India begins trials of upgraded T-72 Ajaya Mk2 MBTs

DRDO upgraded T-72 Ajaya Mk2 Main Battle Tank has been sported on a Train wagon heading possibly towards a field range for trials. T-72 Ajaya Mk2 comes equipped with a host of improvements and upgrades which will allow it to operate along with T-90 Main Battle Tanks at the same firepower.

T-72 Ajaya Mk2 gets an uprated indigenously-produced high-power multifuel engine V-46-6, based on Russian design, that originally had a 780 hp capacity but now boosts 1000 hp capacity which was modified by CVRDE. T-90 MBT comes equipped with V92S2 engines which also has a 1,000 hp capacity but the Army was keen on uprated Original V-46-6 engines of T-72 due to the higher reliability of the engine instead of going for a swap with V92S2 engines used on T-90s. CVRDE modified peripheral sub-systems of the V-46-6 engines with help from several Indian industries to achieve 1000 hp capacity.

T-72 Ajaya Mk2 also features DRDO developed Explosive reactive Armour (ERA) Mk-II for armour protection against shaped-charge warheads and kinetic energy projectiles. According to DRDO, ERA Mk-II has the same configuration and performance as that of the T-90 ERA and it has been demonstrated to the user.

T-72 Ajaya Mk2 is also now comes equipped with Israeli TIFCS (Thermal Imager Fire Control Systems ) which now boasts the T-72 tank’s ability to identify targets up to three kilometers at night from earlier 300 meters. Alpha Design Technologies (ADT) is a local Indian partner of the Israeli company Elop-Elbit and the company has been contracted for 300 thermal imager standalone kits of which almost all have been delivered until now.

Indian Army is equipped with 1700 T-72 MBTs but only 969 will be upgraded to T-72 Ajaya Mk2 configuration once trials are successfully concluded and the rest are to be phased out in the coming decades gradually.

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