India has presented “Atharva” – a hybrid of T-72 and T-90 tanks with , which has a poor cross-country ability
In early January 2023, it became known that the Indian private company AVNL had created a kind of armored “hybrid” – a vehicle with a chassis from a T-72 tank and a turret from a T-90 tank, which then received the working T-79 Kumbhkaran or Nigama.
Now it has become known that this “hybrid” will have the serial name Atharva, and that its characteristics are even worse than the “original” T-72. However, there is no clear data yet on whether the Indian army has begun to adopt this hybrid. This is stated in the publication of the Polish Defence24.
The T90-T72 Hybrid is named ATHARVA. Specs below 👇🏼 https://t.co/Sf1hvERQkm pic.twitter.com/msaqiUjc9S
– Singh (@Duorope) January 8, 2024
As the portal’s authors detail, this hybrid of T-72 and T-90 called Atharva appeared because the Indian army was looking for an effective and massive solution to modernize and upgrade the fleet of 2,000 T-72 Ajeya tanks, the most mass-produced type of its armored personnel carriers. The choice for the T-90 turret was made because the Indian defense industry has mastered the independent production of this structural element.
However, no changes were made to the design of the T-72 chassis, and the power of the power plant was not even increased. As a result, the Indian hybrid of the T-72 and T-90 called the Atharva received a combat weight of 45.8 tons (2 tons more than the standard T-72), while the engine power remained unchanged, so in general, the cross-country ability of this vehicle was worse than that of the Soviet T-72.
Instead, it is claimed that the installation of the turret from the T-90 allowed to increase the firepower and situational awareness of the crew on the Atharva. This factor, according to the authors of the Polish Defence24, allows us to consider this Indian hybrid a generally successful machine.
And that we should not exclude the possibility that India will even want to export this hybrid of T-72 and T-90 to those countries that either already use Russian T-90s or want to “upgrade” their T-72s in a similar way.
Earlier, Defense Express told you that India is testing a light tank Zorawar on the chassis of the K9, and there are many interesting things there. Because this story demonstrated, among other things, how quickly a new combat vehicle can be created on the basis of existing elements, and what results this leads to.
