New Type98/99 MBT thread

Iron Man

Major
Registered Member
Some Hints about China's 4th Gen Main Battle Tank under Development

The head of 201th insitute (where most Chinese MBT comes from) did mentioned that the 4th generation tanks should have the following features:

(1) 2-men crew

(2) information fusion, including inter-vehicle network fusion, sensor fusion and combat array control, maintainence information fusion etc.

(3) fully integrated weaponry system, vehicle-wide, squad-wide and battalion-wide

(4) high power-density powertrain, and hybrid electric transmission

(5) full dimension protection: active defence system, stealth feature, non-conventional advanced armour

(6) integrated device management system

This can be found from a interview of Dr Mao Ming, the head of 201th institute, in China's CCTV, a brief summary of the interview can be found here (in Chinese):

cnwnews+com/html/soceity/cn_js/dljs/20150727/739650.html


- Two crew in encased cockpit
- 130mm gun, possibly electro-chemical gun
- Low profile with reduced heat signature
- Active defence system
- Hydraulic suspension
- Sensor fusion coupled with VR display technology
A 2-man crew makes it more difficult for the tank to have a hunter-killer capability. I suppose you could semi-automate the hunter/search function, but there is nothing that can beat a human eye interpreting whether an image is a tank or something else.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
A 2-man crew makes it more difficult for the tank to have a hunter-killer capability. I suppose you could semi-automate the hunter/search function, but there is nothing that can beat a human eye interpreting whether an image is a tank or something else.

All weapons are "hunter/killer" capable.o_O Yes Private go out there to check and see if that's a real enemy tank, bunker, APC shooting at us.
 

Iron Man

Major
Registered Member
All weapons are "hunter/killer" capable.o_O Yes Private go out there to check and see if that's a real enemy tank, bunker, APC shooting at us.
FYI "hunter/killer" in reference to a tank is a very specific term. It requires an additional independently targetable thermal periscope which can be used to search for a second target while a first target is already being engaged. For example, the M1A1 is not a hunter/killer, while the M1A2 incorporates a commander's independent thermal sight and is considered a hunter/killer.
 

Iron Man

Major
Registered Member
Hunter/killer is possible with a two man crew by effectively automating the role of the gunner in addition to the loader.

The commander finds targets and mark them. The targeting computer then executes the kill, while the commander hunts for the next target.
This is definitely NOT hunter/killer; it's just a slightly faster standard MBT capability. Hunter/killer capability is simultaneous search and attack; the gunner is attacking one target while the commander is tracking another.
 
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