Rahul M wrote:#1 RPG-5/7 etc are completely obsolete now, we might as well celebrate that the tank can stop 5.56 mm fire !
I think a lot will depend on the tactics , if RPG-5/7 types can disable the mobility of tank then it has done it job , yes depends on what kind of warfare the tank is employed and how lucky that chap is with that weapon and tactics.
#2 the haaretz link is dead and most probably was wrong in essentials. the probable thing that happened was that RPG-29 was a well used weapon and any hit was counted as 'damage' in the haaretz article whether or not it was real damage or not. you can check the other sources, the write-offs (very few of the total hits) were all from either IEds or kornets.
That might be the case , but RPG-29 has its own fair of success , whether is sheer luck or they could have had better success with well trained guerrilla attacking in a co-ordinated manner is open to interpretation , its quite clear that an anti-tank weapon is mature enough to do the damage on any modern tank
Infact the Russians have advertised about RPG-30 which is claimed to be effective against active protection on tanks and there is the newer RPG-32
RPG-30
#3 the chally-2 hit was a lucky shot fired from above, negi had put up a graphic earlier in the thread. even then, the sum total of one damage (from god knows how many scores fired) and 1 crew member injured, imagine if this was a T-XX ? all 3 crew burns to death.
Could be or it could also be that with 3rd Gen ERA like Kaktus and Active protection a T-90 could survive the same shot or many similar ones.
#4 I don't remember reading anywhere (other than wiki which doesn't count) that bhisma will have kaktus, most probably it will feature ERA's derived from arjun project.
With nearly 1500 plus tanks in the pipeline , its natural that IA will go for selective upgrades to Bhisma which includes 3rd Gen Kaktus ERA and what better way for Russia to advertise it in open market than IA operating it.
we do know that circa 2000 all available AT weapons in our arsenal were trialled against kanchan armour and it came out with flying colours.
the danger from RPG-29 is not that it is better than modern ATGMs (it is not) but that it is cheap, widely available and comparatively easy to use.
All is a very relative term , all could mean all that is available with IA , all that DRDO could put their hands on or all that is available in Intl market.
I am more inclined to believe that most of the modern 3rd Gen ATGM from Indian( Nag ) , Russian, US,Trigat etc will be able to defeat any modern Tank be it Arjun ,T-90 , M1A2 ,Challenger etc if not kill the system atleast disable it.
Plus systems like RPG-29,30 ,32 and other similar ones developed around the world will taste its own share success.
Plus there are other system developed like those fired from MRLS,155mm shell ,Attack Chopper that possess significant threat to tanks.
I kinda tend to agree with somnath that the IA is concentrating more on cumulative firepower and mobility with decent protection as part of its cold start strategy hence they have invested in that number of T-90's which is phenomenal by any standards.
Although its high time that IA gives its due to Arjun we must see good number of Arjun in Mk1 and Mk2 version in the role IA think its good to use that tank.
Like many others I am keen on what GOI has to say in its final report that is awaited , hope Arjun gets its long and rightly deserved due.
not at all ! in fact it's quite a stretch to say the merkava was brought to its knees and the RPG-(29) had anyway little part to play. rpg-7 and other local RPG knock-offs, were completely irrelevant.
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. Keep em coming.