Snehesh Alex Philip
The Indian Army is scouting for protection gear to boost the survivability of its T-90 tanks, with the Ukraine war exposing the vulnerability of Russian armoured units to new-age weapons.
This pursuit involves equipping the Russian origin T-90, a workhorse for the Army, with an active protection system (APS) that can stave off threats from loitering munitions and top-attack missiles—weapons that have reduced Russian tanks to fireballs.
The Army plans to undertake the upgrades through the Make in India route. Currently, it operates about 1,250 T-90s, with around 350 more on order. A Request for Information (RFI) has been issued to identify the prospective global vendors to manufacture the APS for the T-90 S/Sk tanks in India.
The Russian tanks, the mainstay of the Indian Army, have effective firepower and mobility but with lesser protection compared to the Western Main Battle Tanks (MBTs).
Lightweight, shoulder-fired American-manufactured Javelins, and the Swedish- and British-made New Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon (NLAW), together with drones, have relentlessly hunted down the Russian tanks in Ukraine.
Over 1,400 Russian tanks are confirmed by independent photographic evidence to have been destroyed, abandoned, or captured—and that’s not counting the armoured personnel carriers, infantry combat vehicles, and tracked artillery, within the first few months itself of the war.
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