AFAIK their T-90S are a smorgasbord of a mess in terms of what has what and overall upgrade cycles unless
@Lion or anyone else knows better
Correct, Indian T90 fleet is a mess, I have tried really hard to catalogue it but havent been successful so far. To the best of my knowledge it goes as follows:
As delivered, india has three variants of T90 which it internally calls MK.1,2,3. The Bhisma designation started with the second batch of MK1.
First order was of 310 tanks (T90S or MK.1) in 2001, of which 42 were from Russian stocks and were basically Base T90 (cast turrets) and the rest were T90S. A second order of 330 T90S (MK.1 for India) was placed in 2006. These Came without Any thermal sights at all, nor any AC, and 3BM17 Ammunition. This is 640 tanks.
Then there were two orders of T90S MK.2 starting with 347 tanks in 2008 and 354 more in 2012. These were meant to be upgraded over the MK.1 but I cannot figure out what the major upgrades were given they still didn’t come with Gunner thermals (or perhaps they did and the sources just don’t mention it) or ACs or new Ammo. There might have been minor upgrades to the armor and interior. This is 1341 tanks.
India launched a program to install gunner thermals on T90S in 2016 (either both MK1 & 2, or only MK1 If MK2 already came with it) reports suggest the entire fleet was outfitted by 2022-23 but it is possible some are awaiting even this upgrade. They started another program to install commanders thermals on around 960~ of the fleet in 2022, I’m yet to see an Indian T90S (MK.1 or 2) upgraded with commanders thermals in 2026.
They first attempted to install ACs in their T90S in 2008 but the project didn’t go anywhere, they tried again in 2014 and failed again, at present some of their fleet has ACs and some still don’t.
They started buying 3BM42 Mango APFSDS in 2015 (Pakistan had the same/equivalent ammo in the 90s and was producing it by 2001) And local production of the ammunition started in 2024, it is still not standardized but should be soon now that local production is being established.
finally, they placed an order for 464 T90 MK.3 Tanks in 2019 (first 10 were delivered in 2024 and to continue till 2029). These came from the factory with ACs, thermal sights for both commander and gunner, digital fire control computers and a bunch of other upgrades, but they’re still not close to the Russian T90Ms. This makes a total of 1800~ T90 tanks with various different levels of upgrades.
There were a bunch of other things they tried with engines and ammunition and APS systems and armor and fire control computers along the way which I have left out, I’m sure some of these upgrades also ended up on some of their tanks, but I’ll have to do a lot of reading to come up with exact or at Least somewhat accurate figures, though I believe it can be done with enough sleuthing around the Indian web.
