The armour got its name from Kanchan Bagh,[1] Hyderabad, Telangana, where the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is located.
A new honeycomb structure design of non-explosive and non-energetic reactive armour (NERA) is reportedly being tested on Arjun tanks.
[3] During development in the 1980s, Kanchan armour defeated a 106 mm recoilless rifle which was tried on the Arjun Tank.
During trials in 2000, the armour was able to withstand hits from T-72 tank at point blank range, and defeated all available high-explosive squash head (HESH) and APFSDS rounds, which included Israeli APFSDS rounds.
[4] Upon impact of a projectile, the armour will — ideally — prevent penetration via compression and decompression methods.