According to an article from Defense News, most of India’s fleet of Arjun Mark-1 tanks are not operational due to technical issues and lack of imported components. According to an unamed Indian Army official, “Nearly 75 percent of the 124 tanks with the Army are grounded.” The Army official noted that there are more than 90 issues affecting the tank, primarily with its transmission, targeting and thermal sights. The Indian Army purchased 124 Arjun tanks, primarily because of political pressure so that Avadi factory could remain open. The Indian Army primarily relies on the Russian designed T-90 to meet their MBT needs.
More bad news for Indian Arjun MBT
May 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
New Turkish Kaplan-20 IFV unveiled
May 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
At the recent IDEF conference in Istanbul Turkey, FNSS reveled their new Kaplan-20 IFV. According to Jane’s Defense, the 20 ton vehicle is a working prototype and trials are planned to begin later in 2015. Although not created for a current Turkish military requirement, Turkey is expected to be in the market for a new IFV in the near future. According to Jane’s, The Kaplan-20 is available with two turret options, with both a two-person and an unmanned version of the FNSS Teber turret being offered. Either can be fitted with a 30-40 mm automatic cannon, with the IDEF display vehicle being equipped with an unmanned turret armed with a an ATK Bushmaster Mk 44 30 mm dual-feed cannon. Both turret configurations are armed with a 7.62 mm coaxial chain gun. Kaplan means “tiger” in Turkish.
More footage of Armata breakdowns
May 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Since our post from yesterday on the Armata tank that apparently broke down during a parade rehearsal, a couple new videos have come to our attention. Here is one that shows a Russian ARV attempting to pull the broken down T-14 Armata. The ARV is unable to budge the heavier Armata tank, spinning it’s tracks on the pavement.
Next up is a clip of a T-15 Armata heavy IFV attempting to drive up onto a tank transporter. The vehicle seems to have issues half way onto the truck bed and then stalls out as it pulls back down onto the pavement.
And here is a clip of another T-15 apparently stalling out while on parade.
Armata suffers apparent breakdown during rehearsal
May 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Business Insider is running an article claiming that one of Russia’s new Armata tanks suffered a mechanical malfunction during a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Victory Day Parade. This was also reported at the RT website, which stated:
All seemed to be going to plan until one of the mighty machines unexpectedly stopped right in front of the Lenin’s mausoleum. Its engine was still running, but the tank would not move. An attempt to tow it away failed, before the T-14 eventually managed to restart and rumble off around 15 minutes later.
The most amusing part of the incident may be the announcers insistence that the tank malfunction was a planned event and that “We wanted to show how an evacuation of a tank would take place. It was planned that the tank would stop.” A parade showcasing tank recovery techniques would be a rather odd parade indeed.
From the Editor: Type 99 “third most powerful tank?”
May 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
As an example of how quickly bad information can spread around the internet, lets consider some recent articles that have been making the rounds which claim that the Chinese Type 99 MBT was recently declared “the world’s third most powerful tank.” We spend a good deal of time searching for news relating to tanks and AFVs every day, two days ago we noticed an article from “Want ChinaTimes” with the headline “PLA’s Type 99 ranked world’s third most powerful tank.” This theme was repeated in another article from Yibada with a very similar title posted yesterday. So where does this notion come from? The claim comes from the German magazine Focus which ran an article listing the best tanks in the world, with the Type 99 third after the Leopard 2 and the Abrams. We found the Focus article in question, it’s in German of course but with some help from google translate we can get the gist of it. If the authors of the Want Chinatimes and Yibada articles had bothered to do the same, they might have noticed that the tank descriptions in the Focus article are presented in no particular order. In fact, the article plainly states that in order to see their rankings of the tanks, people have to watch a video which is embedded in the bottom of the article . In the video the Type 99 does not even make the list. The article picks the five best MBTs in descending order as Leopard 2A7, K2 Black Panther, M1A2 SEP, Challenger 2 and Merkava Mk4. It also notes that the new T-14 Armata may be a contender as well.
