Arjun Mk.IA

## Crew

* Commander
* Driver
* Gunner
* Loader

The **Arjun Mk.IA** is a Tier 7 special premium Main Battle Tank under Zhang Feng's dealership.

## History

Class: Main Battle Tank

Developed: 2008-2010

Service: 2025+

Vehicles Built: 124 (standard Arjun)

Operators: India

The Arjun is the first truly indigenous Indian MBT, following the successful Vijayanta, which was a copy of a Vickers export MBT. Its development goes back decades and despite some successes, the issues with the metallurgy involved as well as other elements (such as transmissions) led to a string of expensive failures. From the 1990s onwards, the Arjun was able to overcome some of its problems and a small production run of roughly 124 vehicles took place between 2004 and 2010. The first Arjun service version is referred to as Arjun Mk1 and somewhat resembles the Leopard 2A4 MBT since the tank was co-developed with Krauss-Maffei who designed the original German MBT.

The basic hull of the vehicle was made of steel but the tank’s boxy appearance was mainly due to the presence of it Kanchan composite armor. Its composition and protection levels unknown, the armor is said to be related to the famous British Chobham. The tank was powered by a rather unique MTU engine based on the design used with the Leopard 1.

This engine wasn’t used anywhere else in the world and, along with its transmission, became the worst source of problems that have never been fixed in a satisfactory manner. The weapon system consisted of an indigenous rifled 120mm gun that wasn’t compatible with anything on the planet. The British influence here is undeniable but why the Indians chose such a unique solution is, once again, a mystery – the most likely theory of its origin being an up-scaled version of the 105mm L7 rifled gun used on the Vijayanta. The ammunition was somewhat unique too, featuring an oversized APHE round called PCB, which stands for Penetration cum Blast.

The performance of this model was, to put it mildly, far from stellar. Despite being formally adopted, its abysmal performance, especially in the desert environment where armored clashes with Pakistan were expected, led instead to more purchases of Russian tech (most notably the T-90S MBTs).

However, the Indians were unwilling to lose face and in 2007, they asked the Israelis for help with the design. It took Israel two years to do what India couldn’t in over three decades – they basically rebuilt the tank from scratch to make it quite viable. Around a hundred improvements were made over the original tank and would successfully pass its trials by 2012.

This upgraded version includes improved Kanchan armor with an ERA/NERA kit, power pack reliability upgrades, improved suspension (including final drive, tracks and sprockets), improved Fire Control System and other optics (including the COAPS set, providing the Arjun with the hunter-killer ability), better ammunition for the main gun, safer ammunition racks and a soft-kill APS (albeit an ad-hoc one, basically a LWR connected to smoke grenade launchers).

However, with these systems installed, the weight of the vehicle increased from 55-60 to 67 tons and the maximum speed was decreased from 72 km/h to some 55-58 km/h due to changed gear ratios in order to preserve its acceleration.

Here’s where things start to get a bit confusing. This upgraded version started as Arjun Mk.2, but at some point, it was apparently renamed to Arjun Mk.1A with the Mk.2 name reserved for another future upgrade project. The most likely variant is that while the Mk.2 name was reserved for additional newly-built upgraded Arjuns (a plan that was canceled around 2008 following the testing issues), the Indians chose instead to upgrade the original 124 Arjuns to this standard and are referring to those upgraded tanks as Mk.1A.

The original plan counted on the upgraded Arjuns being delivered until 2015 but this did not happen and the whole program was postponed (likely for financial reasons) to 2022 and onwards. The upgraded Arjun MBT therefore remains a prototype only and its mass production is likely postponed due to the COVID pandemic. Whether its operational capability goal of 2025-2026 is met remains to be seen.

## Vehicle Traits

* Armored: This vehicle's armor can withstand a lot of punishment, allowing it to survive even serious firefights.
* Heavy Weapon: This vehicle carries one of the largest weapons around with significantly increased damage per shot.
* HESH Rounds: This vehicle can fire special Squash Head rounds. These are extremely effective against angled armor that is typical for Soviet tanks.
* Adjustable Suspension: This vehicle features a hydraulic suspension that allows you to manually change its ground clearance.

## Upgrades

### Armor

Arjun Stock Armor
 This MBT's front is protected by a standard steel hull covered with ERA.

### Weapon

**Stats:**

* **Magazine Type**: Clip
* **Magazine Size**: 5
* **Reload within Magazine**: 3.00 s
* **Burst Fire Rate**: 20.00 rd/min
* **Depression/Elevation**: -10.0° / 20.0°

## Abilities

**Description:**This vehicle can lower its suspension to become stealthier and more accurate at the cost of mobility and vision range.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ 650 mm at 150m;
488 mm at 500m
2. ↑ Requires player to complete 100 Contract Missions to unlock. One weekly Mission counts as 5.
3. ↑ 208 for Partial Penetrations
4. ↑ 600 mm at 150m;
510 mm at 500m
5. ↑ Requires player to complete 300 Contract Missions to unlock. One weekly Mission counts as 5.
6. ↑ 104 for Non-Penetrating Hits
7. ↑ 18 mm at 100m;
9 mm at 1000m
8. ↑ Requires player to complete 200 Contract Missions to unlock. One weekly Mission counts as 5.
9. ↑ Requires player to complete 50 Contract Missions to unlock. One weekly Mission counts as 5. Also requires  10 to purchase and equip.

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