Chinese Military Exports (Land Systems)

[Neurosmith]

There seems to be a video of a "PHL-03" used by Cambodia to strike a Thai target, i am very doubtful on its authenticity but the audio for on its own is compounding my confusion hense why I post it. It obviously isnt a bomb, because those tend to not have rocket trails. And i dont know why Thais would record it unless they already knew it was coming? If it turns out to be a bomb which is maybe is, than I would ask for the admins to move this post to the more centered Cambodia-Thai thread

• 0:01: One man says, "ถ่ายไว้" (Thàai wái), which translates to "Film it" or "Keep recording."
• 0:02: Just before the impact, he says, "ห้าร้อยปอนด์ สองลูกว่ะ" (Hâa rói bpon, sǎawng lûuk wà), which translates to "500-pounders, two of them!"
• 0:04: After the explosion, he shouts, "โอ๊ย หลุมมันลึกเป็นสิบฟุตเลย" (Ói, lǔm man lúek bpen sìp fút loei), meaning "Oh! The crater is like ten feet deep!"
• 0:07: As the smoke rises, someone shouts, "หายไปครึ่งลูกเลย" (Hǎai bpai krûeng lûuk loei), meaning "Half the hill is gone!" (or "Half of it disappeared!").

Obviously AI.

 

[Brainsuker]

Per barrel, as a reference Rh120 L/44 is usually cited at 1500 rounds and L/55 at 1200 rounds despite having higher chamber pressure than the Chinese gun.

People can immediately assume that chinese metalurgy is far behind the west with this incident. I think Chinese government have to investigate Norinco for this incident. Who know PLA cannon barrel use the same quality like thai VT4. It exploded in just 200 shot, unlike the 500 shot like it advertised.

 

[BoraTas]

People can immediately assume that chinese metalurgy is far behind the west with this incident. I think Chinese government have to investigate Norinco for this incident. Who know PLA cannon barrel use the same quality like thai VT4. It exploded in just 200 shot, unlike the 500 shot like it advertised.

It all depends on specific investment. If they didn't spend much money on this they would be behind. The rule of thumb with the PLAGF is you should keep your expectations low compared to the state of PLAN, PLAAF and PLARF. China faces no ground invasion threat and PLAGF is still an extremely potent army because of its size and artillery.

 

[Clango]

People can immediately assume that chinese metalurgy is far behind the west with this incident. I think Chinese government have to investigate Norinco for this incident. Who know PLA cannon barrel use the same quality like thai VT4. It exploded in just 200 shot, unlike the 500 shot like it advertised.

Are we at this level now? Are you so sure that these 200 rounds are the ONLY rounds to come out of this gun?

 

[Kejora]

People can immediately assume that chinese metalurgy is far behind the west with this incident. I think Chinese government have to investigate Norinco for this incident. Who know PLA cannon barrel use the same quality like thai VT4. It exploded in just 200 shot, unlike the 500 shot like it advertised.

Are we at this level now? Are you so sure that these 200 rounds are the ONLY rounds to come out of this gun?

We don't know how many shot the barrel had gone through before it shot 200 rounds during this operation.

 

[A potato]

Thai people's opinions on Chinese weapons right now are absolutely fucked beyond imagination.

I mean most people in Thailand are straight up brainwashed by western media.

 

[doggydogdo]

We don't even know what happened why are some of y'all acting like barrels can only explode from overuse and not the myriad of other issues like user error or the fuse prematurely detonated.

 

[The Observer]

We don't even know what happened why are some of y'all acting like barrels can only explode from overuse and not the myriad of other issues like user error or the fuse prematurely detonated.

Because they've shot more than 200 rounds without error?

And the ammo is likely also Chinese, so saying the fuze prematurely detonated will just punt the investigation to another Norinco subsidiary.

 

[Brainsuker]

I mean most people in Thailand are straight up brainwashed by western media.

Of course, but you have to blame China for this. Because China give the Western Media a topic that they can use to discredit China in their propaganda machine. The war between Pakistan and India helped China a lot and boost China's prestige in military prowess. But this VT-4 really give the West a topic to make China looks weak, and a paper tiger. All China propaganda machines effort to improve their military image suddenly wasted. And the implication? It will boast Japan and Philippine the narrative that China is weak. Suddenly all China's gunboat diplomacy effort will toothless. Because people won't be afraid anymore. as China's weapons are junk. Unless China invade them for real, nobody afraid to China. They will say that China is coward and afraid of a real war. Because their weapons are junk.

This is bad. China need to do something to repair this bad news, quickly. Either by sending Norinco engineers to Thailand to see the problem, and to repair the tank on site, to show that the problem is minor and VT-4 is actually durable like Western tank, or to fire Norinco bosses for corruption. If China stay quiet, it will become a bad propaganda for PLA as a whole. Not only because Norinco weapons are junk, but Norinco after sales service is a non existence. Also people will think that this VT-4 is the reality of PLA military hardware quality.

 

[doggydogdo]

Because they've shot more than 200 rounds without error?

Yeah, and what happens if they don't properly maintain it after firing so many rounds? Like I said we don't know what happened

And the ammo is likely also Chinese, so saying the fuze prematurely detonated will just punt the investigation to another Norinco subsidiary.

It could be any 125mm smoothbore ammo. It might be Norinco, but we don't know. Stop with all the speculations because it could literally be anything.