MBT Arjun Mote Firing Successful

BALASORE: The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on Wednesday conducted two rounds of successful ‘mote firing’ of its newly developed ammunition from a tank targeting another tank at a defence test facility off the Odisha coast in a war like scenario.

Defence sources said such a complicated exercise, carried out for the first time in the country, passed off successfully with the ammunition hitting the tank as expected. The tests were conducted at about 11.25 am and 12.25 pm at the test range of Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) at Chandipur-on-sea.

“High explosive ammunitions were fired from the indigenously developed main battle tank (MBT) Arjun against the decommissioned Russian T55 tank.

The T55 tank was instrumented for the purpose and the ammunition successfully hit the tank,†said a defence official. The whole objective of the test was to capture data generated during the trial and analyse it whether it had the required effect on the target.

MBT Arjun…

Besides gauging the efficiency of the Arjun tank which is a pride of DRDO, the test also confirmed the fire power of the ammunition.

New ammunitions like thermobaric and high explosives (HE) were fired against the T55. The Russian tank has been replaced by the Arjun main battle in the Indian Army.

As tanks like T55 are with other countries, the trials were aimed at ascertaining the effect of the new ammunitions on such tanks.

“The test was conducted for that first time. Similar trials have also been planned on Thursday. Earlier, no instrumented tank was targeted by another tank during such trials though several tests of open firing from Arjun tank have been conducted in the Pokhran range of Rajasthan,†the official informed.

Arjun is a third generation main battle tank (MBT) developed by DRDO. It features a 120 mm main rifled gun with indigenously developed armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding-sabot ammunition, one PKT 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, and an NSVT 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 67 km/h and a cross-country speed of 40 km/h. The tank has proved its worth under various circumstances. Last year, it had received global accolades with the Chinese military officials praising the tank which suits Indian conditions. The Arjun was commissioned in the Army in 2004.

Source from India Defence News.