I remember reading somewhere that China purchased some T-80's (or I think they where T-80's) from Russia a long time ago. And that China still uses them in one of its elite guards. Is this true, and if so has anyone every seen the tanks?
The Type 99 tank's hull bears striking resemblance to the T-72 hull. The turret, however, is Western-inspired.
it still algs behind the western style MBT in both protection and fire power. With the new SK2 on the scene and the Arjun finally entering limited production expect to see a true Chinese MBT in 5-10 years.
It doesn't seem to be the reality.
Arjun is dead already, nobody cares it anymore. Chinese MBT has the fire power among the top list in the world, it's well documented.
It lacks the protection as the western tanks have and they won't change it anytime soon. Since half of China, the south part are all rice paddles, a west style tank doesn't fit there due to the weight issue. Actually they balance it with more lethal fire power and fast reaction time.
First off, a 125mm L/48 with a carosel autoloading system with two piece ammo will never have firepower on par with single piece 120mm rounds that are much longer and heavier. The Chinese round apears .....
Not really, if you strip away the ceramic plating you see a very frying pan style turret typical of T style and conventional Type style tanks decending from the T-44 the mothyer of the T-54. That being said, I still don't buy the T-72 clone argument wholly. I think the Type 99 is a stopgap until the PLA can actually build a true western style MBT. The Type 85II that had made up the bulk of the PLA's "modern" armor was rapidly going out of date and the PLA was flush with money to repalce it. But as good as the ZRZ-99 is, it still algs behind the western style MBT in both protection and fire power. With the new SK2 on the scene and the Arjun finally entering limited production expect to see a true Chinese MBT in 5-10 years.
It will probably still mount a 125mm gun but will feature cassette style bustle rack loading system like the newest Russian and Ukrainian systems and also feature a higher caliber (52-56 IMHO).
China can already make the engine,transmission,armor and FCS's the beast needs thanks to the Type 98/99 family. So I assuming that the hold ups are in the gun, autoloading system and industrial ability to make a hull and turret big enough.