Chinese 96-A

Type 96A and Type 72Bs in the final relay of the tank biathlon

Quick question, is the optics fixed on the left hand side of the Type-96 turret? Also is that small square on the MG hatch the commander's optics? (Is it me or it looks smaller than some of the old picture I have seen)

The box on the left is the gunner's optics, its the primary optics on the tank.

The commander has his own small periscope optics on the right, but it is very rudimentary. Probably only has low powered magnification, and I would be surprised if it had decent night vision modes. At most I'm expecting similar night vision performance to basic personal NVGs.

Its the gunner's sights that has got all the goodies, like good long distance passive NV, thermal etc.

Just done some quick research, and apparently, all 3 crew members have night vision, the commander periscope is supposed to have night vision and thermal imaging.

Pretty impressed if that is true.

How do they score in the competition? It seems the Type-96A lacks acceleration but still it has managed to come out second.

This is the longer version.

Quickie said:

This is the longer version.

Click to expand...

I am still curious as to what the large box shaped structure around and on top of the 96A's exhaust contains. It can be clearly seen around 53:00 in the video. It is large and most definitely is in the way of the turret rotating.

After a more careful look it is probably not in the way of the turret rotating, but still curious what's there.

Probably an IR suppressor for the exhaust.

Does anyone knows what is the power/weight ratio of t-96a compared to t-72 ?

I tried to compare the speed of the Type-96A and the other tanks at other parts of the circuit other than the start off. Looks like it's difficult to tell the difference in their speed.

Also, I noticed there seemed to be some engine pick up problem at the start off of the race. The Type-96A seemed to almost stop before it continued accelerating again.