By IANS
New Delhi : Even as India wrestles with a Russian demand for additional money for an aircraft carrier it has purchased, New Delhi has quietly inked a $1.2 billion deal for additional 347 T-90 main battle tanks (MBTs) for the Indian Army.
The deal was signed over the weekend after a Russian delegation arrived here for talks, an official said Wednesday. The delivery schedule has not been specified.
Weighing 46.5 tonnes and powered by a 1,000 hp engine that gives it a top speed of 60 km per hour, the new T-90s will be equipped with a 125 mm smoothbore gun and will have the capability of firing anti-tank guided missiles.
The Indian Army currently deploys 310 T-90s that began arriving in the first five years of the decade. Of these, 186 were assembled at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi in Tamil Nadu from Russian-made kits.
The need for the T-90s was felt due to delays in the development of the indigenous Arjun MBT. Originally meant to be a 40-tonne tank with a 105 mm gun, it has now grown to a 50-tonne vehicle with a 120 mm gun.
Arjun was meant to supplement and eventually replace the Soviet-era T-72 MBT that was first inducted in the early 1980s. However, delays in the Arjun project, and Pakistan’s decision to purchase the T-80 from Ukraine, prompted India to order 310 T-90s, an upgraded version of the T-72, in 2001.
Later, an agreement was also signed for the licensed production of another 1,000 T-90s.
The latest deal comes even as the defence ministry is wrestling with the Russian demand for an additional $1.2 billion for the carrier INS Vikramaditya, previously named the Admiral Gorshkov.
The agreement for the ship was inked in 2004 for $1.5 billion. The Russians now say considerably more work would be involved than was anticipated in refitting the ship, which has been mothballed since 1995.