About Type 99 Tank

The performance of ZTZ-98 is world-class, so we help each other.

A. Firepower

Tanks are offensive weapons. In fact, every country has its own special considerations that suit its national conditions. Israel puts defense first, while China's consideration is biased towards firepower, and puts destroying the enemy first. China emphasized the aggressiveness of tanks, which was the most primitive goal of tanks.

A. automatic loader

Since 1970' s, China has made great efforts on large-caliber tank guns, and successfully developed tank guns with various calibers such as 120 mm, 125 mm and 130 mm. Finally, 125 mm was selected for the consideration of automatic loader. The reason for this is the following：

A. volume considerations:

1.20 mm shell comes with it, and the warhead and charge are combined into one; 125mm shell is split, that is to say, the warhead and charge are separated. Therefore, the shell of 120 mm is very long, and the shell of 125 mm is naturally much shorter if it is divided into two pieces. If all automatic loaders are used, the automatic loader of 120 mm will be much larger and more complicated than that of 125 mm, resulting in a much larger turret. Later, Japanese and French tanks also confirmed this point, especially the failure rate of automatic loaders in Japan is very high.

B. Forward-looking:

Readers will surely say that the autoloader is so troublesome that it should be loaded manually. American M 1A2 and German Leopard 2 are all loaded manually. But China thinks that the caliber of tank guns will be bigger and bigger, which is the trend. Westerners are still reluctant to load 120mm shells, but no matter how big the shells are, they will have to use automatic loaders sooner or later. It is better to start developing them now. Sure enough, both China and Germany are developing 140mm tank guns, which are too heavy for Qiang Bing in the west to move.

C.R&D cycle:

It is urgent for China to develop the third generation tanks. It is necessary to draw lessons from the Russian ready-made automatic loader to shorten the development cycle, not to mention designing the T-72 for the chassis of China tanks.

The loading speed of the automatic loader is 8 rounds per minute. If the automatic loader fails, the 98 type can be changed to manual loading, and the speed is reduced to 1~2 rounds per minute.

B. tank guns

China's 125mm tank gun was also borrowed from Russia, but it was not completely copied, but improved. China adopts new technology and new process to enlarge the charge chamber, increase the bore pressure, and adopt new alloy to improve the strength of gun barrel. Finally, the Type 98 tank is equipped with a 50-caliber high-pressure smoothbore gun, and its muzzle kinetic energy is 45% higher than that of Russian 125mm tank gun, and 30% higher than that of German Leopard 2 and American M1A12120mm tank gun. At present, the power of China's tank guns is ahead of the world.

The 98-type main gun adopts a new manufacturing process, so it is not only powerful but also very accurate, far higher than the Russian 125mm tank gun.

C. armor-piercing projectile

It is not enough to talk about guns, because the power of guns is partly determined by shells. There is an important reason why the Iraqi tanks were defeated by the allied forces in the Gulf War, and the allied tanks were hardly damaged. In other words, Russians are bad people. The old Russian artillery shells supplied to Iraq were inferior, worse than those supplied to Warsaw Pact countries, and more than those used by China. Therefore, although Iraqi artillery is the same, its armor-piercing ability is much worse. So we should have some basic understanding of shells.

The armor-piercing power of tank gun mainly depends on the core of armor-piercing projectile, which is not only hard but also has a high melting point. Because the temperature of metal will rise sharply under the great collision pressure, the penetration of metal with insufficient hardness or low melting point (such as copper) is not good. So what kind of metal is the hardest, with a particularly high melting point and the safest? This involves a very important strategic metals-tungsten.

China is a big producer of tungsten, and its tungsten reserves rank first in the world. Tungsten is a rare metal with high value. During World War II, China obtained weapons from the United States by selling tungsten, not for free, which was different from the treatment received by Britain and Russia. The international propaganda is that the United States has provided China with a lot of materials and weapons, but it has not mentioned the materials (such as tung oil) and rare metals provided by China to the United States, which has caused the wrong impression that China people have been included in the international community. China's outstanding contribution to the anti-fascist war and the glory of victory were stolen by two American atomic bombs.

