The new VN-22 armored vehicle for land equipment at the Zhuhai Air Show

Land equipment at the Zhuhai Air Show

New VN-22 armored vehicle

At the opening of the Zhuhai Air Show in 2021, many new weapons appeared, such as the Wuzhen 7 unmanned aerial vehicle The drones are the "Xianglong" drone, which was previously dubbed the "Eagle of the Village", and the Wucen 8 drone. J-16 electronic warfare aircraft, Rainbow Six drones, etc. However, compared to these previous rumors, this time it is just "real hammer" equipment. What I am more interested in is the VN-22 armored vehicle, which is a brand-new equipment.

Let me start with the conclusion of the VN-22 armored vehicle: The technical level of this vehicle far exceeds the ZSL-92 series wheeled armored vehicles and ZBL-08 series wheeled infantry fighting vehicles currently in service in the People's Liberation Army, and is even higher than the new eight- Wheeled vehicle still in testing. It can be said to be the highest level wheeled armored vehicle in our country at present. It can be compared with the German "Boxer Dog" armored vehicle. Belongs to world-class level.

The Australian version of the German "Boxer" armored vehicle. Although the "Boxer" is expensive, the Germans get what they pay for and the performance is very good, so it is quite popular around the world. If there's a downside, it's that it's a little heavy.

The new eight-wheeled armored vehicle that is still under testing already has a considerable technical level, but due to demand (there are also floating requirements, the weight limit is stuck) and the troops' pursuit of stability (not to adopt too many new technologies, and form combat effectiveness as soon as possible), although it is much improved than the Type 08 vehicle family, it is still lagging behind world-class wheeled armored vehicles such as the "Boxer Dog".

VN-22 integrates my country’s most advanced technologies in related fields and truly embodies “my country does not have technology, but it is useless.” To some extent, it can be regarded as a technology demonstration car. When it first came out, I was a little anxious to use the latest technology, but it will definitely become more and more mature in the future.

Let’s talk about this turret first. First of all, this is a non-penetrating unmanned turret. New 30mm machine gun (power and accuracy are greatly improved compared to the old 30 gun and American Mk44 machine gun), lifting double-mounted missile launch chamber + fourth-generation ammunition (suspected to be Red Arrow 12, but it is estimated that Red Arrow can also be replaced with -16, That is, fourth-generation anti-tank missiles, half a loitering bomb), commander/gunner universal photoelectric PTZ fire control (unmanned turret commander and gunner combined into one), and the main defense system, this turret has basically reached the world First class level.

The reason why it is called photoelectric pan/tilt fire control is because it can really rotate up, down, left and right, much like a handheld pan/tilt.

This is another turret, which is consistent with the VN-1C turret given to Thailand by foreign trade, indicating that it is a non-armor-piercing unmanned turret, modular and replaceable, and there is an operating platform below, that is to say You can change the future inside. Such as the sunken bullet turret.

This is an active defense system launcher. It is no longer news that our country has developed an active defense system, but it is the first time that it has appeared in a car, although it may be a model.

And this should be a small active defense system for armored vehicles, not a large active defense system for tanks. For example, Israel's "Iron Fist" system is aimed at armored vehicles, and "Trophy" is aimed at tanks. GL5 is a large-scale active defense system for tanks.

In terms of chassis, it has professional lightning protection design and overall additional armor, fully electronically controlled automatic transmission, fully hydraulic and pneumatic lifting body suspension, V-shaped hydraulic anti-jump tailgate, and lightning protection suspension seat.

The rear of this car has an irregular V-shaped hydraulic tailgate, and there is a handle door on the door for emergencies. This is the latest tailgate design. The way soldiers step on it is designed to protect against lightning (the feet are not grounded to prevent the impact force from transmitting vibrations), which shows the obvious V-shaped chassis explosion-proof design.

The number of passengers should be six, and because the body is relatively tall, it appears to be quite spacious.

Another thing to note is that there is no propeller propulsion device at the rear of the car, which means it does not pursue flotation capabilities, so the weight limit is relaxed and more weight can be allocated to strengthen defense.

In terms of defense, since there is no weight limit, it can be seen that the entire vehicle has thick armor attached (refer to the two towing points below). Of course, you can also switch to other better armor if necessary. Due to the large frontal angle, the defense will be higher.

