Problems with Chinese tanks 

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RedEffect: "just pointing out their problems" Arjun: "do u have some time?"

Last time I was this early is when M1 Abrams Tanks didn't have depleted uranium in its armour.

Some Doctrines to not want the Tank commander to have his own gun. The Leopard 2 for example, doesn't even sport an MG for the commander to operate. The reason for that is you can not command, while you shoot and especially young officers and NCO's can get carried away by operating a gun.

From what I've seen in Chinese military tv channels (yes Chinese military runs a full on 24/7 tv channel with nightly military news and documentaries), China is very keen on modularity, so their tanks might have different packages fitted on them for different scenarios, and also the Army just isn't getting a lot of attention lately, since the 2016 military reforms, the power of the Army was severely reduced, the Navy and the Air force is getting all the funding and attention. China is also in the process to cut 7 amphibious Army brigades and turn them into Marine brigades under the Navy. It'll be interesting for you to go over the new Chinese Type-15 light tank, it ditched the Russian style autoloader for the French style Leclerc autoloader with blast doors.

RedEffect: *makes problems with Chinese tanks* The Chinese Censorship: "Write that down, write that down" Edit: Wow, take a load of the replies down there (sorry no offense guys but it's just funny that you're all arguing cuz of a poorly made meme joke)

ZTZ-99 seems pretty good if the only real problems are the commander machine gun and slightly lacking side armor. From what I've read it has a hard kill and a laser dazzler turret that can blind enemy optics (including guidance for munitions) out to over 2KM. ZTZ-96 is meant to be a light weight cheap tank and it really brings a lot of bang for its buck. It's around 1/4 the price of an Abrams and is more importantly, lighter making it more accessible to China's tough terrain. It's got great armor in a narrow frontal profile, 60% the weight of an Abrams and a pretty decent sabot round. These tanks fit China's mission profile very well (produced in large numbers, light weight, electronically advanced, effective enough armor and gun). EDIT: -China's military is made to fight an American force where I don't think any amount of side armor will really help against the main threats of BGM-71, AGM-114 and the M829A2. I don't think shoulder fired munitions would come into play too much. Not having side armor helps with weight issues. -China's terrain is usually either tropical or mountainous. These are terrain types that needs lightweight tanks. Tanks like the Abrams would likely have problems traversing most of it at nearly 10 more tons of weight over the ZTZ-99.

Could you do a video where you break down what a world class tank should be, please talk about things like fire Control system, armour and other factors

Can you do like an evolution of any “tank line” I guess? Like Patton tanks and the predecessor. Or like T-34s. Or anything else that has enough history.

All tanks have their weaknesses. I'm all the way down here in Australia and I was raised in North America, but my favourite tank is the Russian T-90MS. (A tank with its share of shortcomings). For those of us who love tanks... we'll live with the weaknesses and emphasize the strengths. That's the great thing about loving armoured vehicles. That's the fun of it.

I knew it. I knew there’s major problems with the Chinese tanks, if they run into Arjun, they’ll get crushed. If you don’t believe me, great, you shouldn’t.

Good job on making an objective video about China without any hate. These videos are hard to find on RU-vid these days.

The star emblem be like: "shoot me here"

Very sexy looking shape of the tank after this add-on armor.

Since most of their focus goes to the Air Force, Navy, and Air Defence, I doubt we will see these issues fixed anytime soon.

I just did a bit of research and found out that the front and side turret armor of the ZTZ-99A are made of a combination of ERA and composite plates (no information on the side hull). As far as I know the whole point of ERAs is to offer at least some protection to the APFSDS rounds. With that being said, I honestly don't think the armor is too much a problem. Also, it is a trend in tank design to produce add-on modules to adapt different combat scenarios and threats. An example of this is the ZTQ-15 light tank, which has a variety of armor options to choose from depending on the type of mission (including different configurations of ERAs). Also, the remote controlled weapon station is mounted on the newer ZTQ-15 as well as the export versions of the tanks. But I think it hardly makes any real difference since the PLA did not think of deploying these tanks in urban warfare anyways, and that all military exercises involving these tanks are in prairies and highlands. I've also never seen these tanks being trained under urban warfare setting.

Apparently, the reasoning behind the remote weapon station and lack of side armor is that the tanks were mostly aimed at intercepting Russia on the northern plains of inner/outer Mongolia, where the entire terrain is open flat ground, and tanks would be supported by other tanks/mechanized infantry on the sides and rear. This is why the new type 15 light tank designed for southern rainforests and Tibet includes the remotely operated machine gun present on the type96b export models.

Hey RedEffect! Great video as always. Can you make a video about Soviet/Russian APFSDS evolution?

watching your videos really makes me learn a lot, thx for uploading

My new favorite military channel, good info, good community with low toxic comments, and everyone here love tanks.

Hey bro, I m a CHinese and fan of tank I can explain those problems~ VT4 and VT5 is for export and they got the things u mentioned which lack on 96 and 99, but according to Chinese logic the equipment that can be exported must worse than what the PLA using, so in the Chinese military fan community we all think that it can be installed if necessary becuz the equipment can be expensive and since nowadays most of the budget goes to Navy so~~~

Can't wait for -Blue Effect- Alpha Defense to make a video again.

