Yeah I don't think Chinese designers used an Iraqi version to study. The Iraqi tanks fired export rounds and often had to use training rounds because they ran out of ammo quickly. Maybe their guns were also made cheaply compared to the guns that went into Soviet tanks. It doesn't really matter at this point and reliable, accurate information on 80s gun design + development is scarce. ZPT-98 currently used in Type 99/A is different to the version used in Type 96A/B. Both are modernised versions of the original 125mm used in the trial Type 80/5. Sharing a common ancestor or not, at some point probably in the 90s, these manufacturing techniques began to diverge and today's ZPT-98 is far more different to today's 2A46M5 when compared to their originals.
There are plenty of sources of questionable reliability that claim ZPT-98 has considerably higher bore pressure and muzzle velocity. The Type 99's gun is supposedly also more refined and costlier to produce than the standard grade, shorter barrel gun used in the Type 96.
This is actually a surprisingly common practice in Chinese (and I'm sure also many other's) manufacturing. Having parallel lines but with a standard quality type and a more refined variant. Some cheap structural components are manufactured to cost very little by bypassing certain fabrication processes that were considered "overkill" or too much of a "luxury" by the engineers tasked with shaving costs further and further. Cost-cutting is is not always the best approach as evidenced by all the failures in history around the world. But fortunately or unfortunately, these decisions make a lot of economic and strategic sense. Usually these decisions are VERY carefully quantified using some maths I really do not care for anymore *shudder* but often it's the case there is also demand for the higher quality piece for the more risk averse jobs and decision makers. In a commercial market place, often these products are the ones from Germany etc but for a domestic tank gun... they're going to be building both the standard no frills version AND the higher grade product, often side by side.
Many make the mistake in assuming that because Chinese commercial products do not cater to the high end market, there's no ability to manufacture these. This is actually working for China a lot ironically enough. The high end is where corporations go to die. Occupying the low end masses is where the money is at. How many high end producers of super luxury items are still family owned and not purchased by a "ghetto" company/ equity firm? Sure practice in making high end products is important in getting it right and commercially, many Chinese products still generally fail here (growing list of exceptions nowadays), but when we're talking about military equipment, Chinese manufacturers have been playing high end because that's what the military evaluates and purchases. They are not allowed to buy European for example so there is no stigma over quality to restrain Chinese military products. The only issue with this dynamic is the absence of outside competition but on paper, the technology is second maybe only to USA these days for the most part.
Anyway point is there are currently at least two guns designated ZPT-98 and manufactured to at least two grade types.
There are plenty of sources of questionable reliability that claim ZPT-98 has considerably higher bore pressure and muzzle velocity. The Type 99's gun is supposedly also more refined and costlier to produce than the standard grade, shorter barrel gun used in the Type 96.
This is actually a surprisingly common practice in Chinese (and I'm sure also many other's) manufacturing. Having parallel lines but with a standard quality type and a more refined variant. Some cheap structural components are manufactured to cost very little by bypassing certain fabrication processes that were considered "overkill" or too much of a "luxury" by the engineers tasked with shaving costs further and further. Cost-cutting is is not always the best approach as evidenced by all the failures in history around the world. But fortunately or unfortunately, these decisions make a lot of economic and strategic sense. Usually these decisions are VERY carefully quantified using some maths I really do not care for anymore *shudder* but often it's the case there is also demand for the higher quality piece for the more risk averse jobs and decision makers. In a commercial market place, often these products are the ones from Germany etc but for a domestic tank gun... they're going to be building both the standard no frills version AND the higher grade product, often side by side.
Many make the mistake in assuming that because Chinese commercial products do not cater to the high end market, there's no ability to manufacture these. This is actually working for China a lot ironically enough. The high end is where corporations go to die. Occupying the low end masses is where the money is at. How many high end producers of super luxury items are still family owned and not purchased by a "ghetto" company/ equity firm? Sure practice in making high end products is important in getting it right and commercially, many Chinese products still generally fail here (growing list of exceptions nowadays), but when we're talking about military equipment, Chinese manufacturers have been playing high end because that's what the military evaluates and purchases. They are not allowed to buy European for example so there is no stigma over quality to restrain Chinese military products. The only issue with this dynamic is the absence of outside competition but on paper, the technology is second maybe only to USA these days for the most part.
Anyway point is there are currently at least two guns designated ZPT-98 and manufactured to at least two grade types.
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