Tungsten is an extremely hard metal with a very high melting point, which is especially suitable as the core of armor-piercing projectile. Therefore, China has an advantage over any other country in the production of armor-piercing projectiles.

Tungsten's armor-piercing ability is second only to uranium, and there is little difference between them. But uranium is radioactive, and tungsten is clean. Therefore, China develops tungsten bombs and uranium bombs at the same time, while the United States relies almost entirely on uranium bombs. This is why the war environment between any country and the United States will be polluted, so the battlefield must not be chosen at home, otherwise it will suffer big losses.

America is a smiling tiger, full of human rights and humanity. In fact, it is ruthless, and the malice of weapons far exceeds the imagination of ordinary people. Do you think that depleted uranium bombs, cluster bombs, napalm bombs and so on were not invented by the United States? Among them, depleted uranium bombs are the most toxic and harmful to the environment where human beings live. American military exercises using depleted uranium bombs are held abroad, so its harm to the United States is not ignorance but pretending ignorance. The United States also knows very well that unless Mexico has the ability to turn against him, there is little chance of a war on American soil, so it is not a problem for the United States to use a large number of depleted uranium bombs. Interestingly, the United States teaches China to be a responsible big country every day. Why not look in the mirror?

Today, China's tail-stabilized shell-piercing projectile has excellent performance. Type 98 launches the third-generation tungsten alloy tail stabilized armor-piercing projectile, with the initial velocity (initial velocity) 1780m/s, leading the world; It can penetrate 850 mm homogeneous armor at a distance of 2000 meters. Type 98 can penetrate 960 mm homogeneous armor at a distance of 2000 meters if the uranium alloy tail is used to stabilize the armor-piercing projectile.

In contrast, the armor-piercing ability of American M 1A2 main battle tank is 8 10 mm at a distance of 2000 meters. Germany's Leopard 2A6 main battle tank is 900mm, and Japan's Type 90 main battle tank is 650mm.

On the power of artillery, China is undoubtedly in the leading position.

D. Grenade

Type 98 also has a multifunctional explosive Grenade, which is a high-explosive bomb with a large charge and powerful enough to make today's main battle tanks lose their combat effectiveness. I don't know much about this view, and I don't understand what the principle is. YST only heard that the powerful air pressure generated by the explosion of 155mm shell overturned the tank. I don't know if it is true or not.

E. gun-launched missiles

However, one thing is certain, that is, the 98-type anti-tank missile that can be guided by cannon laser can fly at a maximum speed of 800 m/s (2.5 times the speed of sound) and an average speed of 500 m/s, which is much faster than the TOW anti-tank missile in the United States flying at the speed of sound. The type 98 gunner sight is equipped with a laser transmitter, and the tank carries four missiles. The effective combat distance 100 ~ 5000m can penetrate the 700mm homogeneous armor behind the explosive reaction armor. Its power is amazing and unbelievable, perhaps partly due to its high speed.

B. Fire control system

Chinese mainland has been devoted to the research of fire control system since the early 1970s, and has successively developed many different tank fire control systems. These systems are based on the actual situation in China, according to their own technical level and reserves, and then absorb foreign advanced experience, and accumulate step by step to form a set of complex integrated technologies.

A. image stabilization fire control system

Model 98 has an advanced image stabilization fire control system, which means that no matter how the tank maneuvers, the target and background in the sight are almost motionless and only need to be aimed once. Gunners can carry out all kinds of precise shooting, such as static to static, static to dynamic, dynamic to static and dynamic to dynamic.

Type 98 fire control system has a so-called "gun overlapping shooting device". When the gunner finds the target, he can choose to press the shooting button, and the fire control computer will start to calculate the required parameters and rotate the turret at the same time. When the gun rotates to the position of azimuth and advance calculated by computer, the device will automatically output the signal of "shooting permission". If the gunner has pressed the firing button at this time, the gun will fire automatically.

B. Combat ability of "combat hunter"

Type 98 conductor has its own independent aiming system, which is also image-stabilized and can rotate 360 degrees. When the gunner searches or locks a target, the commander can search other targets at the same time. This is the so-called "fighter-hunter" combat capability. The machine gunner destroys one target and directs the killing of another.

