New Type98/99 MBT thread
- Thread starter Dongfeng
- Start date
Probably over armour. If you have read thru this thread, there was a Chinese video(If you can understand Chinese) release by CCTV of interviewing the chief designer of Chinese ZTZ-99 MBT.
The designer claim, in fact they set their MBT standard very high. So high that their armour protection not just match the west but surpass it.
This latest version probably has even thicker and heavier armour than western standard.
the picture seem familiar,likely 4~5 years old........
Pointblank
Senior Member
Not possible with the dimensions and the weight of the vehicle, unless extreme sacrifices were made in ammunition storage and crew configuration. Smaller tanks with autoloaders such as the Leclerc are already at 54 tons. At the given weight of the Type 99 series tank, super thick armour would not jive with the dimensions of the vehicle.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
There is a concept called armor density.
Western tank designers often trumpet how spacious the insides of their tanks are. That's lovely, but comes at the expense of giving you a far larger area to protect. Meaning you are going to be significantly heavier to achieve the same armor thickness. Lighter does not automatically mean less armored.
Besides, the designer is probably not comparing the 'naked' Type99 to western tanks, and would have likely factored in the ERA and laser dazzler etc as well.
Pointblank
Senior Member
The most dense common element that is relatively stable is uranium, and unless the Chinese happened to build their tanks out of uranium, not possible.
Western tank designers place a lot of emphasis on crew fightability. The crew need to be comfortable in their tanks because they spend hours in their vehicles. Otherwise, crew mental and physical exhaustion and fatigue will build up rapidly leading to less effective crews in their tanks. A tired, fatigued crew is not combat effective, especially in extended combat.
Furthermore, the West have placed a lot of emphasis on ease of operation. Visibility is excellent out of most Western tanks, and the three person turret allows for more eyes on the battlefield, while still allowing people to operate radios, weapons, or commanding. The commander of the tank, for example, in a three-man turret, can concentrate on commanding, while in a two man turret, that commander will have to manage a task on top of commanding a tank, and that will distract the commander, and prevent him from operating the tank effectively.