Ladakh Flash Point

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gelgoog

Lieutenant General
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Chinese discussions are confident Type 15's frontal armour cannot be penetrated by even 2a46 from T-72 or India's T-90. They say those tanks only have about 500mm RHA penetration at over 1km and the one piece sabot from Type 15 can penetrate those vintage model T-72 and T-90, not that the Indians could even operate those tanks at those altitudes.
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This is just one of the manifestations of the failure of Indian military procurement. They have T-90s but are still using antique ammo which wasn't state of the art even 20 years ago. No tungsten or DU rounds. Another example is having Su-30s still with Bars radar (or clones) and no modern R-77 missiles.
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
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Despite all that Indian tough talk, we haven't seen a single piece of T-72 or T-90 there. They have airlifted 4 T-90s in one PR stunt and that was it. They make a show for everything even things they don't have and haven't done. The Chinese show at least prove what they've been saying is true that being they've positioned Type 15 right up to the very lines (new ones). The grainy Indian photo showing two sides and vehicles only had a few IFVs on the Indian side and there were what look to be Type 15s on the Chinese side.
The confrontation a few weeks back saw
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facing off against Indian
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. The divisions in Xinjiang only started receiving ZTQ15s
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.

Chinese discussions are confident Type 15's frontal armour cannot be penetrated by even 2a46 from T-72 or India's T-90. They say those tanks only have about 500mm RHA penetration at over 1km and the one piece sabot from Type 15 can penetrate those vintage model T-72 and T-90, not that the Indians could even operate those tanks at those altitudes.
That's an early misconception that's turned into a total pipe dream. The ZTQ15's base armor
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, and even with FY5 it's going to have poor performance at stopping APFSDS rounds. For comparison, the VT5 is slightly heavier and has actual composite arrays in the turret yet is still only rated for stopping 100mm APBC.

Even though it's doable for ZTQ15s to effectively engage T-72s (and to a lesser extent T-90s) its just not the best option to do so. And discussion of it misses the entire point. ZTQ15 can reach places that T-72s/T-90s cant. And wherever the Indian Army can reach with them, PLA can respond with ZTZ99A/ZTZ96A (on top of the fact that ZTQ15 can also get there faster)

It turns out that light tanks trade protection for increased mobility, which might prove to be incredibly useful in high altitude mountainous terrain, crazy huh? :p:p:p:p:p
 
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ougoah

Brigadier
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The confrontation a few weeks back saw
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facing off against Indian
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. The divisions in Xinjiang only started receiving ZTQ15s
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.


That's an early misconception that's turned into a total pipe dream. The ZTQ15's base armor
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, and even with FY5 it's going to have poor performance at stopping APFSDS rounds. For comparison, the VT5 is slightly heavier and has actual composite arrays in the turret yet is still only rated for stopping 100mm APBC.

Even though it's doable for ZTQ15s to effectively engage T-72s (and to a lesser extent T-90s) its just not the best option to do so. And discussion of it misses the entire point. ZTQ15 can reach places that T-72s/T-90s cant. And wherever the Indian Army can reach with them, PLA can respond with ZTZ99A/ZTZ96A (on top of the fact that ZTQ15 can also get there faster)

It turns out that light tanks trade protection for increased mobility, which might prove to be incredibly useful in high altitude mountainous terrain, crazy huh? :p:p:p:p:p

500mm equivalent of RHA is exceptionally poor performance against sabot rounds. But the Indian tanks are using pretty antiquated ammunition even by late cold war standards. Not sure if Mango is equipped on most of their newer tanks. There is every chance the stuff they're using for T-72s can barely punch through a slab of steel 500mm thick.
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
Registered Member
500mm equivalent of RHA is exceptionally poor performance against sabot rounds. But the Indian tanks are using pretty antiquated ammunition even by late cold war standards. Not sure if Mango is equipped on most of their newer tanks. There is every chance the stuff they're using for T-72s can barely punch through a slab of steel 500mm thick.
ZTQ15 protection vs KE is still less than half of that
 

ougoah

Brigadier
Registered Member
ZTQ15 protection vs KE is still less than half of that

Frontal rating less than 250mm of RHA even with FY5? I haven't seen sources but I'm not sure that's right. The geometry alone looks like it's about 200mm at least of base armor.
 

Sardaukar20

Captain
Registered Member
Despite all that Indian tough talk, we haven't seen a single piece of T-72 or T-90 there. They have airlifted 4 T-90s in one PR stunt and that was it. They make a show for everything even things they don't have and haven't done. The Chinese show at least prove what they've been saying is true that being they've positioned Type 15 right up to the very lines (new ones). The grainy Indian photo showing two sides and vehicles only had a few IFVs on the Indian side and there were what look to be Type 15s on the Chinese side.

Chinese discussions are confident Type 15's frontal armour cannot be penetrated by even 2a46 from T-72 or India's T-90. They say those tanks only have about 500mm RHA penetration at over 1km and the one piece sabot from Type 15 can penetrate those vintage model T-72 and T-90, not that the Indians could even operate those tanks at those altitudes.

The Indian media and Modi media make a show for every kg of material they can bring up there and even set up fake army hospitals for photo ops with Modi. They would show off T-90s if they could bring them there but they've only airlifted a few token tanks to points that are close to 100km away from the frontline.
If India could airlift T-72s and T-90s to the border area for a PR stunt, they could theoretically do the same in event of war. That is assuming, their air force is still functioning by that point. Nevertheless, they wont be able to ship enough T-72s and T-90s to the frontlines to swing any vehicular combat to their favour. The Type-15s on the other hand would be able to deploy in appreciable numbers, easily overpowering any Indian vehicles that are not MBTs.

If there is any token force of T-72s and T-90s, these would most definitely be engaged primarily by Chinese drones, aircrafts, and ATGMs. I observed Indian T-72s are still only protected by Kontakt-1 ERA, and their current T-90s protected by Kontakt-5 ERA. These are not enough against any modern tandem-charge missiles and rockets that the PLA would most certainly be using.

I think that any debate about Type-15 vs T-72/T-90 is still very speculative. The Type-15 is not designed for tank duels with heavy MBTs. Could it still defeat a T-72 or T-90 in specific situations? Definitely yes. USMC M60s have defeated Iraqi T-72s in the 1991 Gulf War. But I still think the PLA would wanna avoid such a scenario in the first place.

The story of the Type 99A in the high-altitude environment experiment could be just that, an experiment. Maybe it is ultimately unnecessary, but it could lead to some useful upgrades for the tank.

The Indian Army and its leadership are buffoons. They like to think too much in terms of paper-specs and Bollywood fantasy. Just because the T-90 is better overall on paper to the Type-15, they already think about Jai Hind! I recall an idiot retired IA general boasting about his experience when he was invited to observe a Chinese military exercise at Inner Mongolia in years past. He said that when saw the Chinese armoured formation, he told his superior that if the Chinese used this formation, India would easily win. Off course he never bothered to explain why. Well, Inner Mongolia is not Aksai Chin. A general like this is more like a 12 year old kid than an actual military professional. The Jawans could be brave and heroic, but it is people like that idiot general who looses wars. And the Indian military is staffed full of idiots like him from top to bottom.
 
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siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
This is just one of the manifestations of the failure of Indian military procurement. They have T-90s but are still using antique ammo which wasn't state of the art even 20 years ago. No tungsten or DU rounds. Another example is having Su-30s still with Bars radar (or clones) and no modern R-77 missiles.

They recently purchased a large batch (1000) of R-27s for their MKIs.
 
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