Chinese infantry fighting vehicles
- Thread starter Broccoli
- Start date
It's same 4 antennas (and array of mortars), there's simply no place inside i think. They just stick out.
Honestly speaking, given how ugly and "bolted on top" it is, i suspect it's Afghanit-L. No way original system designed for this vehicle will be thrown on top like this.
Will PLA actually adopt this APS? The rest of the fleet are pretty firmly using/trialling some variant/descendant of GL-6, while the 04B seems to be the only one seen trialing Afghanit-L/its Chinese equivalent.
04B turret with APS
Not to mention Afghanit system by design just isn't equipped to counter top attack, a poor choice in the age of drones & FPVs. I'd bet the troops would want an APS that can counter drones if EW & others missed it, not an APS that's reliant on others to counter what's increasingly a ubiquitous battlefield threat.
In PLA inventory, the other IFVs all use 30mm turrets, which now can get the unmanned 30mm turret with APS. Even if they're not designed for one, PLA can just adapt the turret on new airborne IFV for the rest of the fleet and call it a day.
Only the 04 IFV series are using the BMP-3 style turret, and with the current evolving threat they just seem ill equipped to counter it.
I think if they want to retain that BMP-3 style turret (presumably for the 100mm HE), then the only survivable way is attaching APS to the side of the turret. Imagine the turret on this Kazakh Taimas 8x8, but with the thicker side allocated for APS. After all, that turret is VN11, a Norinco's product
P.s. Damn Norinco's naming scheme is a pain to remember. Why do they have to learn the darn 'Everything is an M1' from the US (ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻
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As crappy as they look, cope cages and turtle tanks seem to offer the same utility as a expensive APS system, being able to withstand dozens of FPVs at a substantially lower cost.
IMO APS system would be most important only at the onset of conflict when heavy man portable AT is in plentiful supply. Onces atgms run out mad maxing your vehicles seem far more economical.
Just some food for thought, as even the most heavily loaded vehicles only have 8 rounds in the GL-6 before having to reload.
The tanks with cope cages and sheds lose a huge portion of their attack function since their turrets can’t turn and their optics are obstructed.
Only really heavy ones work truly well, tbh.
And let's be real, these:
-overload transmission beyond breaking points (already heavy and large western tanks don't really work with cope cages)
-overload/brea turret rotation, too if attachment point is turret rather than hull
As @vincent writes, you're indeed blind.
I.e. Ukrainian experience is absolutely that "hairy" tanks are quite possibly a way to go, but...this should be combined with everything else, rather than instead. "Instead" is a desperate measure right now.
