With India looking to indigenise assemblies, sub-assemblies and spares of armoured vehicles to reduce reliance on Russia, Indian Army has floated a request for information (RFI) inviting private defence industry and public sector undertaking (PSU) for the overhaul and extension of life of more than four-decade-old T-72 main battle tanks.

Indian Army is believed to have about 2,400 T-72s. Industry officials aware of development stated that Ministry of Defence (MoD) had earlier reached out to the domestic defence companies for assemblies of Russian made tanks as it was finding difficulty in getting spares for their maintenance and repair due to Russia-Ukraine war.

Some industrial houses had shown interest in the MoD’s engagement, with the government desiring that the cost of spares and systems be cheaper than those offered by Russians, sources stated. The domestic players have also been able to do reverse engineering of some of the spares and sub-systems, they pointed out.

Not just complete overhaul, the Army is also in the process of upgrading less than 50 per cent of its T-72 tanks with new engines, fire control systems and other modern systems to make them modern warfare capable.

Through the RFI, the Army stated that it was looking at “base overhaul” of the T-72 “carried out to ensure restoration of equipment to as good as new condition, rendering a fresh lease of life for enhanced serviceability and operational reliability for residual life”. All defence PSUs and private Indian vendors are eligible to respond to the RFI.

The overhaul of T-72 would involve stripping of the tank, removal and wide opening of assemblies for repair, replacing those that are unrepairable, besides testing of the systems and bringing the vehicle back on its wheels in working condition, stated the RFI.

Vendor selected will get ten months for overhauling of the tank from the date of acceptance of the vehicle. They would have to give one year warranty for spares, sub-assemblies or assemblies repaired or replaced in the tank, the RFI demanded. If the Army is able to identify vendors, it will go for the next step of issuing request for proposal (RFP) to roll out the process of creating indigenous maintenance ecosystem to become self-reliant in this core military domain, observed sources.

As of now, Russian make tanks -- T-90s and T-72s -- are manufactured by the state-owned Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) at Avadi near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The HVF is part of the Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL) -- a defence PSU formed by the government after putting together some of former Ordinance Factory Boards.

The MoD, simultaneously, is also looking to procure 1,000 engines of 1,000 BHP each for powering the T-72 under “buy and make” category, the Defence Acquisition Council had cleared this deal in September of 2018 at a cost of over ₹2,300 crore. A defence PSU, after getting transfer of technology from the foreign original equipment manufacturer, would manufacture most of the engines here, as per the DAC.

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