What is the performance of Arjun tanks in India?

India once claimed that Arjun tank is one of the three most advanced tanks in the world. The other two are American M 1A 1 and French Leclerc tanks. The design of "Arjun" tank was helped by the German company Klaus Maffei-Vehman, which is famous for manufacturing "Leopard 1" and "Leopard 2" tanks. But its performance is very different from that of Leopard tank. India specially developed a kind of "Kanchang" armor for "Arjun" tank, claiming that its performance is almost equivalent to the British "Chobham" armor.

In addition, there are many defects in performance:

The design of turret and car body is not suitable for smooth and safe operation, for example, the driver will hit his head when driving with the window open; When the gun is straight ahead, the driver can't get in and out of the cockpit.

The components of the fire control system are not integrated and lack of mutual cooperation.

The loading speed of shells is unacceptably slow. For example, it takes 15s to load a shell to be launched, and it takes longer to load a shell that has to be launched.

When loading shells, the artillery must be adjusted to a certain elevation angle, otherwise it cannot be loaded.

The anti-aircraft machine gun is operated by the loader outside the car, and the operation of the anti-aircraft machine gun and the loading of shells cannot be carried out at the same time.

There are only three rounds in the turret, and the army requires at least 12 rounds.

The turret structure of prototype car is unreasonable and easy to get stuck.

The prototype car weighs 52~60t, much higher than the original plan of 45t, which seriously affects the mobility of tanks, makes railway transportation difficult, and exceeds the safety passing standard of bridges.

The working environment of the passengers is not conducive to the best performance of the passengers, such as small seat adjustment, uncomfortable riding, and the passengers are not easy to get close to the control equipment.

Dynamic defect

In the field test, there are a lot of problems with the German-made MTU838Ka-50 1 engine installed on Arjun main battle tank. To this end, India had to seek help from Germany to solve the defects exposed by the engine.

In the field test, the piston rod in the oil-gas suspension system used in Arjun main battle tank chassis also failed. At the same time, the early warning device of air filter on Arjun's main battle tank also failed.