India conducted firing tests of its newly developed ammunition from its Arjun main battle tank 40701163

Defence & Security News - India
 
 India conducted firing tests of its newly developed ammunition from its Arjun main battle tank
The Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted on Wednesday two successful 'mote firing' of its newly developed ammunition from the indigenously tank Arjun targeting a T55 tank at Odisha coast in a war-like scenario, Indian Express news daily reported.
     
     

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.

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 The Russian tank has been replaced by the Arjun main battle tank in the Indian Army.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.
     
     

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.