March Of The Elephants

Now you're just talking silly, Bill.  Those were Elefants.  Completely different thing entirely.  The "f" makes all the difference in the world.

I believe those *are* home-grown... Arjuns, courtesy Avadi Heavy Vehicle Factory in Madras.

Are these descendents of the Vickers MBT the Indians bought many years ago?  I believe they also bought a factory or at least the rights to build them domestically.  There is something of a Centurion look to them which makes me thinks that there is Vickers in the bloodline.

Nevada Steve - the "final batch" sign, partially obscured by the main gun, has as its second line "AR of the Indian Army." Looking at the right-hand sign on the (fender? skirt?) this lot're destined for the 45th Armoured Regiment. Suspect it's the Regiment's final delivery.

 1. The Standard Indian Tank today is the T-90S. They've purchased about 1000 or so under their standard contract: 100+ built in Russia, shipped complete; 2-300 shipped as kits, with final assembly in India; remaining contract to be built in India from local sourced parts. Much f the current tank fleet is standard/upgraded T-72.
2. The "Arjun" program began in 1972-75 as a design attempt at a proper Indian Tank, to replace the "Vijanyanta" (Vickers 37-Ton Tank, Mk1). The original plan was for an indigenous/Indian design: fancy armour, super 120mm gun, turbine engine, etc. By the mid-80s, when prototypes should have been scurrying about the Deccans, not even the test-bed kits were working. Eventually, the Indians purchased the design package for the Chieftain 120mm Rifle, and then bought into a technology guidance package with Krauss-Maffei/Wegmann. Afte some unnecessary pissing around, they also bought the MTU 883 engine and design assistance from ZF for the transmission box. Thus the "Arjun' tank is "Son of Leopard 2".
3. Unfortunately, the end design had to be Indianized, and thus the "Arjun" is a 70T tank in a land of 40T bridges. Apparently, the Army refused to allocate funds for more than 125 tanks, which works out to two parade Regiments.

Cheers