Field trial of Arjun tanks very soon: Army chief

Arjun has the most of the advanced features in its gunnery, firing systems, fire control system and communication system.

The Indian Army would conduct field trials of the indigenous main battle tank Arjun "in a month or two" along with the T-72 battle tanks, Chief of Indian Army Gen JJ Singh said on Saturday.

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The Army had placed order for 124 Arjun tanks and "we will find out during trials this summer where exactly we can exploit the capabilities of these tanks in the best manner and accordingly, we will use the tanks," he told reporters in Bangalore.

He admitted that there had been delay in delivery and induction of Arjun but added "I believe when a country makes any state-of-the-art equipment, the production cycle takes a long time."

"But, we are going to try out these tanks and based on their performance, we will be able to decide how best we can exploit them," the Army chief said.

Asked how the Army rated Arjun in its class, he said, "as per the literature, it is supposed to be the state-of-the-art and compares very favourably with the equipment of similar class anywhere in the world."

The Arjun tank, he said, had most of the advanced features in its gunnery, firing systems, fire control system, communication system and survivability in an NBC (Nuclear, Biological and chemical) environment.