India’s state-owned Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd’s (AVANI) Avadi-based Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) will from next year begin undertaking deep upgrades of the Indian Army’s (IA) Russia-supplied T-90S MBTs. The total number of 46-tonne T-90S MBTs planned for procurement is 1,657—a figure that was firmed up way back in 2007. To date, 640 units have been procured from Russia (both as off-the-shelf units and those in semi-knocked-down condition, while another 600 have been built under licence, with the final tranche of 417 now being built (for equipping 10 Armoured Regiments).
The IA now wants to upgrade its 640 T-90S (that came from Russia) through the installation of a new digital hunter-killer fire-control system developed by TATA Power SED, which will include an autotracker correction-input device and a related muzzle reference system. In addition, a locally-developed auxiliary power unit (APU) will be installed, as will laser warning receivers, new commander’s panoramic sight with thermal imager, an uprated powerpack, a thermal imager-equipped driver’s sight, and four see-through-armour situational awareness optronic sensors. But the IA has decided not to opt for active protection systems.
On November 9, 2020 the IA had awarded New Delhi-based premier defence start up OshoCorp Global a Rs.1.325 crore contract for the development and supply of APUs under the Make-II guidelines of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Initially, OshoCorp Global is required to develop four APUs (two each for T-90S and T-72M) for trials and approval and subsequently produce 3,257 APUs.
The commander’s panoramic sight has been developed by
the DRDO’s IRDE laboratory and it will be built by state-owned Bharat
Electronics Ltd. The MoD has just inked a Rs.1,075 crore contract with BEL for supplying
such sights for 957 T-90S MBTs. The IRDE has also developed the driver’s night
sight, which will be bulk-produced by MKU Ltd as the Netro TD-5100.
The 1PM-96MT ESSA-3 gunner’s sight (containing the THALES-supplied Catherine-FC thermal imager) will be retained on the T-90S.
The
uprated powerpack for the T-90S will be the A85-3AX-diesel engine capable of
producing up to 1,500hp (although it is presently dowrated at 1,350hp) that
will be ordered off-the-shelf from Russia’s Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, located
about 350km south of Nizhny Tagil. This in turn will result in the T-90S’ power-to-weight
ratio being hiked to 24hp/tonne. The 46-tonne T-90S (Ob’yekt 188S) are
each powered by a 1,000hp V-92S2 diesel engine that deliver a power-to-weight
ratio of 21.5hp/tonne.
What Goes Out Of The T-90S
