Should India be investing in a new main battle tank (MBT) in an age when drones — small enough to fit in a backpack yet powerful enough to destroy armoured vehicles — pose a growing threat? The answer, experts say, is yes, though with qualifications.
Rumours of the tank’s demise are exaggerated, said Lt Gen Dushyant Singh (retired), director-general of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. Yet, he added, the once-dominant machine must now adapt to remain effective amid the third revolution in military affairs: driven by rapid advances in space-based surveillance, cyber, artificial intelligence, and autonomous technologies.
The Indian Army’s answer to the demands of contemporary and future warfare is the Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV), conceived as far back as 2008–09 to replace its ageing Soviet-origin T-72 MBTs in service since 1979. Unveiled in August, the Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR), a 15-year modernisation plan, envisions the FRCV operating in a highly network-centric environment along the northern and western borders, with an estimated 1,800 units to be inducted in the coming years.
“Land warfare, which remains a distinct possibility for India given its neighbourhood, will only grow more ferocious in the years ahead,” said Singh, pointing to the graphic footage of Russian tanks with their turrets blown off by Ukrainian drones that cost a fraction of an armoured vehicle.
He underscored how the kill chain — the process of identifying, targeting, engaging, and destroying a threat — has been compressed from about half an hour to roughly three minutes during the Ukraine war, and continues to shrink. “There’s nowhere to hide on the battlefield,” he added, referring to the ubiquitous presence of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets — from drones to microsatellite constellations.
This appears to have shaped the FRCV’s latest attributes outlined in the TPCR. The platform, expected to serve the Army for at least four decades after induction, will be capable of controlling a range of unmanned systems and incorporate integrated ISR capabilities. A fully digitised architecture will support human–machine collaboration and the control of on-board and off-board unmanned assets, including ground and aerial vehicles and loitering munitions, enabling the FRCV to strike targets beyond the line of sight.
To operate effectively in a network-centric environment, the FRCV will feature an integrated battlefield management system and the ability to identify and distinguish between friend and foe. These capabilities will provide soldiers with a shared operational picture (across all three services) and enable collaborative, all-weather operations. For example, if an Indian Air Force platform detects an adversary force, Army units will simultaneously gain real-time access to that information.
“The FRCV design is still evolving, and it is hard to pin down what exactly the Army wants,” said Kartik Bommakanti, senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme.
In terms of its weight. Bommakanti explained that the FRCV’s design must align with the Army’s doctrine, which prioritises mobility. Noting that it is perhaps easier to balance mobility with firepower than with protection, Bommakanti said that its weight cannot exceed 55–60 tonnes to remain effective on both borders. Given the demands of high-altitude warfare, Singh’s assessment places the FRCV’s weight at the lower end of that range.
By contrast, the Arjun family of tanks — India’s first indigenous MBT — weighs between 62 and 68 tonnes. Stating that Arjun’s design was heavily oriented towards enhanced protection, Singh said of the FRCV: “The tank doesn’t just have to reach the frontline quickly. Once there, it must be able to use the terrain for cover and manoeuvre with speed and stealth.”
With the TPCR describing the FRCV as a “multi-weapon platform”, Bommakanti said this includes not only a main gun and a smaller secondary gun mounted on the turret, but also an active protection system capable of “hard kill”: physically intercepting and destroying incoming rockets or shells before they hit the tank. The tank could also integrate directed energy weapons such as lasers and high-power microwaves, which can disable or destroy drones and loitering munitions at short range. It will also need an advanced remote weapons station so the crew can neutralise small drones without exposing themselves.
The FRCV is also expected to be fully shielded against cyberattacks and capable of operating in an electronic-warfare-dense environment, ensuring that communication links and control of drones remain secure and uninterrupted.
The design priorities also appear consistent with the Army’s ongoing reorganisation into integrated frontline formations known as Rudra all-arms brigades, which are intended to fight as unified, networked units. Explaining that China’s Type 99B and the latest Type 100 tanks, along with its infantry vehicles and mobile artillery, play an important role in its combined arms brigades, Bommakanti added that the Indian Army would have to replicate this inter-platform connectivity for effective combined-arms operations.
Graphical representation of tanks owned by India, China and Pakistan (Photo: BS Blueprint)
The FRCV project will be implemented under the Strategic Partnership model, which seeks to build private sector capability to manufacture complex weapon systems. At least 50 per cent indigenous content has been mandated, and the government is covering 90 per cent of the development cost of the prototype, which must be completed by 2027 to enable production to begin by 2030, said Bommakanti. He expressed reservations about these timelines, adding that, even under an optimistic scenario, the FRCV may enter service only by 2035.
Singh underscored that effective implementation of a spiral development model was key to overcoming challenges. He said that the tank is being developed in batches, with additional capabilities and upgrades planned for each successive iteration. This would ensure steady progress and keep the platform competitive amid the rapidly evolving nature of warfare.
In September 2024, the government accorded “acceptance of necessity” for procuring the FRCV under a project estimated at ₹57,000 crore. “The Army is likely to issue a request for proposal later this year,” Singh said.
The old Achilles’ heel of Indian projects — the power plant — could re-emerge, with Bommakanti noting that the FRCV will require at least a 1,500-hp engine, such as the DATRAN project still under development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and BEML Ltd, to deliver the necessary acceleration, mobility and endurance. The engine underwent its maiden test-firing at BEML’s engine division in Mysuru in March 2024.
With the tank unlikely to be consigned to history any time soon, it is hoped that the FRCV project will achieve greater success than the Arjun MBT. After years of protracted development and setbacks, the Army has inducted 124 Arjun Mark 1s and, in September 2021, placed an order for 118 upgraded Arjun Mark 1As.
Bommakanti said that the Army had not been as closely involved in the early stages of the Arjun MBT’s development as it should have been, and added, “The Army’s insistence that the tank be user-driven can only be met if it is deeply engaged in the initial design and development of the FRCV, which I believe it is.” Pointing out that there has been criticism of the Army for expecting too much from the FRCV, he cautioned that its quality requirements should not change too frequently.
At the tri-service seminar on warfare and warfighting held in August, the Army leadership cautioned against relying solely on drones to replace conventional systems. Citing Ukraine — which, despite leading in military drone use, still lost territory to Russia — it argued that drones are more effective as complements to platforms such as tanks. India fields 3,750 MBTs, nearly 65 per cent of them ageing T-72s, while its Zorawar light tank is still in trials. With China operating 4,700 MBTs and 1,250 light tanks and Pakistan at 2,537 MBTs, India needs a future-ready tank.
Although the transition from the T-72 MBT to the FRCV was one the Army “needed to make yesterday”, Singh was hopeful it would happen in the coming decade: “Der aaye, durust aaye (Better late than never).”
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 "FRCV: Right tank for the drone age?")
