PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank
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Is it true they will be a 125 mm version of the tank or a new heavy battle tank and I wonder what is lastest 125mm round china and it's pen
Look at the terrain in Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam.
It's not that suitable for MBTs, so these would mostly be infantry wars.
In addition, the Chinese Army would almost certainly be the ones on the tactical and strategic offensive, in any potential conflict.
In such a scenario, a lighter tank which focuses on frontal armour for assaults is more "efficient" when compared to a defensive tank which has to worry about being flanked
FriedRiceNSpice
Major
Heavy MBTs are suitable for neither mountainous terrain, beaches, nor jungles. Heavy MBTs also tend to have a much larger logistical footprint, which isn't ideal if your ground forces require transport via sea or air.
When it comes to the Korean peninsula, only the southern portion of the peninsula is suitable for armored warfare, as the northern portion is highly mountainous. There is no need for the PLAGF to get involved on the peninsula. NK has a million man army that is more than capable of resisting invasion from the south provided the PLA provides air and sea-based support. At most, PLAGF might deploy air defense, electronic support, and possibly long range artillery units in support of the KPA.
Chance of conflict with Vietnam is extremely slim. Even if such a conflict were to occur, the terrain along the Sino-Vietnamese border is even less suitable for armored warfare: mountainous terrain covered by dense jungle. In the 1979 skirmish, the PLA found difficult to even deploy light tanks effectively in such terrain.
Lastly, none of the Pacific islands (including Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan) are suitable for heavy tanks. Again, mix of mountains, jungles, and beaches. The fact that these are islands compounds the heavy logistical cost of deploying heavy tanks. The ideal tank for such a scenario is lightweight, mobile, and optimizes for the heavy logistical burdens for deployment and resupply.
As long as Russia remains a friend of China, the PLA will find little use for a heavy MBT.
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It's not that bonkers, increasing cartridge volume can easily accomplish this along with telescoped ammo to reduce overall dimensions. It's also how 140mm/130mm guns with a 120mm barrel could perform similarly considering they are designed to use the same breach with massive propellant volume. It is fair here to assume the penetrator is nearly as long as the projectile due to not needing an ERA defeating tip so it could be possible for decent performance matching the latest penetrators but still fall short of newer advanced ammo from larger guns. Again, I never doubted they could make a 105mm have similar armor penetration to the latest rounds but 105 still lacks behind for practically everything else. There is a limit to how long you can make a projectile like HE/MP rounds before they get unstable hence 105mm will always lag behind significantly with filler ammo and gun launched AGTMs due to less space for propellant and payload.
For a tank that's claimed not to be made for tank on tank, this tank is surprisingly odd. 105 is terrible compared to 125mm for multipurpose fire support due to limited ammo variety and even if you can fit some of those ammos in a 105, they'll have significantly reduced performance due to size constraints hence this gun is seemingly only good for anti-armor operations... installed on a tank that people claim is not made for anti-tank duties. Why not a new light weight 125mm that could both fire more advanced single piece penetrators with much more room for future upgrades while also great at multipurpose fire support with a bunch of legacy/new ammo options? Ammo capacity shouldn't be an issue with smart autoloader design considering the entire back of the vehicle is empty due to only two crew member and unmanned turret plus even if it uses a 105mm, but it still uses a much larger cartridge for extra performance the overall volume of the ammo might actually be similar to a 125mm anyways.
This design is truly bonkers and in a very confusing way, I am doubting if this is a MBT at all at this point
Except we don´t know yet what they did. I´m willing to bet they are using the same cartridge dimensions as regular 105. Then the question becomes about propellant and material pressure tollerances, which is the most interesting part.
Yet no one disclosed that part. For it putting no focus on tank-to-tank, its indeed weird that they prioritized getting same of superior performance than current 120mm when it comes to KE but also chose to deprioritize kill capability against anything else. In other words, lower weight being the target, they could have either gone with a larger caliber but much lower pressure ammo (hence enabling a lighter gun) or smaller caliber but with super high pressures to get a lot of kinetic energy and this is what they chose. I guess the Russians would have done the opposite.
On that I can agree. This is either a true "medium tank" or may be classified as a new tank class entirely, I like "universal tank": getting MBT-like firepower and survivability with medium/light tank strategic and operational mobility.
It's it true that because China use a autoloader the round is shorter = less pen
Not at all.
Yes but no, it's not using an autoloader that caused this, it's using this specific design of the Soviet AZ autoloader on T-72/T-90 tanks. Soviet autoloaders have limits on penetrator size due to requiring two-piece ammo(Penetrator in the top piece with a propellant cartridge behind it) although newer iterations of the design can support longer penetrator but still less than western single piece ammo. Western style bustle loader doesn't actually have this problem since they could support NATO standard single piece ammo no issue plus you could install a blowout panel above it for better crew protection.
This is basically a modern tank destroyer or assault gun, no? Good for killing tank, possibly weak armor but highly mobile but can't do much of anything else.
I don´t think so because it will be used as the primary offensive maneuver armored asset, ie. a tank. I wouldn´t be surprised at all if the crew is protected to the levels of something like ZTZ99A, in terms of armor.
To me its clear this thing is ideal for an offensive operation in Taiwan, which features beaches, cities and mountains. On the other hand, Taiwan is being equipped with kinda modern tanks and can be expected to be reinforced with more advanced AFVs. So PLA decided to prioritize the capability to counter these assets and then make do in regards with other targets. After all, for more than half a century no one complained about 105mm being insufficient to fight infantry, bunkers and other softer targets.