Indian Army Reveals Ambition to Convert Legacy T-72 Tanks into Autonomous Armoured Fighting Vehicles.

The Indian Army is moving to transform portions of its vast T-72 tank fleet into autonomous armoured fighting vehicles, according to the Ministry of Defence’s iDEX ADITI 4.0 report released during the 2026 innovation cycle. The initiative signals a major shift in how India plans to preserve combat mass while expanding robotic warfare capabilities, allowing legacy tanks to take on high-risk missions that would otherwise expose crews to enemy fire.

The program seeks to convert the T-72 into an optionally manned combat platform equipped with autonomous mobility, remote-control functions, and networked battlefield integration. If successful, the converted vehicles could support future manned-unmanned teaming operations for breach missions, reconnaissance, decoy tasks, and contested manoeuvre warfare, reflecting a broader global trend toward repurposing legacy armour as robotic combat systems.

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The new Indian Army initiative seeks to transform legacy T-72 main battle tanks into autonomous or optionally manned armored fighting vehicles capable of conducting high-risk combat missions, reconnaissance, and breaching operations as part of future Manned-Unmanned Teaming formations (Picture Source: Indian Media)

According to the official iDEX ADITI 4.0 report released under India’s Ministry of Defence innovation framework and confirmed in the 2026 launch cycle, the Indian Army has placed the conversion of the T-72 into an Autonomous Armoured Fighting Vehicle platform at the top of its new land warfare technology challenges. The move provides one of the clearest official indications to date that India is examining how its large fleet of Soviet-origin T-72 main battle tanks could be transformed into unmanned or optionally manned combat platforms instead of being retired outright. The program suggests that the Indian Army could advance toward trials of its first robotic T-72 battle tank, giving part of the veteran fleet a new operational role inside future Manned-Unmanned Teaming formations designed for minefield penetration, breach operations, decoy missions, reconnaissance and high-risk armoured manoeuvre.

The official ADITI 4.0 challenge frames the T-72 as a legacy platform that has formed the backbone of India’s armour profile since 1979 and is due to be replaced by a more modern future platform. However, the same report also shows that the Indian Army is not treating the T-72 only as an ageing system to be phased out. Instead, the service is examining how these tanks can be converted into autonomous Armoured Fighting Vehicles to augment crewed main battle tanks and support a Manned-Unmanned Teaming operational framework. This is significant because India still operates one of the world’s largest T-72 fleets, estimated at around 2,500 tanks, giving the Army a large mechanical base that could be selectively repurposed for high-risk unmanned combat roles rather than retired in a single modernization cycle.

The program aims to convert the T-72 into a digitised, remotely operable vehicle while maintaining mechanical reliability and enabling integration with higher-level control systems through an Internet Protocol-based interface. This wording is important because it suggests a conversion architecture built around digital vehicle control, actuator response, remote steering, braking and throttle management, sensor fusion, automation, guidance, navigation and control. The project outcome requested under ADITI 4.0 is the delivery of two fully validated autonomous conversion kits allowing the T-72 to function as an optionally manned autonomous battle tank. The associated testing plan includes laboratory and bench trials, actuator response validation, replacement module testing, sensor fusion accuracy validation, low-speed and high-speed autonomous mobility runs, route repetition accuracy, hardware emergency-stop activation, communication-loss safety behavior and Mesh Mobile Ad Hoc Network resilience.

In tactical terms, the converted T-72 would be most relevant in missions where the first armoured vehicle entering a danger area faces the highest probability of loss. The official use cases include minefield entry, breaching, decoy action, advance guard missions and reconnaissance patrols. In a land warfare scenario, an unmanned T-72 could move ahead of crewed armoured columns to test a route, expose anti-tank ambushes, trigger enemy reconnaissance systems, support obstacle reduction or help engineers identify safe breach lanes through mined terrain. In breach operations, such vehicles could reduce crew exposure during the most dangerous phase of an assault, when armoured forces must cross predictable corridors under the threat of artillery, anti-tank guided missiles, loitering munitions, first-person-view drones and direct-fire weapons.

The Manned-Unmanned Teaming dimension is the core of the project. Under such a concept, crewed main battle tanks, command vehicles, reconnaissance elements and unmanned ground vehicles would operate as a connected combat group rather than as separate platforms. A crewed tank or command post could direct unmanned T-72s forward as reconnaissance, decoy or assault-support assets, while unmanned aerial systems provide overwatch, target detection and battle damage assessment. This would allow the Army to generate armoured mass without exposing every vehicle crew to the same level of threat. The concept also fits the official ADITI 4.0 description of a transparent and highly visible digitised battlefield, where survivability depends not only on armour protection but also on distributed sensors, resilient communications, electronic protection, command-and-control integration and rapid tactical decision-making.

The geostrategic logic is also clear. India must plan for land operations across different operational environments, including western desert and semi-desert sectors, plains, riverine zones and high-altitude northern border areas. These theatres impose different mobility, logistics and communications requirements, but all are increasingly shaped by drones, artillery observation, electronic warfare, minefields and long-range precision fires. Converting part of the T-72 fleet into unmanned platforms could provide India with an intermediate capability between existing armour and future combat vehicles. It would preserve useful tracked mobility, low silhouette, armoured volume and 125 mm main gun potential while limiting personnel exposure in missions where survivability is difficult to guarantee. From an industrial perspective, the approach also fits India’s self-reliance policy by asking startups, MSMEs and innovators to solve a domestic military requirement through iDEX rather than relying entirely on imported robotic combat vehicles.

The wider ADITI 4.0 report shows that the unmanned T-72 challenge is not an isolated experiment. The Indian Army’s other listed problem statements include 155 mm Terminally Guided Munition, a ramjet-powered supersonic loitering munition, 125 mm High-Explosive Anti-Tank ammunition for T-72 and T-90 tanks, cognitive electronic warfare systems, smart ammunition and programming systems for 40 mm L/70 air defence guns, humanoid autonomous systems for combat and autonomous load carrier trucks. These challenges point toward a broader Indian Army effort to combine precision fires, robotic systems, electronic warfare, autonomous logistics and upgraded armoured platforms. In this context, the autonomous T-72 is not only a tank conversion project; it is one component of a future land combat architecture in which sensors, shooters, crewed vehicles and unmanned platforms operate inside the same command network.

A similar trend is emerging in Europe. During Eurosatory 2026, Army Recognition reported that KNDS France and S2M Equipment presented REFURBOT, a heavy unmanned ground combat vehicle based on a rebuilt AMX-30 family armoured hull and fitted with the TOXO robotization kit and ARX25 25 mm remote weapon station. That European demonstrator showed how an older main battle tank hull can be repurposed into a combat unmanned ground vehicle with sensors, remote operation, autonomous mobility functions and controlled firepower. The Indian T-72 concept follows the same broad logic of extracting new tactical value from legacy armour, but with a larger potential fleet base and a direct connection to main battle tank formations. If India retains the T-72’s heavier battlefield role while adding remote or autonomous operation, the result could be closer to an unmanned battle tank than a light robotic fire-support vehicle.

The main challenge will be operational reliability under combat conditions. An unmanned T-72 would need resilient communications, cyber protection, electromagnetic hardening, navigation in degraded or GNSS-denied environments, obstacle detection, sensor protection against dust and mud, safe stop procedures and clear human control over weapon employment. If the first prototypes validate these requirements, India could open the way to a phased conversion of selected T-72s for trials before broader operational deployment. The program would not eliminate the need for new main battle tanks or the future replacement of older platforms, but it could give the Indian Army a practical bridge between its large legacy armoured fleet and future Manned-Unmanned Teaming formations.

Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.

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