It is estimated that the front side can defend against 30mmX173mm fin-stabilized armor-piercing projectiles (NATO level 6 defense), and the strange direction can defend against 14.5X114mm armor-piercing projectiles (NATO level 4 defense). Since the turret is unmanned, it will be relatively weak, and it also has an active defense system.

Taken together, the VN-22 demonstrates the highest technical level of my country's wheeled armored vehicles and is completely in a world-class position. Foreign advanced technology departments are all equipped or even slightly better. But as mentioned above, the People's Liberation Army does not need so many new technologies. What it wants is stable performance and the troops forming combat effectiveness as soon as possible. Therefore, the technical level of the new eight-wheeler is lower than that of VN-22, but if the 08 car series and the new eight-wheeler need to be upgraded in the future, VN-22 will be the technical route reference.

According to the People's Liberation Army's "equipment generation, research and development generation, and pre-development generation" rule, there are also new wheeled armored vehicles with VN-22 technical level, but they belong to the next generation of new eight-wheeled vehicles and the third generation of wheeled vehicles. Infantry combat. Vehicles (08 first generation, Xinbaquan second generation, 92 is an armored personnel carrier, I won’t list them all here). To equip 2030s, the new eight-wheeler is currently equipped first. The new eight-wheeler is also good. The chassis has a professional lightning protection design and overall additional armor, a fully electronically controlled automatic transmission, a fully hydraulic and pneumatic lifting body suspension, a V-shaped hydraulic anti-jump tailgate, a lightning-proof shock-absorbing suspension seat, and a proper turtle version of a 6-wheel boxer. .

The technical design level of this new six-wheeled combat vehicle is a bit like a boxer, rather than a safety car or 551/92 rounds of ammunition. The main defense turrets are absolutely world class. Red? Arrow-16), the chassis has a professional lightning protection design, overall additional armor, fully hydraulic and pneumatic lifting body suspension, hydraulic anti-jump tailgate, new lights, the overall technology of the boxer is nothing more than this.

With the new 30mm gun + lifting missile launch chamber + fourth-generation missiles, this main defense turret (model) has basically reached the world-class level.

The eight-round version has just come out and is a truly domestic boxer. The technical level of the new eight-wheeled vehicles currently needed to equip the troops is not as good as this six-wheeled vehicle.

Configuring active defense systems is the development trend of armored equipment. The so-called latest foreign tank systems are equipped with them, but they are of the NATO standard headed by the United States and use Israeli systems. China (including Russia) opposes him. Another set of equipment systems and standards from China technically leads to the same goal, but because of its independence, China is forced to engage in all-round confrontation with all Western industrial countries and their followers. China must be in control.

The bulletproof and mineproof performance of this thing is much stronger than the overall protection of some mass-produced equipment for large-scale mechanized combat infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles, and assault artillery vehicles. In this safety war, those mass-produced cars with relatively poor protection are not suitable for fighting a safety war.

If the main defense is not a blind welding model, just take a look at the matching millimeter wave radar or demonstration video.

The Turtle version of the "Iron Fist" main defense system is displayed in actual form for the first time (whether it is a model, whether it has actual functions, whether the technology is mature or not). The latest batch of foreign infantry bidding projects basically use the Iron Fist as the standard configuration. Active defense systems have gone from being a future plan to becoming a real trend. It certainly makes no sense not to catch up.

The main defense of the Turtle version was very low-key before. This new six-wheeler has a series of advanced configurations. In addition to a high-level lightning protection design, it also has the latest/advanced configurations such as non-penetrating photoelectric, lift-launched vehicle-penetrating bombs, and liquid-pneumatic suspension, which are far superior to ordinary security vehicles.

If it is not as good as protection, then in addition to the distributed photoelectricity of the entire vehicle, the Australian boxer and even kf41 represent the latest new technology in infantry combat. Although at this moment of "what can be done but not done", it is inevitable to talk about the People's Liberation Army's premeditation (kou) and calculations (men), but you can also think about the standard main defense infantry of the new generation of main force.

Some details of the foreign trade 6*6 infantry tank, V-shaped outsole, hydropneumatic suspension, automatic transmission, cancellation of hydraulic propulsion, and different turrets.