If the commander finds the second target, he has two choices: one is to give it to the gunner as the next target; The other is that the commander thinks that the second target is more threatening, and the commander can attack this new and more threatening target, rather than the target that the gunner has locked in.

This kind of "fighter-hunter" combat capability and the command system that allows the commander to surpass the gunner make the tank combat very flexible, and the attack ability and survivability are greatly increased.

C. Large closed-loop control system

China applied the "closed-loop control" theory in control science to tank artillery, and initiated the "large closed-loop control system" of tank artillery.

"Closed-loop control", also known as "feedback control", is to return the control error to the original input of the control process for recalculation. Under the operation of the "large closed-loop control system", Type 98 fired at the target. If the first shell misses the target, the firing error will be automatically input into the fire control computer to calculate new firing data, and then the second shell will be fired immediately. This is an automatic correction system after miss, which is mainly used to shoot high-speed targets.

Scientists artificially input all kinds of wrong data and miss the target to test this "large closed-loop control system". In the field test, the improved Type 98 fired at the moving target for the second time at a distance of two kilometers, and the result was that the second shot hit 46 times, with a hit rate of 100%. You know, the first hit rate of modern fire control system is very high, above 90%. Even if it misses with a probability of 10%, the "large closed-loop control system" ensures that the second shot hits the target.

China's "large closed-loop control system" leads the world.

D. night vision system

The most advanced night vision system is the infrared imager, which is a sensor that is very sensitive to the ambient temperature. Because of the different temperatures of various objects, a temperature image is formed, and the purpose of finding and identifying targets can be achieved through this temperature image. So infrared imager is also called thermal imager. We have already introduced the thermal camera in Talking about Tanks (II), so I won't go into details about the current position.

The thermal imager was invented by Texas Instruments in 1970, and western countries spared no effort in this field. Surprisingly, in the middle of this century, scientists developed a thermal imager, which was farther away from the discovery and marking of tanks than western countries, so China came from behind and took the lead.

According to the information disclosed in China, the second generation staring focal plane array in China can observe tank targets at night or under complex meteorological conditions, with a distance of 7-9 kilometers. Even in the harsh environment where the visibility is only 100 m (such as fog), the discovery distance of the tank is 4000 m and the marking distance is 3 100 m, which has formed a technical advantage over the third generation main battle tanks in the west in night combat capability.

C. Protection capacity

A. Armor protection

Type 98 main battle tank is welded by multi-layer composite armor and special steel. As mentioned above, it reached or exceeded the index of 700 mm homogeneous armor at the time of acceptance. At a distance of two kilometers, the front of Type 98 can resist 700 mm armor-piercing bullets and 800 mm chemical bullets. In the winter experiment of 1997, Type 98 was attacked by 105 mm tail stabilized armor-piercing projectile 14, and none of them could penetrate the frontal armor. Later, the T-72C 125mm gun was fired six times, but it still failed to penetrate the frontal armor.

If armor is added, the weight will be increased by 0.7 tons, the armor-piercing projectile with stable defensive tail can reach 830 mm, and the defensive chemical projectile (heat) can reach1060 mm.

If the double-layer anti-anti-anti-anti-armor newly developed by Chinese scientists is installed, the shelling ability of the defensive tail bomb to armor-piercing and chemical bombs can reach 1000 ~ 1200mm.

B. Release smoke

Type 98 will smoke when it senses danger. In less than three seconds, a smoke wall is formed at 50~80 meters of the tank to deal with the laser (laser), and the continuous action time is 20 seconds. The experimental results show that the system can reduce the hit rate of anti-tank missiles such as "Tuo", "Dragon", "Maverick" and "Hellfire" by 75 ~ 80%, and can reduce the hit rate of artillery using laser rangefinder by 2/3.

C. infrared jammer

Type 98 will turn on the infrared jammer to emit infrared signals of character set when danger is sensed, covering 22 degrees left and right of the main gun and 5 degrees high and low. This jamming signal will produce false signals in all infrared guided missile guidance systems and lose them, effectively reducing the hit rate.

