China’s battle tanks unmatched in Asia: Chinese media

PLA an offensive capability that is unparallelled in Asia, state media reported today. The Type-99A main battle tank, the ZBD-04A infantry fighting vehicle and the HJ-10 anti-tank missile demonstrated at the parade yesterday to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II provided cutting edge technologies, Gao Zhuo, a military observer in Shanghai told state-run China Daily.

The Type-99A is a third-generation tank with strong firepower, an advanced active protection system, cutting-edge composite armour and supreme mobility. “What further adds to the tank’s combat capability is the adoption of a high-technology data link that gives the tank access to battlefield information obtained by other combat platforms,” he said. Liu Qingshan, editor-in-chief of the Tank and Armoured Vehicle magazine, said the Type-99A tank has the world’s most powerful engine, adding that it also boasts a high level of automation and information capacity.

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Gao said the ZBD-04A infantry fighting vehicle has a set of lethal weapons – a 100 mm rifled gun, a 30 mm auto-cannon and a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun – strong enough to destroy any soft or hard target in its way.

Compared with its predecessor, the ZBD-04, the new model has improved fire-control equipment and additional armour. It also has an advanced information system capable of being integrated with that of the Type-99A tank, he said. In addition to these heavy-duty armaments, military watchers should not neglect the HJ-10 missile, said Xiao Ning, editor of Weapon, a defence technology magazine. As the PLA’s latest multipurpose anti-tank missile, the HJ-10 can be used to hit not only tanks but also armoured vehicles, small fortifications and even helicopters flying at low altitude, he said.

Gao said the strike spearhead composed of the Type-99A, ZBD-04A, HJ-10 and the PLZ-05A self-propelled howitzer “will have no rivals in Asia”, noting some of the PLA ground force’s heavy-duty mechanised infantry divisions have been equipped with all of these weapons.

Amid bitter territorial disputes with its neighbours, the 2.3-million-strong People’s Liberation Army — the world’s largest military — yesterday rolled out its latest defence weaponry, including ICBMs and medium-to-long range bombers, at the sprawling Tiananmen Square.