New Delhi, Dec 11 : Defence Minister AK Antony today informed Rajya Sabha that the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun was not tampered during any trials.

The army with successful results has carried out reliability trials systematically, he said, adding that the DRDO has not proposed any enquiry into the matter.

Antony denied knowledge whether a lobby in the Army is in favour of the purchase for entire equipment for army from foreign countries.

The Defence Minister said Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) Phase 1 for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was sanctioned in 1993.

Later in November 2001, FSED Phase 2 was sanctioned for manufacturing of additional prototypes and eight Limited Series Production Aircrafts. Decision was taken to change to Open System Architecture for Avionics and Change over to R73 E missile (from R60) to make the aircraft more advanced and contemporary. There are no other changes in the design, he said.

“The project is progressing well and has completed more than 933 test flights successfully with seven aircrafts under flight test phase. Indian Air Force has already placed a commercial order on HAL for procuring 20 LCA aircrafts,” Antony added. (ANI)