A report by Indian journalist Girish Linganna states, Russia has deployed tanks that are owned by India in Ukraine.
Linganna, a Defense & Aerospace analyst, is also a director of ADD Engineering Components (India) Pvt Ltd. The company has a subsidiary in Germany and has manufacturing units in Russia.
India has sanctioned Russia for using the tanks without its permission.
“The T-90 Bhishma is owned by India and has been sent to Russia for modernization testing,” said Linganna.
However, a few days ago in a Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a group of journalists during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that there were no issues with Russian equipment, or its modernization, or the supply of spare parts.
This topic generated eyeballs when a video appearing on Telegram showed a Russian T-90 tank manned by Russian soldiers, which upon closer look turned out to be a T-90S Bhishma tank – an Indian version of the T-90C, which is the export version of the T-90 tank.
Prior to the Ukraine war, New Delhi had sent T-90S Bhishma tanks to Russia for modernization. This has been confirmed by Russia in media reports wherein it said, “numerous modernized systems have been placed on tanks supplied by India.”
As yet, there is no publicly available information as to how many tanks were sent by India to Russia for modernization.
India has a huge stock of the T-90, nearly 1450 of them. In 2017, Moscow and New Delhi agreed on the transfer of technology to modernize Indian tanks. This shows India trying to reduce its dependence on Russia.
According to Linganna, the modernized T-90 tanks are supposed to be more accurate, faster and more comfortable for the crew.
The engine also got a boost by adding an auxiliary power unit, as a result of which the tank is now powered by a 1,130HP engine.
The T-90 Bhisma also received an upgrade in the form of improved fire control system. The main gun has been replaced by another version – 2A46M-5, which is more powerful than the standard one used on the T-90C export version.
