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China's Tank Of The Future

fatman17

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China's Tank Of The Future

December 11, 2009:

China is working on a new tank design, one that will replace their current M-1 killer, the Type 99A2. According to the director of the China North Vehicle Research Institute, their next generation tank will be smaller and lighter than the 60 ton Type 99A2. The new tank will have a crew of two and rely on missiles as its main weapon. The new tank will have many more sensors and an active defense (small missiles taking out incoming anti-tank missiles). The sensors will enable the two man crew to see what is all around them, and be connected electronically with other tanks, and units, in the area. This enables a "Battle Management System" to provide the tank with good awareness of what's going on around it, and makes it possible to find and destroy targets quickly.
Meanwhile, two years ago, China completed development of the new version of its Type 99 tank, the Type 99A2. This model has improved reactive armor, as well as fixes to the engine, electronics and mechanical components. This is China's most powerful tank, and is based on the Russian T-80 (which is itself based on the T-72).

A lot of Chinese believe that, on paper, it's new Type 99 tank is a match for the American M-1. For protection, the Type 99 has 500-600mm or armor, plus two layers of reactive army, giving it the equivalent of 1,000-1,200mm of armor. China believes the maximum penetration of the M-1 120mm gun is 810mm. China believes that the protection on the M-1 is 600-700mm, and states that the Type 99 main gun can penetrate 850mm (or 950mm with a new shell design.)

However, China has only produced about 400 Type 99s (of all models) so far. There are several reasons for this. First, the cost (about $2 million per tank). This is more than twice as much as other Chinese built tanks cost. There are some practical considerations, as well. The Type 99 is too heavy for many Chinese bridges, not to mention railroad equipment. Most Chinese tanks are closer to 40 tons, while the Type 99 is closer to 60 tons. Nevertheless, the Type 99 continues to get improvements (like an active defense system seen on a few vehicles).

The performance data on the Type 99 (also called the ZTZ-99) is not official. There is very little in the way of official weapons performance data coming out of the Chinese government. At the same time, the Chinese military leaks real, and inflated, data for PR purposes. While China is not a democracy, in this age of the Internet, public opinion can have an influence when the military budget is being put together each year.

Developing the Type 99A2 seems to indicate that more will be produced, or existing ones will be upgraded (or both options may be carried out.) But China seems to believe that developing the new, two man, tank is a better option. This would leapfrog other nations, like the United States, which have thousands of M-1 tanks.
 
Next generation of Chinese tanks will possess all-dimensional attack capability



  “China will produce the next generation of main battle tank which is able to launch all-dimensional attacks and conduct all-directional self-protection with the number of tank crew reduced to 2,” said Mao Ming, director of China North Vehicle Research Institute (CNVRI) when receiving the interview of Tank and Armored Vehicle magazine.

  According to Mao Ming, the most advanced tank in active service in the PLA is type-99 main battle tank, which has 3 crew members after a feeding man is eliminated. He held that the next generation of main battle tank is likely to have only 2 crew members, i.e., a gunner and a driver sitting side by side.

  Mao Ming said that the enhanced information ability will be the most important change to the next generation of tanks. The target detecting device in the tank is connected with a command-and-attack network with many command systems and sensors from which the tank will receive real time useful information about the target. The fire performance of the tank will be further expanded. Besides direct aiming and launching missiles, the tank also has indirect aiming and shooting ability. It can not only hit near-distance and far-distance objects, but also hit aerial targets. Generally speaking, the main battle tank of the next generation will combine the direct and indirect aiming to realize all-dimensional attacking.

  When it comes to the weight of the tank, Mao Ming pointed out that China’s main battle tank of the next generation should be lightweight with good strategic mobile capacity which meant rapid deployment in the combat area. The chassis system of the tank will be a general-purpose one with changeable and modularized loads for battles in the city or field battles in north China and in south China.

  By Yang Tiehu

China Military Online English Edition
 
Type-99A2 is no longer considered that "new" as it has been in development for years and I am pretty sure that are already photos on 99A2 publically available on the Internet. the real "new" one is the tank mentioned by some Chinese tank experts this month which will be driven and controlled by 2 soldiers.
 
try to reduce the crew from 3 to 2 to 1 and then zero....then it will be unmanned and highly self intelligence computed....
 
looks like in near future we are going to hear about un-manned tanks...:cheers:

different from UAVs, unmanned tanks need to be able to cooperate in massive scale, i.e. hundreds of such tanks should be able to rush in the same direction and achieve the goal of the battle. that would be the hard bit.

:smokin:

---------- Post added at 02:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 AM ----------

try to reduce the crew from 3 to 2 to 1 and then zero....then it will be unmanned and highly self intelligence computed....

I don't think the future of tanks will skip the remotely controlled phase.
 
the way war techniques are changing... tanks very well may become obsolete in future ...........feel free to disagree:cheers:
 
Nice Concept. The crew of two is both Good and Bad. I mean, what if the tank is in remote area, alone, and want some small maintenance?
 
the way war techniques are changing... tanks very well may become obsolete in future ...........feel free to disagree:cheers:

Tank war strategy will never be over......
Now the tank tecno will be advanced, stealth......embeded with surface to air missels and rockets to detroy AC, missels, UAV, rockets etc.
May be they will also be capable to fire long range surface to surface missels.
 
Nice Concept. The crew of two is both Good and Bad. I mean, what if the tank is in remote area, alone, and want some small maintenance?

Unlike Aircrafts, tanks are meant to stay on their own for days and weeks. In case of two men crew, both of them have to be perfectly healthy and active to be able to perform which is unrealistic. 3 men crew is better in this regard.
 
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