PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank

Perhaps the new tank's cannon is it's pistol. It's rifle is in the rear in the form of ATGMs, long range rockets and artilleries.
If it has options to not engage with it's main gun in order to preserve stealth, then that's what it will do.

Interesting analysis of all the new AFV. I think this channel is one of the better western sources on the PLA.

In the grand scheme of things, the overall concept with a 40 tonne weight and 2 man crew seated in the hull really do remind me of the US Army FMBT from The mid-90s.

A previously shared image but in higher quality.

I´ve identified a number of common sensor/effector elements on the IFV and the tank (henceforth I will call them "ZTZ-201" and "ZBD-201" until we know the real designations)


I´m betting this is a common top attack detection and suppresion/soft kill system. Red marks the upwards launching smoke grenades, yellow would be some sort of radar antenna and in green a likely jammer antenna.

With all this talk about the efficacy of drones, it reminded me of a comment from lesscredibledefense (paraphrased):

When one is forced to adopt a different strategy due to the enemy's superior capability, that is not a work of genius, it is simply making the best out of a shitty situation. Your original strategy was chosen for good reasons, and anything else is simply suboptimal. Russia and Ukraine are using drones not because they're better than ATGMs, but rather because the ATGMs are too expensive, are easily blown up, or a combination of both.

Tell me, would the US use small drones in a second invasion of Afghanistan? Drones are not the future of warfare, only a part of it.

Apparently Afghan snipers were highly effective against the US and its allies to where there were complaints to say it was unfair. Why? Because it wasn't mano el mano? Real men fight hand to hand...? Then you have the US celebrate their sniper, Chris Kyle... Why do US wars have lop-sided casualties in their favor? Because most of those conflicts have them fighting against lesser adversaries. The US hasn't fought a peer adversary since WWII. The US doesn't suffer large casualties because they rely on stand-off weapons that are beyond the range of their opponents capabilities and their foot soldiers are safe far away from the field of their fire. When it's truly mano el mano, casualties on both sides are not as lop-sided.

If you watch all those YouTube channels interviewing this new wave of US military tech bros developing new military technologies, what do they say in common? They all say what the US soldier fears most today are drones because they have to be hiding in a hole in the ground all the time now hoping they weren't spotted going in to avoid drones.

Two more nice images.

Perhaps the topic for a different thread. We've gone off topic for this thread.

I´m becoming ever more suspicious that the "ZTZ-201" doesn´t have a bustle autoloader. Rather its likely that the autoloader could be in the hull and be somewhat reminiscent of a carrousel type (though with rounds placed vertically), and in consequence all electronic equipment, radios, computers and such, were moved to the turret bustle instead.