Actually, i do not think so. The russian team should be the cream crop since they are the competition host. Apart from the obvious better chinese FCS, the chinese type 96a also fielded a higher velocity and flatter projectory gun. Not only does these conditions made the chinese tank more accurate, it also mean better penetration.
Actually to conclude from this that the FCS of 96a is better than other tanks is far off since China was the only country that was allowed by russia to use APFSDS training rounds while all the rest had to shoot with HEAT training rounds with far lower velocity and not such a direct trajectory like APFSDS, giving China advantage.
Here is a source:
По правилам соревнований, стрелять можно только с ходу, остановка запрещена. Мишеней три – на расстоянии 1.600, 1.700 и 1.800 метров. Поднимаются они по одной, последовательность их появления танкистам заранее неизвестна. Снарядов тоже три.
Преимущество здесь только у китайцев, потому что они (согласно договорённости, достигнутой в процессе подготовки соревнований, когда оговаривались условия участия КНР в танковом биатлоне) используют подкалиберный снаряд, у которого дальность прямого выстрела по мишени № 12 «Танк» около 2 км, а начальная скорость полёта - 1.600–1.800 м/с. У всех участников, выступающих на Т-72, – штатный боеприпас со скоростью полёта 860 м/с и дальностью прямого выстрела по этой цели порядка 1.100 м.
Google trans.
Under the rules of the competition, you can only shoot on the move, standing is prohibited. Three targets - at a distance of 1.600, 1.700 and 1.800 meters. They rise to the same sequence of their appearance the tanks is not known beforehand. Three shells too.
The advantage here is only the Chinese, because they (according to the agreement reached in the course of preparation of the competition, when the terms for the participation of China in the tank biathlon) use sabots, whose point-blank range by a target number 12 "Tank" for about 2 km, and the initial airspeed - 1.600-1.800 m / s. All the participants, speakers at the T-72 - Staff ammunition at a speed of flight 860 m / s and a range of direct shot on the target of the order of 1.100 m.
Of course ammunition is not the only factor, you can take even one if not the best FCS like on T-90MS which has image processing, auto tracking and can even recognize windows on buildings and seperatley lockon them and engage them with one button, that all means nothing if you do not know how to shoot, the human factor regardless of how well or bad a FCS is plays big role. Like some candidates, slowed down then speeded up and the entire tank started to jerk through the increased speed and while the tank was jerking from that move they fired a shell and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that with such flaws be it from training or that the crew is nervous or whatever reason it might be, that is will result in the accuracy.
If you really want to know which FCS is better it needs same crew under absolutley same conditions, where the influence of human influence is greatly nullified or at least unified.
Russians did give worse tanks to all other countries who didn't bring their own tanks so you could say it was rigged from the start... specifically modified T-72 B3M for them and a lot worse T-72 variants for everyone else. I can only imagine how primitive FCS the other tanks in competition had.
Yes, other countries teams were allowed to drive around the place before competition, but it doesn't change the fact that Russians did give their team better tank and therefore giving their team better changes to win. Of course ZTZ-96A FCS was probably a surprise to them.
That is not true.
The official broshure and tank biathlon regulations as followed:
1.
Objectives of the Championship are as follows:
to strengthen military and technical-military cooperation between the countries participating in the Championship;
to increase the prestige of service in the military; to test skills of tank crews and tank units from participating
states;
to demonstrate combat capabilities (performance) of modern tanks.
The entire biathlon was a tank biathlon with crew and tanks from participating countries and if it was all about unified plattform then NATO countries would not be invided to participate with their tanks, which had boycotted the biathlon over their self created ukraine problem. If this was about unified tank then China would not be allowed to use their 96a but it wasn't.
So countries have been participating with their most modern tank version and the fact that Armenia managed 2nd place despite their T-72B version is the same as any other except of China and Russia proofs that it is not about tank but about skills.
Russians did not gave their team a better tank they gave them the tank their army is using T-72B3 (no such thing as T-72B3M), it would be funny and rigged if they would use T-90MS well that would be really funny.
You can cry about whatever you want but factor that counted the most was the human factor where even some weaker tank crews have gained several points on Stage 3 where physical fittness of the 2 best of both teams per country were send to run over a parcour. Despite being in disadvantage Armenia beat China and was close behind Russia and lot of other countries had gained several points despite being in disadvantage of worse FCS rounds or hp/t ratio.
