NEW DELHI: The ability of Indian Army Tanks to strike enemies in the night has got an indigenous boost with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) coming up with Thermal Imaging (TI) Night Vision Devices (NVD) which can locate targets at a greater distance.
“We have manufactured TI- based night vision devices for the Tank Commanders night sight which will be able to pick the enemy tanks from a distance of about three kilometres,” a DRDO official told this newspaper.
The DRDO has already supplied 300 TI-NVDs for T-72 tanks, and 2,000 more are to be produced. These indigenous TI-NVDs are being produced in BEL, Vijaywada and OFB Dehradun.
The range of these devices is about 3 km, the officer said. “We are working on such devices even for the tank commanders and drivers of T-90 tanks.”
In the battle zone, tank commanders keep a watch on enemy targets by ‘picking up’ the heat generated by a soldier or a machine.
T-72 tanks have Image Enhancing tubes, which can see things in the night but only under certain conditions and up to a distance of 200 m, the officer said.
Work on TI -based Night Vision Devices for tank commanders and drivers of the T-90s is in process. “We have to produce around 3,000 such devices for the T-90 tanks,” said the officer.
Of the 3,000 tanks with the Indian Armoured regiment, 1,500 are T-90s and Arjun Arjun main battle tank.