“Within a period of 30 months…” Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande briefs on future-ready Tank projects

Jan 30, 2024

New Delhi, Jan 30 (ANI): Army Chief General Manoj Pande, while speaking to ANI, informed that within a period of 30 months, the Indian Army will have a light tank that will be fielded for trials. He said, ‘So the light tanks as the name suggests are the tanks that will be looking for deployment in high-altitude areas and mountains. We had AON (Acceptance of necessity) granted to us about a year back for a total of tanks out of which 59 are through the design and development route DRDO is pursuing and the balance 295 are through the mid-point route. Now, with the response to the interest which we had put out, there are close to 6-7 indigenous defence industries who have expressed their interest. We are now processing them so that we narrow down to 2 development partners and then we will issue project sanction orders to them thereafter I reckon within a period of 30 months, we will have a light tank that will be fielded for trails………. Still have to get an AON but we all have basic homework paid work is ready and we shall soon be projecting it for approval or in principal approval of the government for production.’