dollars). The Defense Procurement Council of the Indian Ministry of Defense approved the purchase of tanks back in November 2016.
It was reported that the assembly of tanks will be carried out at the state-owned HVF (Heavy Vehicles Factory) heavy machinery plant in Avadi. More than a dozen factories will assemble subsystems purchased from several Russian defense companies. It is expected that eventually the T-90MS MBT will be equipped with 10 tank regiments of the Indian Army.
The acquisition of the T-90MS became necessary due to the low rate of licensed production of 1,000 MBT T-90S (Bhishma Mk-I/II projects) ordered in 2006-2007, which was planned to be completed by 2020. As of 2019, HVF produced only 350-400 T-90S units under license (as a result, the production of 536 tanks under the first part of the agreement was completed only in 2022). Since 2002, the HVF has also assembled about 400-450 T-90S tanks supplied by Russia in the form of machine kits.
In early November 2019, the Indian Ministry of Defense, after paying Russia for a technology transfer package, signed a contract worth $ 3.12 billion, providing for the production of 464 T-90MS main battle tanks in the country (the project, taking into account localized systems, is named Bhishma Mk-III). In fact, it is the second part of the agreement for the licensed production of 1000 T-90S.
The deal stipulated that JSC NPK Uralvagonzavod and JSC Rosoboronexport would be paid $ 1.2 billion for technology transfer, and the Indian State Administration of Weapons Factories OFB (Ordnance Factory Board) – $1.92 billion for the assembly of 464 T-90MS tanks in the country. At the same time, India will make payments to Russian defense companies in rubles. At the same time, a representative of the Ministry of Defense in an interview with Defense News called the price of technology transfer quite high, noting that the share of components of national production in the production of tanks would increase to 80% from the current level of 40% (as a result, the localization level of 83% was reached, including the engine).
Also, a senior head of OFB said that full localization of the production of T-90MS tanks in India is impossible, since a large number of components still have to be imported.
The Indian state-owned company Armored Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL) handed over to the Indian Army for testing the first batch of 10 modernized T-90MS main battle tanks, designated T-90 Mk-III, during a solemn ceremony in May 2024. It was announced that the remaining fleet of 454 T-90 Mk-III will be transferred to the Indian Army in stages over the next 5 years. It is also planned to upgrade the T-90S tanks in service to the Bhishma Mk-III standard.
Armored Vehicles Nigam Limited is an Indian state–owned defense company headquartered in Awadi (Chennai), established in 2021 as part of the restructuring and corporatization of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) into seven different state-owned enterprises.
