It can tear the enemy tanks, destruct these tanks and kill persons sitting in them. This indigenously developed weapon does away with expensive metals. Highly praised for its effectiveness, this weapon was designed and developed here. 

The Fin Stabilized Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) was developed in the Pune based Armanent Research and Development Establishment (ARDE). It was presented in the exhibition at ARDE, Pashan on Friday on the occasion of national Conference on Advances in Armanent Technology. FSAPDS is especially designed for firing from Arjun tank. What makes it special is it is made from Combustible Car-tridge Case, instead of the metal case in the old weapons. This anti-tank ammunition is of 120 mm diameter variety while its other variant 125 mm is designed to be used in T-72 tanks.

S. P. Durwas, technical officer and who was instrumental in designing FSAPDS told Pune Mirror, “We were using brass cartridge cases in earlier ammunitions. FSAPDS utilises combustible cartridge cases which burn out totally in the tank’s rifled gun. It is made from aqueous pulp of cotton waste, TNT (Trinitrotoluene). What is more, it has 10 years of shelf life. This makes it much more affordable for us.” It is es-timated that 125 mm FSAPDS ammunition could save the country foreign exchange of around Rs Two crores annually.

FSAPDS is used to attack heavy armoured vehicles. It can damage the  single heavy target i. e. 150 mm thick at 60 degrees upto 3500 meters.

Lightweight Launcher

An another feather in the cap of ARDE is 84 mm Lightweight Launcher. This gun is built on the hybrid composite technology for gun barrel. It is a lightweight, man portable anti-tank gun. This gun weighs only 8 kg. which is only half compared to an anti-tank infantry system.  

K. D. Deodhar, who headed the team of designers of this gun said, “This gun was successfully designed in record time of 30 months and the same technology has been handed over to ministry of defence for indigenous bulk production.” 

According to Deodhar, composite barrel technology 

has been established first time in the country through the 84 mm lightweight launcher. The technology has been validated by various users, troops at varied terrains. The technology has been transferred to Ordnance Factory Board for mass production.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Dutta, deputy national security advisor of India inaugu-rated the conference. He said, “Today the private sector has a good technological base that can link with the public sector. The focus of ARDE will move from na-tional laboratories to industry and the IITs and basic scientific research will then be undertaken by the universities and other national and regional institutions and laboratories.”

(Published in Pune Mirror on 22 Nov. 2008)