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Army places order for 124 Arjun battle tanks

The defence ministry has ''recently'' placed orders with the Avadi Ordinance Factory to manufacture 124 indigenously-built Arjun Main Battle Tanks for the army.

Disclosing this during question hour in the Lok Sabha today, Defence Minister George Fernandes informed Prof Ajit Kumar Mehta that it took 13 years of research to develop the Arjun tank since India had no experience in this field. The project was conceived in 1974. By the time production began in 1987, a sum of Rs 2.81 billion was spent.

During 1993-94, 15 Arjun tanks were delivered to the army for field trials.

''I am happy to inform here that not only was the army satisfied with the tank's performance, it has placed an order for 124 more such tanks.'' With this India has achieved the capability for indigenous manufacture of battle tanks, he added.

UNI

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