[Vassili Zaitsev]

http://www.china-defense.com/armor/type ... 8-2_1.html

You gotta take a look at this! This is one hell of a tank!

http://www.china-defense.com/armor/type98/type98_1.html

[ahab]

They still haven't corrected the problem that's been around since the T-44.

No elbowroom in the turret!

Does look to be a good fighting machine, it's been a while since I've read up on chinese armor. Thanks for the links.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

The tank looks like it has the lower body of a T-72, and the turret of the M1A1 Abrams tank. Interesting indeed.

[Tovarish Spetsnaz]

Its the end result of the many modifications the Chinese have made to the T-55.

Its a good tank...for the Chinese...but I don't think it is up to say T-80U standrads.

Its got a welded turret...but it still relies on the Soviet type of turret armor...with cavities which can be filled with different kinds of plate armors. So it shouldn't be so different from a cast turret of Soviet tanks...probably just easier to manufacture.

Nevertheless...I would say its front turret armor should be more than 600mm against KE projectiles...not bad at all. But it lacks ERA. New Type-98s have additional applique on the front turret...and have been seen even with the Chinese ERA. This probably will raise protection to 700mm front turret...again not bad at all...but still not as much as the Soviets achieved with T-80U 15 years ago (800mm).

Its FCS seems pretty much based on existing technology...collected from all over the world. Nothing new or particularly impressive. It has autmatic tracting for the gun...probably got from the Israelis since they use it on their tanks. Not much of an advantage.

The internal turret layout should be the same as on other Soviet tanks..with the carosel loader...except that excess rounds are now carried in a turret bustle rather than inside a turret like on Soviet tanks.

There is also the question of ammo. No one is too sure what Chinese ammo can do. Estimates are often wide ranging...so no one really knows for sure. But since they are in close cooperation with the Israelis...and Israel is marketing a 125mm round with about 650mm of penetration at 2km...than probably Chinese rounds are in that same range. And probably China has bought some Russian BM-42M rounds with 680mm at 2km...and probably coppied some of the technology.


So essencially the Type-98 is just not anything special...nothing new that hasn't existed and surpased in the past 15 years. In the end...they could have spend that money buying some T-90s instead...and got a much better machine.

China seems to be always the late-comer to the game...they finally made a tank worth making...but its a bit too late.

[The Apostate]

The small turret has advantages, but it definitely comes at the price of rate of fire and survivability...

[Tovarish Spetsnaz]

ROF isn't affected...it uses an autoloader...which have a sustaind ROF of more than 8 rounds/minute. It isn't affected by battle fatigue or movement...

Protection also has little to do with it. The turret thickness is the same as in most modern tanks...be them American or Russian...all have around 800-900mm thick front turrets. M1 turret being bigger weighs a lot more because it has a lot more surface area...while the Russian/Chinese turrets have less surface area (and internal volume) and thus weight a lot less...but that doesn't mean they have less armor...not at all.

[Din]

ooooooo shiny lol
very nice but the turret seems to remind me on a Abrams