Ideal PLA main battle tank (?)

TYPE-110
Arnament: Dual coxial 7.62mm, same existing 125mm smoothbore gun, 14.5mm AAMG both manual/computer operated modes.

Ammunition: Introduce prototype liquid nitrogen integrated with sabot round. With notrogen it freezes armour making it extremely brittle so it shatters easily.

Fire control: Improve existing targeting system to retain a minimal 90% hit probability instead of the current 80%

Powerplant: Existing liquid cooled, turbocharged 1,500 hp diesel engine.

Self defence: LWR & LSDW to be internal in the tank integrated into the body instead of an exteral component pron to enemy fire, active defence cooling to disable laser designator or targeting.

Armour: Adavance light weight armour, equivalent to ERA, but self regenerating upon small damage, more effective ERA plates than existing models.

Combat weight: 55-56 tonnes

Unit Cost: $2-2.6 million Depends on the model and armour package

I propose something different
Armament: 122mm rifled gun, 23mm Co-axial, 14.5mm AAMG
Ammunition: 122mm multi-charge HEAT, 122mm HE, 122mm incendiary, all laser guided, and some smart top attack stuff for BVR, and a quad ATGM launcher, my theory is, you don't have to penetrate a tanks armour in order to defeat it, the shock wave caused by HE and the heat caused by the incendiary munition should be enough to disable the tank and/or the crew. The rifled gun allow better accuracy, longer range, and longer barrel life.

Carries a small UAV and/or retractable sensors mast, acquire targets and provide guidance for missiles and guided munitions especially for indirect fire.

Fire control , just improve the existing ones, need to be compatible with the mast and/or the UAV. Need to data link with other tanks, and share intelligence with all other platforms in the area.

Weight: 40~45 tonnes

Engine: hybrid, 1200hp diesel + generator, DC motor+lithium battery.

Protection: Nothing heavy, composite armour, ERA and racks for pot plants, plants reduce detectability in both visual and IR spectrum.

Cost: Won't exceed 3 million, but the ammunitions are going to be expensive.

in addition to main gun, add an automatic 120mm mortar, firing a laser guided round with self forging kinetic penetrator for long range top attack. This should already be technically feasible.

Drawing something anew, you can make any claim to its abilities. I am going to customise one from parts available today.

My MBT is designed primarily for the field. Cities are no place for a MBT. (Maybe a city-tank, but even those face their share of bazookas on an offence.)

Chassis: Current Type 98/99 chassis. It is adequate for size and lengthened hull improves strength and mobility (ground pressure). Tracks will probably be widened.

Turret: Electrically driven. Fitted with, not for, blowout panels to divide crew compartment from ammo.

Arnament:
China uses the 125mm but have the 120mm gun also.

1. If China decides to use the 120mm gun that it has developed in the 80s, (and being that the new tanks are still relatively small in quantity, it is still plausible to switch), they should try to procure/copy the Swedish autoloader (from CV90120-T) which shoots at 14 rds/minute (I think they use an autoloader.)
If I am embarrassing myself, they can still use the autoloader from the Yatagan.

2. If China sticks to the 125mm, they need a new autoloader, either develop one themselves, use the one from the Oplot or from Russia.

Power:
Is the current 1500hp motor multifuel? If not(and I don't think it is), then they should get the Leopard's engine, which is similar to the one China currently has.

Protection:


Yes, grills. (Sorry if you don't get the pun. (Former) American thing.)

I would put grills around the back where the engine is and around the turret, with the "blinds" facing up in a way that incoming shots will somewhat be deflected upward. The grills around the turret can act as storage also.

For the controversial side skirts, I would replace them with (hinged?) rubber filled reactive armour. (I am hoping that the hinge will cause the armour to flip up, causing the nasty spray to head for the ground, although I would guess that the hinge will probably rip right off.)

Reinforced concrete (using vaccumed steel tubes rather than just bars) slabs will be used for a significant part of the armour. Boron carbide used.

I too would remove the laser dazzler. Shtora will serve much better.

I would also give the option of installing top-shooting shotguns or K-5s to hit top attack ATGMs. No infantry there. There will be a disconnect that disarms the shotguns when the hatches are open.

Lastly, to compensate for the tank's bad image on (thermal) camera, I would put the thermal nets (that Golly's crew hate so much) over the rear of the net below the grills to give it some thermal invisibility.

Accessories: Steel/Aluminum Cardboard, Blocks filled with non-poisonous metal chunks glued with rubber.

Idea: Would an EFP be able to defect KE rounds?

