7 May, 2007 (FIDSNS)

Replying to Standing Committe on Defence(2004-2005) the representative of the Ministry of Defence during oral evidence has stated “We have no difficulty to go this summer with the five tanks which the Army would like to put through its own accelerated user trials. Arjun has been checked by the DRDO alongwith 43 Armour Regiment”

On April 22, 2006, in an ‘Know Your Army’ exhibition, when asked by a reporter on Arjun tank, Brig (Retd) Prabir Goswami replied “it’s a highly-sophisticated tank with several state-of-the-art components and a ”very high first round hit capability,” a must to survive in an increasingly hostile battlefield having multiple anti-tank threats compounded by developed terrain restrictions on India’s western border.”

On being asked that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed MBT Arjun’s 120 mm-calibre rifled gun was of the same diameter as the M256 smoothbore gun on the US Army’s M1A2 Abrams, the expert said, ”The gun is very important but it is a part of a weapon system – the whole tank – and the difference is that the Americans are old hands at this game.

”The American advantage of private firms manufacturing prototypes for trials, as part of a competitive environment entailing selection of the best, bespeaks of the amount of finances these firms are willing to spend to develop such sophisticated weaponry. Still, the MBT has several good points and should help the DRDO develop more efficient models in future.”

Brig (Retd) Prabir Goswami who commanded 16 Independent Armoured Brigade during Operation Vijay the Kargil conflict is also awarded with Vishisht Seva Medal.

Arjun Tank and DRDO have been under attack from vested interest from both within the Indian Army, middlemen and foreign agencies who would not like to see India to produce major weapon systems indegenously. While there have doctored media report in media against Arjun Tank, the Indian Army Tank users do not have problems with Arjun Tank. The T-90S tanks imported from Russia are under cloud as the tanks have developed defects. The tanks were imported without proper testing and despite the T-90S failing tests in Indian desert conditions. T-90S is not ment for Indian conditions, where as, Arjun Tank has been tested more than 100,000 kilometers and perfected in Indian conditions.