Because the Indian army launched a counterattack first, the offensive operation of the Pakistani army was postponed until the evening of the same day.

In the evening, the long-range artillery of the Pakistani army opened fire first.

Considering that the main force of the Indian army is the infantry unit, the early artillery and equipment of the Pakistani army only lasted half an hour, covering the Indian defense line.

Subsequently, the armored units of the Pakistani army were dispatched.

Soon after the offensive began, the Pakistani army ran into minor trouble.

What's the trouble?

According to the arrangement of the Indian army front commander, the unit that should come out to lure the enemy when the Pakistani army launched an offensive, that is, the armored battalion with more than 20 T-72M, did not launch a counterattack as planned, but stayed on the defensive line to block the armored forces of the Pakistani army.

Useful?

You know, Russian tanks have always been known for their poor field capabilities.

Although India has been trying to improve the night combat capability of the T series tanks, and even spent a lot of money to find Western arms companies to improve the T-90S and T-72M, the effect is not ideal, that is, the night vision devices provided by Western arms companies are difficult to integrate with the observation and sighting systems of Russian tanks.

It can be said that the tanks of the Indian army have almost no ability to fight at night.

When the Pakistani army launched its attack, it was already night.

In fact, it is precisely because the Indian army's armored units are too poor in night combat capabilities that in many cases, the Pakistani army deliberately chooses to attack at night.

What can more than 20 T-72Ms do?

Even without taking into account the ability to fight at night, the T-72M is not a great threat to the "Khalid 2".

Why?

There are no suitable armor-piercing shells.

At that time, the Indian army supplied the T-72M with armor-piercing shells imported from Russia.

This kind of armor-piercing projectile has been eliminated even by the Russian army.

It's simple, the performance is too poor.

At a distance of 2,000 meters, its penetration depth is less than 300 mm, which can barely deal with the second-generation main battle tank, and cannot penetrate the frontal armor of the third-generation main battle tank at all.

In Lahore, this has been demonstrated.

The armor-piercing shells of the T-72M cannot penetrate even the frontal armor of the "Khalid", let alone the "Khalid 2".

In fact, India imported a batch of high-performance tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells from Israel, but all of them were used in the T-90S and were not supplied to the T-72M.

Why?

It's too expensive.

In addition, Israel does not use tanks with 125mm smoothbore guns, and Israeli arms companies develop 125mm armor-piercing shells only for sale.

Obviously, even if Israeli armor-piercing shells are better than Russian, they will not be much better.

Theoretically, this armor-piercing projectile provided by Israel would have to penetrate the frontal armor of the "Khalid 2" within 1,000 meters.

More than 20 T-72Ms did cause some trouble for the Pakistani army, but it was only trouble.

Strictly speaking, the Pakistani armored forces did not stop to deal with these Indian tanks hiding in bunkers.

After the sneak attack, the Pakistani armored forces immediately dispersed.

Subsequently, after figuring out the situation, the armored units of the Pakistani army called for artillery support.

Long-range artillery was once again engaged in the battle, but this time not ordinary high-explosive shells, but terminal sensitive shells specifically designed to deal with armored targets.

Dealing with fast-moving targets, the terminal bullet is still a bit difficult.

It's just that against a tank hidden in a bunker, it's quite powerful.

After a single shelling, more than 20 T-72Ms were destroyed.

Interestingly, the casualties of the Indian armored corps were not significant.

According to the information provided by the Pakistani army, most of the Indian tank crews abandoned their tanks and hid in nearby bunkers when they were shelled.

Apparently, even the Indian tankers lost confidence in the T-72M.

As a result, the Pakistani army advanced more than an hour slower than expected.

Before reaching the Indian army's defensive line, the Pakistani army encountered real trouble.

This is the "Arjun 2" that has been hidden for a long time.

Although the mobility is very poor, the protection is even worse, and the firepower is not sharp, the "Arjun 2" has a very outstanding advantage over Russian tanks.

What the?

The sighting equipment is relatively advanced.

Although the observation and sighting equipment of "Arjun 2" is also a foreign product, it has a high degree of integration, especially the infrared imager imported from the United Kingdom.

Relying on this set of infrared imagers, the night combat distance of "Arjun 2" is close to 2,000 meters.

Because before that, the T-72M was hit by artillery fire, so the Indian army learned this time and did not open fire immediately after the appearance of "Khalid 2".

It was only when the Pakistani tanks approached that the Indian tanks opened fire.

On the suburban road east of Bertanocard, more than 10 "Arjun 2" took a huge advantage in the first round of fighting, or took the Pakistani army by surprise.

At the time, the scene was extremely chaotic.

In just a few minutes, nearly 20 Khalid 2 vehicles were hit by shells, and all of them were damaged.

Because the situation was not clarified, the Pakistani army had to withdraw.

For this reason, the Indian army claimed to have destroyed more than 20 "Khalid 2" in this battle.

Are there really so many?

There are indeed more than 20 "Khalid 2" that were hit, but none of them can really be considered "damaged", and all "Khalid 2" are only damaged.

Is there a difference?

Of course.

Quite simply, these damaged "Khalid 2" were all dragged back by the Pakistani army, and after a few days they were repaired and put back into battle.

Hit by an armor-piercing bullet, it can be repaired?

In fact, "Arjun 2" used not armor-piercing shells, but armor-shattering shells.

Why?

"Arjun 2" is armed with a 120-mm rifled gun!

Although India purchased a batch of armor-piercing shells from Britain as needed, the power was very limited due to the performance of the artillery itself.

Theoretically, this kind of armor-piercing projectile produced in Britain can only deal with main battle tanks such as the T-80U.

To this end, the Indian Army has introduced a large number of armor fragmentation shells.

It's not an introduction, it's cheap.

Why?

The British Army has decided to abandon the 120mm rifled gun, so there are a large number of shells in stock to deal with, the most of which are armor fragments.

A few decades ago, armor fragmentation shells were somewhat useful.

It's a pity that after the full popularization of reactive armor, armor fragmentation shells became completely useless.

Probably not confident in armor-piercing shells, the Indian army's "Arjun 2" mainly uses armor-shattering shells.

In fact, at that time, each "Arjun 2" had only 4 armor-piercing shells, and the rest were mainly armor-fragmenting shells, so tankers generally did not use armor-piercing shells.

Dealing with "Khalid 2" with armor-shattering shells?

Obviously, the Indian army did think too much.

Not to mention "Khalid 2", even "Khalid" can easily block armor-shattering bullets.

It's just that armor shattering bullets have a very prominent value.

What the?

A violent explosion after hitting a tank can destroy peripheral sighting devices, such as the objective lens of a night vision device, or a periscope.

In other words, armor fragmentation shells cannot destroy tanks, but they can make tanks incapacitated for a short time.

The more than 20 "Khalid 2" vehicles were only incapacitated and had to be temporarily withdrawn.