Part 2
Bhisma
Introduction : The T-90 is a Russian third-generation main battle tank that is a modernisation of the T-72 (it was originally to be called the T-72BU, later renamed to T-90).It is currently the most modern tank in service with the Indian Ground Forces. T-90 uses a 125mm 2A46 smooth bore tank gun, 1G46 gunner sights, a new engine, and thermal sights.In all, India plans to have 310 T-90S and 1,330 T-90M tanks in service by 2020 (totalof 1,657 tanks by 2020). T 90 s in India is known as Bhisma.
Characteristics :
Weight: 47.5 Tons
Length: 9.63 m
Width: 3.78 m
Height: 2.22 m
Crew: 3
Main Gun: 2A46M smoothbore
Max Range of gun: 4 km (APFSDS)
Armour: i) Composite
ii) Kontakt 5 ERA
iii) LEDS 150 APS (soon)
Gunner Sight: 1G46
Engine : V 92, 12 stroke, Diseal
Speed: 60 km/hr on road
45 km/hr off road
Operational Range: possibly 700 km
In Service : from 2001
Numbers : atleast 862
T 90:
In early days of post cold war era Russian Army operated two MBTs… one T 80U another cheaper T 72 B. Though T 80 initially was assumed as superior to T 72B, Russian Ministry Of Defence found that it could no longer afford to manufacture two war tanks in parallel. So they went for highly upgraded version of T 72, the T 72 BU which was later renamed T 90. Later very poor performance of T 80s in Chechen war discarded it’s superiority and T 90 became frontline of Russian MBTs.
T 90 in India: India decided to buy the T-90 after the delay in production of the domestically developed Arjun main battle tank, and to counter Pakistani deployment of the UkrainianT -80UD in 1995–97. The T-90 was selected because it is a direct development of the T-72 that India already employs with 60% logistics commonality with T-90 simplifying training and maintenance. In 2001, India bought 310 T-90S tanks from Russia, of which 120 were delivered complete, 90 in semi-knocked down kits, and 100 in completely knocked down kits. A follow-on contract, worth $800 million, was signed on October 26, 2006, for another 330 T-90M “Bhishma” MBTs that were to be manufactured in India by Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi, Tamil Nadu. A third contract, worth $1.23 billion, was signed in December 2007 for 347 upgraded T-90Ms.
A ₹10000 crore (US$1.6 billion) purchase of 354 new T-90MS tanks for six tank regiments for the China border has been approved recently. Indian T 90s do not come with Shtora-1 passive/active protection system. Hence, in April 2008, the Indian Army sent arequest for proposal to Rafael,BAE Systems,Raytheon,Rosoboron export,Saab, and IBD Deisenroth Engineering for an active protection system for the T-90SBhishma.The contract is expected to be worth US$270 million. Saab’s LEDS-150 won the contract in January 2009.
Armour: Indian Bhisma currently has two layerd protection system rather Russian three layered one.
1) Primary armour is it’s very high quality composite armour. In several tests conducted in front of an Indian delegation the latest US standard M829A2/KEW-A2 APFSDS ammunitions were fired from 250 meters against a T-90S lacking the normal built-in explosive reactive armor (ERA) Kontakt-5 (K-5) The turret proved completely impenetrable, which proved to be crucial in selling the T-90 Bhishma MBT to India.
2) Second layer of Kontakt 5 ERA which provides protection level of 1.2 [20%] against Kinetic Energy (APFSDS) rounds and 1.7–1.8 [70 %] against Chemical Energy rounds (Tandem HEAT).
3) Indian T-90S tanks are not equipped with the Shtora-1 laser countermeasures suite ‘soft kill’ Active Protection System (APS).They will be equipped with the LEDS-150 Land Electronic Defence System in near future , which has ‘hard kill’ capability, which means that an incoming round or missile can be destroyed by a defensive round fired by the tank, as well as ‘soft kill’ measures which can jam/destroy enemy tank’s sights as well as disables incoming missiles.
Main Gun: Indian Bhismas are equipped with 2A46M smoothbore gun having auto loader, thus reducing the crew size. The autoloader can carry 22 ready-to-fire rounds in its carousel and can load a round in 5–8 seconds.
Accurate firing range for HE-FRAG-FS is 10 km and for APFSDS is 4 km. It also can fire 9M119M Refleks ATGM having range of 6 km.
Ammunitions: The autoloader can carry 22 ready-to-fire rounds in its carousel and can load a round in 5–8 seconds. A total of 42 rounds are carried. HEAT rounds that can be fired from the 2A46M includes the 3BK21B (with a Depleted uranium liner), 3BK29 (with a credited penetration of 800 mm RHA equivalency), and the 3BK29M (with a Triple-tandem charge warhead). Additionally the T-90 features the Ainet fuse setting system which allows the tank to detonate 3OF26 HE-FRAG rounds at a specific distance from the tank as determined by the gunners laser rangefinder, improving its performance against helicopters and infantry.
Conclusion : High quality of armour, superior main gun and high level of mobility has made T 90 one of the best MBT of the world. Whereas Indian Bhismas were originally downgraded version comparing to Russian standards, currently continuous upgradation has made Bhismas better than even Russian T 90s. Bhismas can be used in western desert as well as himalayan regions too. Bhismas along with Arjuns and Ajeyas have made Indian armoured regiments one of the best in the world.
INDRA 