New Delhi: The Defense ministry on Monday announced that India will induct an additional 464 Russian-origin upgraded T-90 'Bhishma' main-battle tanks at a cost of Rs 13,448 crore in the 2022-2026 time frame to bolster its "shock and awe" capabilities on the war front.
The irony is Pakistan is also in talks with Russian government for acquiring 360 such tanks. As per the source, the Defense ministry said that the "indent" to produce the 464 T-90 tanks would soon be placed on the Avadi Heavy Vehicle Factory (HVF) under the Ordnance Factory Board after the cabinet committee on security cleared the license acquisition from Russia over a month ago.
Also Read: ISRO to launch new radar satellite on May 22
The Army already has around 1,070 T-90 tanks as well as 124 'Arjun' and 2,400 older T-72 tanks in its 67 armoured regiments after the first 657 T-90 tanks were imported for Rs 8,525 crore from Russia from 2001 onwards, another 1,000 are being progressively licensed and produced by HVF with Russian kits.
In January, Army Chief Bipin Rawat, announced that new IBGs would be war-gamed in February and then tested in an exercise in May. But the ongoing tensions with Pakistan, in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack and the consequent Balakot air strikes, which led to “precautionary deployments”, have delayed execution of the plan.
As per a source, “Pakistan has plans to upgrade its existing mechanised forces, which includes over 50 armoured regiments of Ukrainian T-80UD and Chinese-origin tanks. It wants to acquire new Russian T-90 tanks and indigenously produce others with China's help.”