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The ambitious Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) project India seeks to develop, to survive challenges of the future, will have a lot of obstacles to overcome. Many have expressed concerns about the viability of the intended requirements ever since the project's inception. We are trying to explore all of these one by one. In the previous part, we tried to explain some of the aspects. It's time we went through the rest of the concerns.
Lethality
The RFI mentions the main gun has to be of a minimum 120mm and above caliber. Now, this is actually quite significant. Clearly, the FRCV doesn't set up any bars for the main gun. Rather prudently, it paves the way for the integration of any armament of choice with a higher caliber. And this coincides with the other future battle tank programmes as well (Rheinmetall 130mm/51 caliber and ASCALON 140mm/48 caliber). The US on the other hand is working on ARDEC XM360 (a 120mm/58 calibre one, to be integrated into the Abrams X, for M1E3 project and eventually M1A3) electro-thermal chemical technology. While different western countries are approaching differently, at the end, most probably there would be a commonality in both the calibre and mechanism to be integrated into their respective tanks. Similarly, the nature of both the co–axial and turret mounted ones has changed. Gradually, the choice is shifting in favour of bigger 20mm and 30mm. The new generation of turret mounted RWS even has integrated weapons of two different calibres for customised roles. While the FRCV requirement has not yet shifted from the traditional armaments (7.62mm coaxial and 12.7mm RWS) the development must take care of the provision of inclusion by choice. FRCV at the same time eyes incorporation of loitering munitions for LOS and NLOS engagement. The new trend to integrate projectiles into tanks has been reflected in several new programmes around the world. The only prominent thing missing in the FRCV requirement is a turret independent weapon system, which could be crucial in case of any unexpected close encounter or to thwart a breach assault. It should not be ignored.
Fire Control System (FCS)
Integration of advanced situational awareness and a human–AI interface will provide a fully digitised architecture for seamless target engagement. Along with...