@Hendrik_2000
Gun-launched top-attack anti-tank missile; the one posted was top-attack, but not gun-launched. HJ-10s and HJ-12s have too great a diameter to be fired from a ZTQ-15's 105mm main gun.
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VT5 is equipped with,armor units%2C according to CCTV.
So the VT5 is slated to get an APS, as well as a gun-launched anti-tank missile. No news on whether these upgrades would make it back to the ZTQ-15, though.
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Imo the concept underlying a light tank as an infantry support tank should emphasize armor and mobility over firepower. Since the tank is lighter, it should be cheaper, but where you compromise is on firepower. The firepower is perfectly adequate when it comes to anything less than a MBT, and can do infantry support jobs quite well.
Essentially, what you're looking for is an armored shell--because the light tanks are cheaper, you actually have greater mass / survivability in an area with light tanks compared to an equivalent cost of MBTs. In concert with MBTs, light tanks could end up becoming a way to present survivable targets that soak up fire while the MBTs and other anti-tank equipment do the actual killing; a shield compared to a sword, in other words.
And in an urban area, up-armored light tanks would be more effective than MBTs since the light tanks with APS and ERA absorb missile fire more cost-effectively than MBTs, while having all the firepower they need to support infantry fighters.
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For China's strategic set-up, if it were actually planning for a real war, an updated version of People's War would be more appropriate. The strongest aspect of China's military potential is in its industrial capacity, or its capacity to outproduce and outlast a foe in a full-scale war, just as the Soviets neutered the Nazis. Likewise, the PLA is generally inexperienced, and its force structure for a full-scale war should focus on delaying and extending the combat for its industrial capability to kick in; i.e, there's not enough of an advantage to do things a la the Japanese or even the Nazis, both of whom focused on a fast, decisive blow to disable their potentially more powerful opponents before their opponents could step up production, which in actual history they did.
So in this context, the ZTQ-15 is a good sign. I've been hamming and hawwing about how the ZTQ-15s couldn't take on Indian T-90s, but the fact that they're not really suited to it is a good sign. Unlike, say, the PL-15 missile, or more relevantly the T-14 Armata, no one is complaining that ZTQ-15 means they'll have to develop a next-generation tank model. And in a real war the ZTQ-15s could, by mass, stop enemies on the ground long enough for military production to scale up.
