India In Talks With Russia To Acquire Sprut Light Tank

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India is in advanced talks with Russia to acquire a newly developed light tank,
That could be useful in high altitude areas like the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Talks to buy the Sprut SDM1 light tanks were initiated late in July under a fast-track, government-to-government
Final discussions on the contract are expected to conclude this year.

The need for such tanks was felt after increased Indian deployments at the LAC following border hostilities with China,
Which has also fielded a range of equipment, including its Type 15 light tanks.
China, meanwhile, has deployed its new lightweight tanks, Type 15, which weigh around 33 tonnes.
India has deployed heavy T-90 tanks, (46 tonnes), in Ladakh, besides T-72 tanks (45 tonnes) and were deployed earlier.
Lightweight tanks allow faster mobility in mountainous terrain than regular battle tanks that weigh over 40 tonnes.

India could acquire almost two dozen such tanksin the first tranche.
The procurement is likely to cost less than ₹500 crore.
The expenditure is expected to be within the emergency financial powers given to the Army following the clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan valley in June.

The Sprut SDM1 light tank, transportable by air, has commonalities with the T72 and T90s operated by India.
Thus it would require minimal crew training to become operational.
It is armed with a 125 mm gun, similar to the one on the T90, and fires all types of ammunition with the T72/90 fleet available with the Army.

India has a robust tank force, but all of them are heavy main battle tanks — T72s, T90s and the indigenously developed Arjun,
Considered more suitable for operations in the plains.
While these tanks have been sent to the Himalayan border as well, navigating them on difficult border terrain has been an issue.
The Sprut SDM1 is designed to be airdropped from an aircraft with its crew of three sitting inside the tank.
India has operated light tanks in the past and it has come in handy during the 1947-48 Kashmir operations as wellas the 1962 war with China,
But these have been slowly phased out.

interest in lightweight tanks

The need for light weight tanks has been noted in the past too.
In 2009, the Army had issued a Request for Information (RFI) for 200 wheeled and 100 tracked light weight tanks for the new Mountain Divisions that was then being raised.
Now, the government-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is reportedly working on lightweight tanks.
Reports suggest the DRDO is in talks with private company Larsen & Toubro for converting the K9 ‘Vajra’ 155 mm self-propelled howitzer into a 35-tonne light weight tank.
If the project fructifies, the L&T’s production line of Vajra would be used to produce these tanks.
The production line in Surat is set to go idle by the end of this year when the 100th Vajra is delivered under the contract.

Initiated after the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan, when emergency 155 mm ammunition imports from Israel and South Africa were hastily executed at great cost to make good the army’s depleted stocks.
The FTP is aimed at meeting the military’s critical operational needs in a compressed time frame.
The MoD mandates the entire FTP acquisition process, including requests for proposal (RfPs), trials, cost negotiations and equipment deliveries have tobe completed within 18-19 months.
But the FTP has also been plagued with failure, due largely to procedural delays by both the services, especially the army, and the MoD.

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