D. Active defense system

This is the most complicated of all defense systems. It consists of three things: millimeter-wave radar, control equipment and defensive ammunition launcher. The principles of its mission are as follows:

A. The conductor turned on the system and the radar began to search in all directions.

B. the radar detected the flying target. When the flying target is within 50 meters from the tank, the radar switches to the tracking mode, and provides the ballistic data of the target to the fire control computer, which decides whether the flying target will hit the tank.

C, if the computer judges that the flying target does not pose a threat, the radar resumes the search mode.

D. If the computer judges that the flying target will hit the tank, the computer will determine the position of the defensive ammunition, and calculate the launch time to explode at the distance of the incoming target from the tank 1.5~4.2 meters, so that the warhead of the incoming target (missile or shell) will explode ahead of time or deviate from the tank. Mission accomplished.

This kind of active defense system can deal with the incoming target with the speed of 70~700 m/s, so all anti-tank ammunition can be dealt with except the armor-piercing projectile with stable tail.

This system only needs 0.2~0.4 seconds to be ready again after launching defensive ammunition.

The danger zone caused by the system to the infantry fighting together is 20~30 meters around the tank.

E. Laser suppression aiming system

This is the most distinctive and mysterious system of China's Type 98 and Type 99 main battle tanks, because the technicians in China don't want to talk about it.

China's operational thinking is that when the two armies are at war, the other side's eyes will be knocked out first, and this battle will be easy to fight, because the blind can't fight back effectively.

China's practice is to burn the other side's optical sight with a strong laser, and burn the eyes of the enemy who is observing and aiming.

This "laser suppression aiming system" is a box device at the top of the turret and behind the gunner's position. The principles and procedures of its tasks are as follows:

A. When the 98 laser receiver gives an alarm to warn the tank crew that their tank has been irradiated by the enemy's laser rangefinder, the "laser suppression aiming system" will be started immediately.

B. The suppression system first emits a low-power beam to locate the enemy's optical system. Once the enemy's optical system is located, the laser power emitted by this suppression system immediately rises sharply, burning the enemy's optical instruments and users' eyes.

This "laser suppression aiming system" has a range of 4000 meters, far exceeding the effective range of tank guns. Once irradiated by the intense laser of this suppression system, the human retina will be completely punctured within 10~ 15 seconds, resulting in permanent blindness; The optical aiming system will be completely destroyed in 20~30 seconds.

This "laser suppression aiming system" can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and the pitch angle is-12~+90 degrees. It usually takes only 1 second for the system to aim at the target.

American Armor magazine once reported that Type 98 main battle tank has a "laser suppression aiming system", with an effective range of 3,000 meters, which can reach 10000 meters after enhanced energy. YST thinks that if the effective distance can be increased to10000m, it may be a better application to illuminate armed helicopters. The effective range of missiles carried by armed helicopters is less than 1,000 meters (for example, Hellfire is only 8,000 meters), and the effective range of 30 mm cannon is closer (it should be less than 3,000 meters).

Therefore, unless the helicopter gunship has no attack intention, it must be within the effective laser irradiation distance of the tank. As long as the tank keeps illuminating the cockpit, it can make the helicopter crew dizzy, and of course it can also illuminate the optical equipment on board.

Ding. Mechanical power

Type 98 main battle tank weighs 48 tons, equipped with 1200 HP diesel engine, and the maximum speed is 70 km/h. In terms of speed, Type 98 is faster than American and German tanks because of its light weight, but slightly slower than French leclerc (72km/h).

In addition to speed, the ability to cross obstacles is also important, but YST has no data.

4. Summary

Type a.98 is the first three-generation main battle tank in China, which is of great significance.

The performance of the b.98 model is world-class in any respect, and some technologies are world-leading.

Type c.98 has made great contributions to China's tank industry, which is a very remarkable milestone for China's tank industry.

The d.98 model is transitional, because China has accumulated considerable technical reserves in the design and manufacture of tanks.

98 is a transitional type of type 99.