Arjun (Tank)
Arjun is a main battle tank developed by India's largest defense contractor, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), for the Indian Army. The tank is named after Arjun, one of the main characters of the Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata. The delays and failures in its development from the 1990s to the 2000s prompted the Indian Army to order vast numbers of T-90S tanks from Russia to meet the defense needs that the Arjun had been expected to fulfill.[5][6] The Arjun features a 120 mm main rifled gun with indigenously developed APFSDS ammunition which has the capability to defeat superior armor, one 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, and a 12.7 mm machine gun. It is powered by a single MTU multi-fuel diesel engine rated at 1,400 hp, and can achieve a maximum speed of 70 km/h (43 mph) and a cross-country speed of 40 km/h (25 mph). It has a four-man crew: commander, gunner, loader and driver. Automatic fire detection and suppression, and NBC protection systems are provided. All-round anti-tank warhead protection by the newly developed Kanchan armour is claimed to be much higher than available in present third generation tanks |