Type 99 main battle tank and T90 are both good.

A few days ago, Russian media published a detailed analysis and evaluation of China's latest Type 99 main battle tank, and considered that its overall performance has surpassed that of Russian-made T-80 and T-90.

This paper points out that Type 99, which has been mass-produced, is the third-generation main battle tank developed on the basis of Type 98. In 2000, North Industries Company first demonstrated the Type 99 tank with reinforced armor system. At first, it was reported that this tank was a derivative model of Type 98, which was once called 98G (meaning an improved version of Type 98). In 2000, the first batch of 40 99 models officially rolled off the assembly line. China North Machinery Manufacturing Research Institute (NEVORI) and the First Machinery Manufacturing Company (FIRMACO, located in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia), as the main research units, began to improve the Model 98 shortly after it entered the experimental stage. It is reported that the main contents of the improvement include: improving the decisiveness of the tank by turbocharging the diesel engine with power exceeding 1500 horsepower; Improve the fire protection system; Add reactive armor to the car body to improve the protection ability.

Because the main armor in the front of the tank is equipped with reactive armor and adopts the design of oblique edges and corners, the protection level of the front of Type 99 has been further strengthened. In addition, reactive armor is installed on the grille at the back of the tank. Similar armor layout can also be seen on the improved Type 96 and Pakistani "Ali Halid" tanks. If the first batch of Type 99 tanks only added a layer of reactive armor to the main armor, then the Type 99 tanks produced later were completely built with reactive armor from the beginning. At the same time, the shape of the armored module on the tank has also changed-the inclination has become larger. In order to enhance the anti-strike ability of the top of the tank, some reactive armor modules are also installed on the upper part of the latest batch of Type 99 turrets. Due to the modular design, all damaged reaction armor can be replaced quickly.

Like Type 98, Type 99 is also equipped with JD-3 laser active countermeasure system. The system consists of microcomputer controller, tracking turntable and servo system, laser suppressor, thermal imaging, laser rangefinder and jammer (gas laser transmitter). When the system receives the laser beam emitted by the enemy tank, the alarm system will quickly send out a signal to turn the turret to the laser radiation source. After that, JD-3 system will emit a weak laser beam to determine the accuracy of the target. Next, the intensity of the laser beam will suddenly increase to a very dangerous level in a short time, resulting in the failure of the enemy's lighting equipment or the operator's vision damage.

At the same time, the fire control system of Type 99 tank has been further improved. The system includes sight (equipped with independent stabilizer), laser rangefinder, thermal imager, digital ballistic computer, weapon stabilizer, a large number of sensors (responsible for collecting data such as atmospheric conditions and barrel wear), automatic target tracking system and multi-purpose vehicle commander console equipped with color display. The images obtained by the thermal imager can be directly transmitted to the color display in front of the commander and the aiming hand (the magnification is 1 1.4 times and 5 times). In addition, the Type 99 tank is also equipped with inertial and satellite navigation systems, and the received information can also be displayed on the display in front of the commander and superimposed with the electronic map. This tank is also equipped with a modern radio station.

The main weapon of Type 99 tank is a 125mm smoothbore gun (the barrel of which is equipped with a heat insulation sleeve) that imitates the Russian 2A46 tank gun. When the tungsten alloy tail is used to stabilize the armor-piercing projectile, it can penetrate 850mm homogeneous armor at a distance of 2000m, while when the special alloy armor-piercing projectile is used, the armor-piercing ability can reach more than 960mm at the same distance. Like Model 98, Model 99 is also equipped with an automatic hydraulic loader (22 rounds are reserved in the machine). A total of 4 1 shells, armor-piercing projectiles, armor-piercing blasting projectiles and 9M 1 19 laser-guided gun-launched anti-tank missiles can be stored in the tank. The auxiliary weapon consists of an 86-type 7.62mm online gun and a W-8512.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun. In addition, a set of 84-type 5-tube smoke emitters are installed on both sides of the turret.

The 99 tank is equipped with a water-cooled turbocharged diesel engine with a power of 1500 HP, which was developed from Germany MB87 1ka50 1. When the tank weighs 54 tons, the power coefficient of the engine is 27.78 HP/ton. When driving on roads and rough roads in the field, the maximum speed is 80 km/h and 60 km/h respectively. It takes 12 seconds for the tank to accelerate from standstill to 32km/h, and the maximum stroke is 600km.

The overall performance of Type 99 is obviously improved compared with the main battle tank developed by China before, and its advanced degree has surpassed that of Russian-made T-80 and T-90, which is roughly equivalent to the improved ones of western mainstream tanks and T-90.

After the first batch of 40 Type 99 tanks rolled off the assembly line, their production continued, but the speed was relatively low. At present, this modern tank is only used to equip elite PLA troops stationed in the Beijing Military Region and shenyang military area command. (