PLA Photos & Videos
- Thread starter swimmerXC
- Start date
ZBD03 Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicle
I still have a question on this vehicle. Is the turret fully stabilized? It seemed odd that it is not since BMD3-4 already have fully stabilized turret. On a side question, why are all IFV still equip with HJ-73?
plawolf
Lieutenant General
It's cheap, effective and plentiful.
Remember that the PLA amphibious and airborne divisions are primarily tasked with a Taiwan scenario. Considering that Taiwan is still using M60s as their MBT, even HJ73s are more than capable of taking them out. Besides, I don't really think Chinese IFVs carry HJ73s primarily for anti-tank duty, the PLA have their own WZ550 dedicated HJ8/9 carriers for that, as well as HJ8/9 launchers mounted on a vast variety of vehicles, ranging from light buggies to jeeps and hummers.
The small size of the HJ73 also means IFVs can carry far more of them than something like a HJ8/9, and I think the PLA uses them more as a general purpose missile to augment the firepower from the autocannon. That is something that a HJ8 or 9 would be a massive overkill/waste for, and if I was an American taxpayer, I would much rather that they had something similar instead of wasting hugely expensive Javelin missiles on bunkers or buildings.
Red___Sword
Junior Member
Ha. But didn't GI Joes uses AT4 as standard RPG for foot soldier, and Tows as vehicle mounting general purpose ATGM? Quite cheap and plenty in American's standard.
I think another reason for PLA airborne IFVs carrying HJ73 level of ATGMs is because it's light weight, on top of "easy to configure" - You never saw HJ9 piggybacked on anything right? It (HJ8/9) needs dedicated firing platform.
