The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has released a Request for Information (RFI) for the manufacture of Active Protection Systems (APS) for the army’s T-90 S/SK ‘BHISHMA’ Main Battle Tanks (MBT).

The RFI has been issued to identify prospective gobal vendors who would undertake local production of APS’ in India. The MoD has offered three options for manufacturing the APS in India by the international OEMs, namely Joint Venture with an Indian company, co-production or license production through own subsidiary.

The RFI calls for an APS with an open architecture which will enable integration with additional sensors and countermeasure systems. “The APS being offered should have Soft Kill, Hard Kill and Counter Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) measures and should be capable of being integrated with T-90s without denuding existing capabilities of tank,” the RFI stated. It should be able to operate in the environment conditions existing in India in deserts, plains and high altitude. The Indian Army has nearly 4,000 MBTs, comprised of approximately 1,650 T-90 MBTs and over 2,000 T-72 MBTs.

The T-90 MBT is the mainstay of the army’s armoured formations along with the older T-72. India’s MoD had inked a contract with Russia in February 2001 for 310 T-90 MBTs, which has been followed with several more orders. The army also operates two armoured regiments (43 and 47) with th indigenously developed ARJUN Mk-1 MBT.

While India operates a large fleet of Russian-origin MBTS and Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICV) in the T-90, T-72 and BMP-IIs, these platforms suffer from glaring shortcomings in their night-fighting capability, self-protection and Remote Control Weapon Stations (RCWS). The procurement of an APS for Indian T-90 S/SKs is long-overdue and the conclusion of a formal contract, along with retrofit for a substantial portion of the fleet, will only be complete by 2030 (if not later).

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