"Crew needs to rely on maps or smart phones for navigation". You forgot to mention that crew also need to use SMS to communicate with other tanks.

Thx for making this video . Your comments are very objective and good !

Hi Red Effect Team, Please review Type-15 or ZTQ-15 Chinese Tank in your next set of reviews. Thank you.

Now I'd love to see your take on Japanese tanks, specifically the Type-90 and Type=10.

Dude I was glad to see a new vid while I chow down on breakfast. Nice!

The type 99(modified)/99式改 uses a hardkill APS while the 99A's APS can be described as a warning system and a dazzler.

You know red has a point when even xi made an appearance in the thumbnail

You should really checkout VT-2 VT-4 VT-5, those are the export versions of ZTZ96-B, ZTZ-99, and the new light tank they have. They come with weapon station as optional equipment and fixed most of the issues you mentioned. Because the sheer amount of armored vehicles PLA has and the defensive doctrines they adopted, some of the fancy equipment we see on western tanks are not really needed. The primary reason is weight constraints for tough terrains and weak neighbors (except Russia but they are allies). Most of the countries that China borders with has natural barriers/tough terrains that separate China from them, such as Vietnam and India. Western tanks that are built for European plains or deserts would have a really tough time traverse through mountainous terrains and move across narrow bridges that are not built to withstand 60 or more metric tons. Of course, these are the drawbacks that they can improve on, but honestly, such improvements could be costly and yield almost no benefit in real combats. Overall, great vids!

Type 96A is a 40-ton class tank meant to used in places heavier tanks cannot access. It is not meant to take on 60-ton class tanks.

I really like the way that you used to start your videos,with the chemical suit soldier. And your work looks little bit familiar to matsimus

Your videos are like 1min of warthunder advertising and 4 mins of content followed by funky music

The main problems with Chinese tanks is that the spring rolls ...sorry

I rediscover your videos about old tanks like sherrman vs panther or T64 vs M60. I really like it because there is more data and fight experience. Do you plan to do more videos of this type RedEffect?

Nice job on a warthunder sponsorship! Hope that helped you out.

Have you thought about doing a video on how each MBT fills it's role that the country designed it to fill?

2 hours ago, not bad. At least I get to see "last time I was this early" jokes while having the benefit of relishing the humor better by by being actually early. At least two hours early.

Thanks Red Effect, it's very sensible stuff. How ever you realize that all of this is "On paper" analysis. Many problems won't be seen until the equipment goes into battle in a real campaign. Break downs and repairs, fuel consumption, manufacturing flaws etc.

Hi I searched for your questions about the remote control machine gun station in the Chinese search engine. Some people said t99 does not have it because the tank was designed to counter potential conflict with Russia should there be any. There is a lot of open space and no tall buildings on the border. Therefore there is no need to put an remote machine gun station for practicality reasons. Great video!

Hello there.

Hey RedEffect. Review girls und panzer for the memes.

Your video are great!! Thank you

This is a pretty fair assessment. I've actually read a paper that states type 99A's got a hard kill system, there were also pictures to demonstrate. It's in Chinese though, I'll try looking for it if I can.

Anyone else hyped to get the ZTZ99A ingame?

Still, it’s better than the arjun

the ztz-96b actually has it's hull fitted with FY-4 ERA, they removed them only for the tank biathlon because it will make the tank lighter. And compared to ztz-96a, it's hull is slightly improved with base armor.

Type99 and its variants are not equipped with remote machine gun since they don't have urban pacify missions. Some newly models, like ZTQ15, equipped weapon station just for the urban situation (I mean Taipei).

Last time i was this early a man holding grocery bags was stopping these chinese tanks.

Red Effect: *points out problems with the PLA main battle tanks* PLA: *Sweats nervously*

Great content, keep it up

Great video. I think for 96b the reason is just simple: its price is mostly half of 99a as a massive produced MBT. You know, like T-34 or Sherman. Meanwhile the 99a does not have the remote control MG. The reason might the needs, since China does not need to engage single enemy. The strategy is to make grand attack with armored vehicles simultaneously, so the little defects on the MG become less effective.

Driver: Right or left? Commander: Wait let me check on Baidu map

Type99 uses an different type of active protection system: a two-mode active laser. Mode one seeks out enemy optics with a light ray to spot a reflection. Then upon finding it, it activates Mode two that sends a very powerful beam that burns out the optical matrix or the eyes of a person if it's a periscopic sight operated by a human. So a soft kill of sorts.

Some of the high tech improvement is just not installed on 99A or 96B. You may want to check the VT4 or other export tanks, they usually have the best and expensive high tech equipment.

