The Indian Army has issued a tender — Request For Information (RFI) — for the procurement of 1,750 Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) to replace the Russian-origin BMP-2 infantry vehicles in service. Early this month, an RFI was also issued for the procurement of 1770 Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCV) for the procurement of the next generation Main Battle Tank with planned induction from 2030.
The Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) will be employed for cross-country operations, including amphibious operations in plain and desert terrain along the Western borders and high altitudes, up to 5000m, and mountain terrain along the northern borders in eastern Ladakh, the central sector and north Sikkim. The vehicle should have a service or operational life of at least 32 years with maximum one overhaul and repair.
The FICV should be modular in design, enabling future upgrades through simple modifications and to facilitate subsequent development of family of armoured fighting vehicles like command-control vehicles, armoured personnel carrier, armoured ambulance, mortar carrier, command post vehicle, reconnaissance and surveillance vehicle, NBC reconnaissance vehicle, engineer reconnaissance vehicle, armoured recovery vehicle among others.
The RFI for FRCV issued on June 1 says it is intended to procure a new generation ‘future tank’, 1770 of them in a phased manner, “with expected induction by 2030, along with performance based logistics, transfer of technology, engineering support package and other maintenance and training requirements”. The FRCV platform is planned to be procured under the ‘Strategic Partnership’ route of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
