russia's Uralvagonzavod has put forward a proposal to India to modernize its tank fleet, as reported by hostile propaganda media citing the company's Director General Alexander Popov. He claims Indian armored vehicles could be upgraded with engineering solutions developed on the basis of combat experience that have strengthened the tank as a weapons system.
Popov emphasized that russia and India are long-standing strategic partners and that Moscow is therefore offering to modernize the equipment currently in Indian service. From Defense Express's perspective, this remains purely a russian statement at this stage New Delhi's response to the proposal is not yet known, and there is also the question of whether India would find it of interest at all.
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The starting point for any assessment is that India's armed forces currently field up to 2,500 T-72 tanks and a further 1,200 T-90S tanks. Regarding the T-72s, India announced plans as far back as 2023 to carry out a full capital repair of these vehicles and effectively return them to new condition complete disassembly and replacement of non-repairable components with new ones.
The following year, in 2024, reports emerged of a radically different plan that India had decided to sell off most of its T-72 fleet. This was concerning news, particularly in the context that those tanks could ultimately find their way to russia.
Over the past year, India's Ministry of Defence signed a $248 million contract with Rosoboronexport for the purchase of T-72 engines, including technology transfer for integration and subsequent licensed production under India's Make in India defense industrialization program.
On the T-90 front, two years ago it was reported that India had begun domestic production of its own T-90 Mk-III upgrade and delivered the first 10 vehicles. Even though the tanks were built under a russian license, the electronics on these machines turned out to be so there are no analogs that India decided to replace them entirely.
Now, Uralvagonzavod is proposing to modernize Indian tanks in line with upgrades developed from russia's own battlefield experience in Ukraine.
In this context, one fact is worth noting: over four years into the full-scale invasion, Uralvagonzavod has only now unveiled a coherent anti-drone protection design for its tanks.
The imagery shows a turret protection structure to which cables and other additions will be fitted, along with additional armor protection for the hull.
Defense Express previously reported that after a three-year delay, russia has delivered a fourth S-400 system to India and plans to hand over a fifth by the end of the year.
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