Re: Tank Guns and Ammunition
Of course there are solid reasons.
First armor protection.
Chinese based their armor protection concept on Soviet one, but also changed it a bit by using turret front modular armor.
This means to things. In Soviet composite armor concept, the composite filler space per armor thickness is smaller than in western designs. However for T-xx series situation is not that bad at all, because they use mostly integrated armor, not modular one.
Chinese modular armor have a very specific design.
As You can see, rather small space is occupied by composite armor, while the rest is simple steel and air gap.
Compare this to the drawing with armor thickness.
You can now see that per whole armor thickness, only very little space is used for composite armor, making it much weaker. Al Khalid use exactly the same armor design.
(Note armor estimation is made only on ZTZ-98/99 drawing, but is made for Al Khalid. Photo and drawing by Militarysta).
Let's compare ot for example with some NATO MBT's.
As we can see the space used for composite armor in NATO MBT's is bigger.
This drawing shows exactly where composite armor is placed. As You can see, space used for such armor is far bigger, especially in case of turret than in case of any Chinese tank.
Of course there are other things, like turret geometry, weak zones size and placement etc. Just read this forum, there is plenty of materials made by use of serious sources from around the world.
Also read this thread.
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/china/26569-type-99-abc-vs-arjun-mk1-2-a.html
the problem is that the engineers sitting in the HIT OR NORINCO are nt just 10th grade pass bt rather professional
well your comparing(even the tank in the pic is nt AK,nt even the older mbt2000)
a 48tonnes tank against a over 60tonnes tank.(nt in arjun case.that is more of just armour pouring)
the AK was in development/testing from 1994-2000(mbt-2000 in 1993 if i am nt wrong)
more info regarding AK by nabil
""AK-2 is in the category of medium weight tank as
far as i know. In between 50-55 ton range, having
an upgrade of major systems from ballistic
computer to fire control system, automation is
higher than that of AK-1, so much so that most of
the tank functions are computer controlled. In terms of Thermal imager/ night fighting
performance, AKs have a upper hand on Type 99
series, even the Type 99G uses a mechanical
Thermal Imager, maybe upgraded to automatic
scanning TI in 99A2 series but i doubt it is at the
level of Matis 3rd gen or Catherine 2nd gen TI as of now. The only area where AK-1 is inferior is the
engine power and heavy armor but AK-1 is a
lighter tank anyway (compared to Type 99s). AK-2
will be a totally revamped version from armor,
engine, APS, fire power, indigenous autoloader
unlike previous version in AKs, giving a better loading time, environmental control, BMS 2 or
maybe 3 as 2 is already in AK-1, also new ammo
is being made at HIT including new long rod
penetrators, Naiza 2 likely. It will be a game
changer in the sub continent armor domain IF
Arjun Mk2 is not fielded by 2015.""
more
""The turret is more spacious than any t-64/80/90
variant and this has allowed for additional
weapon carriage. The Pakistani tank crew rates
mbt 2000/ Al Khalid very highly in terms of
performance, survivability, crew comfort and
electronics. They prefer AL Khalid over T-80 or any other mbt in service. alkhalid vs mbt2000 by nabil I have been following Chinese and Pakistani
military developments for many years now and i
can tell you that Peru have had a very good deal in
mbt 2000/vt1-a. This history goes back to 1990
when China built their first third generation mbt
under the designation type 90 II. The initial version did not fulfill their requirements but
Pakistan had a close look at it and recommended
many modifications for it especially fire control
system and the power plant hence it emerged as
the type 90 IIM. Pakistan began to invest in the
project more than $20 million dollars with radical enhancements in fore control, optics, gun, tracks
and the engine. They are manufacturing it
indeginously in Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT). The
actual type 90 II and present Al Khalid/ mbt 2000
are radically different mbts having only external
similarities. The engine is Ukrainian 6td-2 developing 1200 hp diesel engine coupled with
sesm esm 500 automatic transmission, automatic
tracking facility (as in french leclerc), a powerful
western fire control system with ballistic
computer, Sagem matis third generation thermal
imager, 125 mm auto frettaged chrome plated smoothbore gun (48 cal), full electric controlled
turret function, remote firing capability with the
hatch closed, gps and ins functions, water fording
upto 5 meters with preperation, indeginouly
developed ATCOP LTS 1 laser threat detector that
can detect all kinds of laser threats and warns the tank crew within milli seconds, Fully 360 turn
capability, Panoramic hunter killer sighting
system, Battlefield Management System with
active datalink for all tanks as well as other
vehicles nearby and new armor that was
developed with Ukrainian and Chinese co- orporation that defeated all types of conventional
tank ammunition. Remember that Pakistan
already has the Ukrainian T-80 ud tanks that were
bought as a stop gap measure until Al Khalid was
inducted. India bought the T-90S mbts to counter
the T80s and Al Khalids but now they are going to buy improved T90 M to counter Al Khalid after
realizing that their Arjun is far from induction and
Al Khalid in current form is more than a match for
T-90S.""
