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The army will retire its fleet of 2,141 Vijayanta tanks by 2007 and replace it with Ajeya, the locally built Russian-designed T-72 M1, and the newly acquired Russian T-90s, which are expected to begin arriving by the year-end, Jane's Defence Weekly reported on Wednesday.
Indian armoured corps personnel and engineering staff are undergoing training in Russia on the T-90s, which will also be built locally under licence at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi near Madras. The T-90s will eventually replace Ajeya.
Quoting Indian Army officers, the report said the first batch of 20 or 30 of the 310 T-90s India purchased earlier this year for about $700 million would enter service by December.
The report, quoting Defence Minister Jaswant Singh, said 124 T-90s would arrive complete and the rest would be assembled locally.
Singh said the Vijayantas, first inducted into the army in 1966, had "outlived their expected life and are in the process of being phased out".
The report, quoting Indian defence officials, said the T-90s would also "see off" Arjun, the indigenously designed main battle tank which continues to face technical problems and cost overruns.
Despite this, the government has cleared the serial production of 124 Arjuns to arm two or three regiments by around 2004, but the programme is years behind schedule.
PTI
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