The Kanchan Armour (Literally Gold in Hindi) is the name informally given to a modular composite armour developed by India. The armour got its name from Kanchan Bagh,[1] Hyderabad, Telangana, where the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is located.
Although the construction details of the armour remain a secret, it has been described as being made by sandwiching composite panels between rolled homogeneous armour (RHA). The number of layers may vary based on the user requirements. This armour is able to defeat armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) and high-explosive anti-tank warhead (HEAT) rounds and is known to defeat armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS).[2]
This armour is lightweight and compact. A new honeycomb structure design of non-explosive and non-energetic reactive armour (NERA) is reportedly being tested on Arjun tanks.[3]