3) BYD and Tesla are using CTB (Cell To Body) which solves the weight issue by combining battery and body. The question is: What parts of a tanks chassis or body can be made out of, say, blade batteries?
PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank
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1200mm is likely vs HEAT. 99A's front protection level is very high for 3rd gen tank it will be pretty close to next gen tanks.
The armour obviously. But you have to use something less explosive. Maybe the old-fashioned lead-acid battery or some kind of dry cell.
But is tank even relavent in a future war? Unmanned so let's get rid of armour, and electric propulsion like some sort of Tesla technical with ATGM as the main weapon.
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Even unmaned, I think they would would want to be able to withstand 30mm at the very least, and then have stuff like APS and smoke launcher or the likes.
And possible also grenades or roadside explosives/IEDs
One big issue with that design is maintainability. You can't swap out the battery when it's a structural element. A malfunctioning battery would mean pretty much the entire body of the tank needs to be scrapped. It also still doesn't address the slow charging issue.
The armor is not a structural element. The idea of CTB is that the battery is weight bearing, so you can save weight by having less dedicated weight bearing elements. Also, lithium ion batteries don't really explode, particularly the blade battery.
Also, your suggestion is not even a tank anymore. A tank's value is in providing quick direct fire and armor. A tank's shells arrive much faster and cannot be intercepted, and that has value on the battlefield. Having a thick armor also forces your enemies to equip themselves with weapons that can penetrate your armor or employ tactics that can avoid it.
Blade batteries are already old news now. China has some very very advanced solid state batteries already in production (has been for years actually for military use). I can't elaborate anymore but even though the batteries are very safe and can survive gun shots, they will still catch on fire from incendiary effects such as those produced by HEAT or a sabot passing through metal. Specific energy is about to take a very large leap in the consumer space but it still doesn't match diesel.
Also, fuel tanks act as armor which is a big deal.
You can also easily attach external diesel fuel tanks. And tank weight keeps going down as you move. Instead of remaining the same as with batteries. Also helping with range. I think you will see hybrids, but full electric tanks at this point make no sense. The hybrid would cut down overall fuel consumption, in particular when holding terrain, and enable silent running in special conditions.
It might have something like an ETC cannon or other new innovations (in say armor as well).
Might is the word though, and I would kind of expect it to only get into service around ~2025 to 2030 at the very earliest, which does increase the chance of the above happening.
Well I think a new ZTZ-99 version was confirmed to not be in the works. So I guess that there's probably a new MBT entirely coming out. There is one leaked image with a few vehicles that seem like MBTs possibly. Not a lot of info from China on the MBT sector since it's such a low priority on their list. Asia isn't like Europe where you have very open and easy to traverse terrain.