You do realize that the ZTZ-98 and 96 were using rail or grill cages around the side and the back of the turret. It serves as storage and additional protection. In later designs, they were completely replaced in the same eras by ERA.

Completely? I had always thought that they just attach the bricks to the rails. But with all the complaints here about ERA, and China's not being the best, I don't think ERA is exactly a good choice. I would put them on the top which is weak, but not on the side.

I don't really hear much complaints about the ERA. Even if they're not the world's best, if the best you got approaches 90% of the performance of the state of the art I would say that's pretty good. In any case, ERA offers far better protection than grills.

Well, there are complaints against ERAs right above this post........ And I do not like the idea of an instant armor myself, especially ERA which has an expiration date. I think I am adequately covered for CE rounds. Don't know of good defences against KE rounds, however. But Concrete should be a good medium for armour.
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NOT exactly a MBT, at least not how I would define it. How would this tank do in your(everyone) opinion when fighting inside a city? (this is primarily intended for defense.)

A Type 79 (It is obselete, but no modern tank can fit in city alleys)
fitted with grills, including engine area.
NERA fitted.
Type 83 105mm gun w/ autoloader and paneled
Remotely operated and elevated 12.7mm HMG
rubber tracks
Trophy top- against top attack RPGs
Double hatch.
APU
Dual way stablisation

King_Comm said:

I propose something different
Armament: 122mm rifled gun, 23mm Co-axial, 14.5mm AAMG
Ammunition: 122mm multi-charge HEAT, 122mm HE, 122mm incendiary, all laser guided, and some smart top attack stuff for BVR, and a quad ATGM launcher, my theory is, you don't have to penetrate a tanks armour in order to defeat it, the shock wave caused by HE and the heat caused by the incendiary munition should be enough to disable the tank and/or the crew. The rifled gun allow better accuracy, longer range, and longer barrel life.

Carries a small UAV and/or retractable sensors mast, acquire targets and provide guidance for missiles and guided munitions especially for indirect fire.

Fire control , just improve the existing ones, need to be compatible with the mast and/or the UAV. Need to data link with other tanks, and share intelligence with all other platforms in the area.

Weight: 40~45 tonnes

Engine: hybrid, 1200hp diesel + generator, DC motor+lithium battery.

Protection: Nothing heavy, composite armour, ERA and racks for pot plants, plants reduce detectability in both visual and IR spectrum.

Cost: Won't exceed 3 million, but the ammunitions are going to be expensive.

Click to expand...

This sounds a lot like the WWII Soviet approach to dealing with enemy tanks with IS-series heavy tanks, 122mm rifle and all (and the Joseph Stalin tanks were highly respected, even into the 1970's). The 122mm L43 gun of the IS-2/3 was capable of penetrating the frontal armour of any tank of the time except for the King Tiger (and later the Conqueror, M-103, and maybe Chieftain tanks post-war) using only ordinary AP solids. With ordinary HE, the 122mm could still knock enemy tank turrets off even though the armour was not itself penetrated. A modern 122mm rifle on the tank you propose could do all sorts of nasty things, including using HESH (admittedly of less use against composite armour, but devastating against most anything else or on tank surfaces not covered by composite armour). The PLA of course, used the IS-2for many years.

I'm not sure where you'd find the space for a UAV onboard or even the surveillance sensor mast (but someone could get ingenious I suppose). Wouldn't the ATGM be better gun-tube launched (I ask not because it isn't a good idea, but rather because I am not sure whether you intend subsonic CE or supersonic KE weapons here; if the former, it would seem that gun-tube launch would be more efficient, obviously if the latter, then quad missile pod launch). Correct me if I am wrong here, but your initial stated observations about how to kill tanks does strike me as reminiscent of the dual-AT capability of the IS/T-10 (latter had improved L/50-something) series with the 122mm rifle. A 122mm rifle on a new PLA MBT would give it unique capabilities, even at long range.

Yeah, my inspiration did came from IS-2, in fact I would have chose 130mm rifled gun if it wasn't for the fact that I don't want the tank to exceed 50 tonnes.

The UAV I envisioned is just sits on a rack on top of the turret, a small rotary wing device, since it doesn't have to travel very far, it can be connected to the tank via a cable to transmit data and supply power. As to the mast, I don't think on thermo imager+ daylight camera + a laser range find doubling as a designator will be very heavy, mounted on top of a 3 meter high folding mast.

The reason I chose external launcher instead of gun launched is because the size of the missiles are severely limited, and their range is usually less than 5km, but because the main gun is rifled, it can be effective for up to 5km, the missiles become redundant, so it's better to chose something with longer range.