It should be noted that the article and video in Focus are really not very informative. No information is provided as to the methodology used to rank these tanks, nor is it mentioned who is doing the ranking. The fact that a German magazine has declared the German tank as the best should immediately raise some red flags with the reader. Many of the technical details of modern MBTs are still classified and few have seen combat, especially any combat against other modern armor. This lack of information makes these sorts of comparisons pretty meaningless, and most of these sorts of lists are more guesswork and nationalistic chest thumping as much as anything else. Typically, we would not have bothered to mention articles of this poor quality here at Tank and AFV News. However, we thought it worth pointing out this example of how quickly bad information can spread around the net.
Pars 4×4 vehicle displayed at IDEF 2015
May 6, 2015 by 1 Comment
Jane’s is reporting that Turkish defense firm FNSS has unveiled a new 4×4 AFV at the IDEF defense exhibition in Istanbul. The vehicle is called the Pars 4×4 and has been designed to fulfill the wheeled component of the Turkish Land Forces’ Anti-Tank Vehicle requirement. The cab of the vehicle is protected against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. According to Jane’s, the vehicle displayed at IDEF was armed with an Aselsan SARP remote-controlled turret (RCT) equipped with a 12.7 mm H2 Browning machine gun. Company officials said that the Pars 4×4 can also be armed with a range of different unmanned turret options, including an RCT armed with anti-tank guided weapons (ATGWs) or an RCT armed with a 20 mm or 25 mm automatic cannon.
New Russian AFVs revealed to public
May 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Images of the Russian T-14 Armata tank were revealed earlier this week. The photos and video come from night rehearsals for the upcoming May 9 Victory Day Parade in Moscow. Images of the Armata and other new Russian AFVs had been circulating for the past month, but these vehicles had tarps over their turrets. The new photos released this week have the turrets exposed. The images released thus far include the T-14 Armata, the Boomerang APC, Kurganets-25 IFV, Koalitsiya-SV SPG, Kurganets-25 APC, and Kornet-D anti-tank vehicle.
Photo Galleries (collected from various online forums)
Israel Military Industries unveils HE-MP-T 120mm round
May 4, 2015 by 1 Comment
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that IMI (Israel Military Industries) is to display this week a tank shell that was first used operationally during last summer’s Gaza conflict, and which has been selected by a number of international military forces for urban operations. The tank shell, designated, the M339, is set to be displayed at the Ground Forces Conference organized by Israel Defense magazine in Latrun. According to the article, the M339 round was first used operationally during Operation Protective Edge last summer in Gaza. IMI claims that the M339 enables “main battle tanks to participate in urban warfare without causing excessive collateral damage.” The M399 is described as High Explosive, Multi-Purpose Tracer (HE-MP-T), the shell was designed jointly with the Defense Ministry’s Merkava Development Administration and the IDF Ground Forces.
U.S. Tanks perform live-fire demonstration in Estonia
May 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The U.S. Government DVIDS website has release video showing US tank crews performing a live-fire demonstration in Estonia. US forces have deployed heavy forces to the Baltic states in response to the increasing tension between Russia and its NATO neighbors.
These live-fire demonstrations are described in a story from the DVIDS website written by a U.S. public affairs officer.
During the demonstration, the tank commanders’ orders and guidance could be heard from a live radio feed playing over the loud speakers. The crowd watched in awe as the 3rd ID tank platoon fired its M256A1, 120 mm smoothbore gun, performed a bounding over watch approach and eliminated a simulated target.
“The firepower of these tanks was very impressive and certainly carries the message that it’s a formidable weapon,” said Levine.
Denmark will replace M113 with Piranha 5 APC
May 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jane’s is reporting that Denmark has selected the General Dynamics European Land Systems – MOWAG Piranha 5 8×8 to be its new APC. This announcement marks an end to the largest armored vehicle competition in Europe, one that pitted wheeled and tracked designs against each other. The winning Piranha 5 had competed in trials against one other 8×8, the Nexter Systems Véhicule Blindé de Combat d’Infanterie, and three tracked offerings: the FFG Flensburger Protected Mission Module Carrier G5, BAE Systems Armadillo and General Dynamics European Land Systems – Santa Barbara Sistemas ASCOD 2. Denmark will purchase a minimum of 206 Piranha 5s, with the number potentially rising to 450, although the MoD stated that “the exact number will be determined at a later date.”
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