Chinese infantry fighting vehicles

Tomboy said:

How is the CITV system going to work tho, it being integrated onto the RWS which is also expected to do antidrone duty and whatever else means it cannot turn independently. So whenever the RWS is doing anything the commander cannot use his CITV to look around or perform HK abilities. Western MBT has both a thermal viewer/sensor on the RWS and a independent CITV. So surely this tank would also have a dedicated CITV somewhere.

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Presumably the RWS would just turn with the CITV -- i.e.: RWS is slaved with the CITV.

Having a separate optics set for the RWS which would be controlled by the commander anyway, would be doubling up the number of optics that the commander would use and further clutter the top side turret and field of views.

Of course, if one values having a separate optics set as part of the RWS that is fine too.

But this new tank (as well as say, T14, and one of the depictions of that K3 tank concept from Korea) seem to integrate the RWS and the CITV together.

AsuraGodFiend said:

Close up of the drone on the ifv
View attachment 158441

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Don't the grill plates behind the slat armor look awfully a lot like engine intakes ? Compare with similar grilles on top of hull of airborne ifv version , or similar grilles on top of zbd04.

Totoro said:

Don't the grill plates behind the slat armor look awfully a lot like engine intakes ? Compare with similar grilles on top of hull of airborne ifv version , or similar grilles on top of zbd04.

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The problem is that the exhaust is at the front of the vehicle, and based on the position of the vehicle crew hatches, it probably doesn't change the overall conclusion that the engine itself is at the front of the hull.

If those are engine intakes, one would just have to ask how the intake feeds into the engine itself imo

So these vehicles can remain on standby and operate their systems with electrical power only, meaning much reduced thermal signatures, and turn on engine only when needed to move.

Totoro said:

Don't the grill plates behind the slat armor look awfully a lot like engine intakes ? Compare with similar grilles on top of hull of airborne ifv version , or similar grilles on top of zbd04.

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The new IFV probably uses the CV90 solution, which relocates the intake, cooling, and exhaust to the rear of the vehicle.

That said, while I get the exhaust placement, I do share your confusion on the intake looking thing on the front plate. Why would they put an extra opening when they probably can consolidate every intake & cooling on the rear left grille?

Blitzo said:

The problem is that the exhaust is at the front of the vehicle, and based on the position of the vehicle crew hatches, it probably doesn't change the overall conclusion that the engine itself is at the front of the hull.

If those are engine intakes, one would just have to ask how the intake feeds into the engine itself imo

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I agree that forward engine is most logical position, and there is room left for it and so on. But as we see, there seemingly isn't an air intake in the front but there is one in the back.

Having a distributed air intake in another place would be very weird. No one really does that. It would make the vehicle heavier, probably messing with side armor. It possibly endangers the troops in the rear compartment due to less side armor. Upside might be that engine itself might be more survivable. Not sure if that is worth it if you endanger troops in the back. Then again, if vehicle is threatened mostly after troops have been disembarked, then it may not be such a liability. But the added weight and complexity would still be a thing...

I am not trying to prove anything either way, I am just fascinated by the design and am trying to wrap my head around this engine component mystery. How does it work? Why was the design chosen?

Maybe it has separate air intake for the crews. So the main engine intake can be turned off when it is on electrical power only.

qwerty3173 said:

From leaked information most likely the part under the large silvery plate is a small VLS system. It can launch different types of missiles and loitering munitions. Thus adding ATGM to the turret is unnecessary.

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That would be sick if true

I think what is even more surprising is that the turret design in this APS paper is almost exactly the same as the actual one.

Blitzo said:

The problem is that the exhaust is at the front of the vehicle, and based on the position of the vehicle crew hatches, it probably doesn't change the overall conclusion that the engine itself is at the front of the hull.

If those are engine intakes, one would just have to ask how the intake feeds into the engine itself imo

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Since possibly diesel-electric transmission is used I don't see why the engine has to be located as stringent as before. So what if the engine is just mounted on the right side of the vehicle, leaving the left side for mystery storage place? That seems entirely possible, the frontal small slat could be just a radiator for the engine.