PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank
- Thread starter by78
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If your turtlebaka is designed this way and isn't just field repair shops' big mek's baby, you can fit APS and sensor heads on it.
Turtle tanks, same with Ukrainian brick works, are ultimately a desperate cry onto how horribly insufficient top, side and rear protection of modern tanks is.
Well, supposedly the augmented reality system is pretty expensive, but then it is also closely related to consumer electronics, unlike thermal sight system which is purely MIC product.
I suspect most of the cost of such systems is in the complex software, sensor fusion...etc. Those development cost does benefit from scale very well
That is solved through unmanned turrets which everybody seems to be heading towards regardless of caliber. At the end of the day, autoloader are more easily armored without increasing the turret volume to account for a crew.
some of this seems rather ridiculous, like the part about Type 15 finding it too expensive, so PLAGF will not be able replace old tanks with it.
Well, when Type 15 was developed, these sensors probably did have way too expensive cost, but that's no longer the case now. In fact, we saw all these sensors on all the UGVs and VT-5U at Zhuhai airshow. How do you go autonomous in the future without the sensors?
They in fact probably will not replace old tanks with it, because we just don't need as many crewed tanks in the future when UGVs will be increasingly important. Try to hit a small UGV with really good sensors & powerful motors and no thermal signature. It's just so much harder.
I also think it's bullshit to say the fire power and protection didn't decline. Okay, I'm sure new generation tech means your protection gets better with lighter and thinner material, but that's still not the same as what you would get on a 60-70t tank. Fundamentally, this is a shift toward network centric warfare and autonomous assets. Yes, this armored vehicle needs to be well protected, because any command node with crew member has to be well protected. Without it, all the unmanned assets will lose some effectiveness since they would need to rely on command nodes further away or more jammable satellite communication
The entire point of this is that you probably will target the enemy tank with bombs/missiles launched from autonomous asset in front or artillery further back.
you are right, it doesn't need to be a tank. You are essentially having a manned platform directing things closer to the action with enough protection and is very maneuverable and able to operate in different terrains. Ideally, it's a modular platform that can swap out weapon module on the chassis with different type of weapon modules.
they already have pretty large UGVs, but we are not at the point where UGVs can replace crew members, so we still need vehicles like this.
right, think about the need to transport vehicles to Tibet for an Indian scenario. It's so much easier to have lighter tanks that you can transport with your Y-20s along with a UGV & smaller drones. You can also transport spare parts more easily for lighter vehicles.
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