Chinese Military Exports (Land Systems)
- Thread starter navyreco
- Start date
by78
General
According to a Weibo poster who chatted with a NORINCO rep, the unmanned VT5-U shown at Zhuhai this year requires three persons to remotely operate, presumably in the role the driver, gunner, and commander. The reason for this is that the system is based on an existing manned tank, so the system integration can only go so far. However, each operator's control terminal is very compact, roughly tablet sized and can therefore be easily deployed in the field. Only line-of-sight control is available when using these compact terminals, so the range isn't very far. For NLOS remote control over far greater distances, a larger dedicated control station is used that is similar to ones used to fly UAVs, presumably over a satellite link. Moreover, the remote operation system is platform agnostic, meaning it can be retrofitted to other armored vehicles. The team behind the system only had a VT5 to play around with, and that's why a VT5 was shown at Zhuhai. Had they had access to a VT4 MBT, they would have shown a VT4-U instead. The NORINCO rep also revealed that the system started out as a response to the American next-generation optional manned tank (OMT) program.
During 2016 zhuhai airshow,a chinese military magazine reporter claim that norinco developed two version bustle type automatic loader one for a 105mm gun which eventually become vt5,the other one for 125mm ammo,to date I havent seen chinese 125mm armed tank fitted with bustle type auto loader.
It will be interesting to see 125mm one piece ammunition.
