New Type98/99 MBT thread

no_name

Colonel
If it only has 3 crews, who's doing the driving?

The one at the front, driving with head out of the hatch. I think all drivers would prefer to drive tanks this way when situation is not dangerous.

btw I just found a bug in youtube when clicking other related links in the video posted above - If you click and open it in youtube some videos ask you to verify age, but doesn't if you just watch it in the embedded link. Though I guess it's really not that useful because you can't search vids directly.
 
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Tyloe

Junior Member
ALABINO, August 04. /ITAR-TASS/.
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Russia August 04, 14:37 UTC+4

The 2014 World Tank Biathlon kicked off on Monday at a firing range outside Moscow with international tank crews from 12 countries participating in the newly introduced global military sporting event.
“The first ever Tank Biathlon World Championship kick off today at the firing range in Alabino,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the opening ceremony of the global competition. “It may be said without any exaggerations that this event turns a new page in the international military cooperation.”

The tank biathlon runs on August 4-16 in Alabino, a town to the southwest of Moscow, and begins on Monday with the championship’s first stage, which is individual’s race consisting of three heats and runs on August 4-6.

Crews from Angola, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Serbia will compete in the first heat. They will be followed by the crews of hosts Russia, China, Kuwait and Armenia in the second heat and then by India, Belarus, Venezuela in the third heat.
The championship’s second stage, which is 3 km Sprint, runs on August 8-9 and the third stage, which is pursuit, runs on August 11-12.

All international crews were provided with Russia’s T-72B tanks, or Slingshot, according to NATO classification, while China brought their own tanks for the championship.

General Ivan Buvaltsev, the chief of the Russian armed forces' main department of combat training, said in early June that Russia provided six-week training for foreign tank crews intending to compete on Russian combat vehicles “just for equal opportunities to all the competitors.”

He also said that that this year infantry combat vehicles and airborne assault vehicles will compete along with the tanks.
The Tank Biathlon, which is analogous to the Olympic biathlon discipline, was invented by the Russian military and the first international competition was held in August 2013 in Alabino with the participating crews from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia.

According to the rules of tank biathlon, crews must navigate a distance of up to 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) evading various obstacles, crossing rivers and bridges and shoot at a set of targets. Tanks that miss a target get a penalty lap.
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Here's a recording of the International Tank Baithlon. The PLA sent probably three Type 99a1s to compete. At the 1:40:00 mark you can see the Type 99s and offers one of my favourite shots of the Chinese tanks during the competition.
[video=youtube;c8mKL3RVSE8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8mKL3RVSE8[/video]
 
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kyanges

Junior Member
Here's a recording of the International Tank Baithlon. The PLA sent probably three Type 99a1s to compete. At the 1:40:00 mark you can see the Type 99s and offers one of my favourite shots of the Chinese tanks during the competition.
[video=youtube;c8mKL3RVSE8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8mKL3RVSE8[/video]

Type-96?
 
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Tyloe

Junior Member
There's a photo library of all the competing Russian lent T-72b and Chinese Type 99(?) tanks in the source below.
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Here are the available photos of the suspected Type 99 tanks yesterday from the photo library.

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"The crew from China operate a Type 99 tank during Tank Biathlon 2014 World Championship held on the shooting range of the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Tamanskaya Division in Alabino village." was the description in the photo library.
 
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plawolf

Lieutenant General
Those are '96s, not '99s.

There are many differences between the types, just a few of the most obvious ones ottomh:
- 96 don't have a independent commander integrated scope and only has a basic optical one
- 96s lack the 99s laser self defence system
- the number of road wheels are different

It is interesting that the PLA is still a bit cagy with its 99s even though 99A2s are starting to appear in numbers with operational units.

In a way, it feels like the PLA is taking liberties a little since the 96 is a much lighter than than the T72, so should enjoy an advantage when it comes to mobility, which would give them a bit of a leg up with the race element at least.
 
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Tyloe

Junior Member
Photographs taken by and credited to Yuri Kuchetkov.

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Description by Kuchetkov: A ZTZ99 Main Battle Tank of China's team competes during the Tank Biathlon World Championship 2014 in Alabino outside Moscow, Russia, 04 August 2014. Teams from 12 countries compete at the event in the disciplines Driving and Shooting.
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I'll take the experts judgement that the tanks are Type 96s. Some Russian photographers probably got confused..like me.
 
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Lezt

Junior Member
Those are '96s, not '99s.

There are many differences between the types, just a few of the most obvious ones ottomh:
- 96 don't have a independent commander integrated scope and only has a basic optical one
- 96s lack the 99s laser self defence system
- the number of road wheels are different

It is interesting that the PLA is still a bit cagy with its 99s even though 99A2s are starting to appear in numbers with operational units.

In a way, it feels like the PLA is taking liberties a little since the 96 is a much lighter than than the T72, so should enjoy an advantage when it comes to mobility, which would give them a bit of a leg up with the race element at least.

I think the more noticable one is, the 99 is a center line driver position, while the 96 is the left hand side driver position.
 
Those are '96s, not '99s.

There are many differences between the types, just a few of the most obvious ones ottomh:
- 96 don't have a independent commander integrated scope and only has a basic optical one
- 96s lack the 99s laser self defence system
- the number of road wheels are different

It is interesting that the PLA is still a bit cagy with its 99s even though 99A2s are starting to appear in numbers with operational units.

In a way, it feels like the PLA is taking liberties a little since the 96 is a much lighter than than the T72, so should enjoy an advantage when it comes to mobility, which would give them a bit of a leg up with the race element at least.

I am not familiar with all variations of the Type 99 but the initial version uses a chassis straight from the T-72, the Type 96 uses a Chinese designed chassis which appears taller and narrower, they both have six road wheels though.

It makes sense that the Chinese are keeping the Type 99 close to their vest, it is the best they have and only in limited quantities for their better units. The majority of their forces were only upgraded to the Type 96 in the past several years which is known to be obsolete at birth versus a top tier opponent, so they are safe to send to foreign exercises like this.
 
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Skywatcher

Captain
I am not familiar with all variations of the Type 99 but the initial version uses a chassis straight from the T-72, the Type 96 uses a Chinese designed chassis which appears taller and narrower, they both have six road wheels though.

It makes sense that the Chinese are keeping the Type 99 close to their vest, it is the best they have and only in limited quantities for their better units. The majority of their forces were only upgraded to the Type 96 in the past several years which is known to be obsolete at birth versus a top tier opponent, so they are safe to send to foreign exercises like this.

I think the ZTZ-99 did go to a few of the Peace Missions.

As for the Tank Biathalon, the ZTZ-96A is the closest thing to the T-72/90 that China has (and even then, it now clocks in at 50 tons). The ZTZ-99 family is too big (55-60+ tons).
 
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