PLA Next Generation Main Battle Tank

sheogorath

Colonel
Registered Member
they already have pretty large UGVs, but we are not at the point where UGVs can replace crew members, so we still need vehicles like this.
Oh totally. Not refering to fully UGV, though, but T-14-like solutions of keeping the entire turret unmanned and moving the crew to a capsule in the hull, which seems to be the goal except for the Leopard 2 derivatives.

No, it doesn´t. An unmanned turret tank will always be lighter than a traditional one for the same level of crew protection. However a tank with unmanned turret and a larger gun will always be heavier than another tank with unmanned turret but designd around a smaller gun.
The weight increase over the usage of larger calibers is relatively marginal in the context of an amored vehicle if going from 120mm/125mm to 130mm or so. In that regards, to have a 105mm gun with similar performance to a 120mm gun, you'll require a new larger casing to hold the propellant plus the required dampening and stabilization system to cope with it, so you are looking at a weight and volumne increase anyway.
 
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