Currently not many tanks equipped with remote control MG or CROW system. US army is now installing CROW on M1A2 as upgrade scheme. Leopard has no CROW system

Be great if it had a trailer to haul all the spare parts it'll need

The biggest problem of those two tanks is that they are not in War Thunder

4:26 tbf, no reasonable amount of side protection is going to protect against a 120mm or 125mm APFSDS round

As a nation who doesn't intend to get into war anytime soon, with terrain so varied only the yellow river basin and north east are possible theaters for armoured battle, they really don't need a good tank.

Remote weapon station and other equipment are too expensive to put them on every tanks. And there are no street fight missions for PLA. I believe they will mod them if necessary. China will get there.

Oh god here come the -99999999999 social credit comments

Hey Red, I like your videos but could you add subtitles. Sometimes the accent can make it hard to understand. It's only rare, but it would really help. Plus my hearing isnt that good as well.

for the APS of ZTZ99A, mmost sources claims it's an JD3 , and on wikipedia it's said it's an dazzler-like thing (so, an soft-kill)

"the crew needs to rely on maps or smartphones for navigation", did i hear that right?

-50 social credit

Some hard kill active protection systems can degrade effectiveness of incoming APFDS by inducing a slight yaw which can reduce penetration.

Like your vids, very much. Just wanted to ask : " But Red korean K2 Black Panther and Leopard 2a7+ also don't have remote operated machine guns, which for some are one of the best tanks out there today.:) Still, very satisfying video. Thanks!

Message is edited because I no longer play War Thunder

i was ready to see the chinese tanks get absolutely bashed like the arjun, however i am pleasantly surprised! Very informative video man, love it

实际上96B是一种专门为“坦克两项竞赛”所改进的坦克，这也是为什么没有继续改进的原因，大部分合成旅依然装备着96A（you can play this in warthunder） 99改进型；看上去未来会逐步换装99A；遥控武器站出现在了ZTZ15上，未来也可能装上其他现役坦克

One of the reasons why Chinese tanks don’t have CWS is that tanks don’t need it. It is a nice edition, but not necessary. For example, the Chieftain, ex Abrams TC, prefers to lock the CWS in place and fire the gun through commander override of the turret.

You forget the overlord tank...how could you lol ?

3:42 VT-4 had remote controlled weapon station .idk about the produced units

Very good interpretation👍🏻

With the drivers head poking up right by the barrel I wonder how many have been taken out accidently by the gunner turing the turret.

I had a good laugh. Too many things are incorrect. For example, Lack GPS, LMAO. Chinese military use Beidou, the Chinese Navi system. You can say almost all Chinese equipment lack GPS.

3:39 it's fucking GLUED on there..

that laser device is neither a soft nor hard kill system. it targets the aiming system of other tanks and disabled it with powerful laser beams that overloads the entire system and maybe the crew who is using it.

Finally new video

Remember that time where the wheels get pop out on the tank biathlon race

China’s tanks are good enough. They don’t need the best tank in the world and wouldn’t benefit very much from having one - due to geography and politics, any major war China engages in will be primarily naval and aerial. Tanks cannot swim or fly, meaning the Abrams is unlikely to ever see combat with a type 99.

Hi @RedEffect I'm curious if there is any serious upgrade that allows old T-55 / T-62, using old 100 / 115mm guns, but modern ammunition and fire control systems to go through modern armor without using missiles, you have read something about it somewhere ?

The gun is better for home defense as the gun would allow them to pick off tanks at distance while being behind cover or in the ground. Since the tank is so cheap the turret can be removed and placed in the ground as stationary gun and bc of the low profile of the turret it would be very hard to spot with the naked eye.

Hello RedEffect, another interesting video on Chinese tanks and a good followup to your first, which I left a comment on regarding some issues. Some thoughts on this video: 1. Why have you again focused on the Type 69B as one of the two primary tanks China operates? As I commented in your last video, Type 96B has not been serially produced and is not equipped with the PLA. An interview from 2018 confirming that the total short-run production of 96B was 5 units: www.jiffyse.com/shishicanyue/20181128/1105.html?fbclid=IwAR2eFWE5-9PYMPauATMybovkH0EQWhU2uCEuhFzeHbJnK2l37BP0ECDxCyU I understand you want to look at the most modern variants of these tanks that serve the PLA, but the 96B does not fit this category. You are a stickler for small details, so I don't know why this has passed over your head. Only Type 15 light tank and Type 99A are currently in production - why is the 15 absent from this video? 2. 1:32 "the tank also lacks digital display with GPS" - I refer you to this article which highlights the push for digitisation of Chinese tanks in service: kknews.cc/military/3m2q6na.html In the article you can see commander's multi-functional digital display fitted to many tanks, including the Type 96A tank (the actual most modern Type 96 variant in PLA service). 3. 2:18 - Hey thats not a Type 96B, thats an export derivative VT-2B! Its a little ironic you've included that since... 4. 2:37 "the tank also lacks remotely operated HMG" - but the VT-2B in the previous clip did! :D Anyway, a minor detail point but the 96B developers have fitted a remote HMG to a test vehicle, perhaps to trial the efficacy of its fitting to Type 96A: imgur.com/a/RCNkN0V I've heard nothing further about this proposed fit since 2018 so I assume the PLA weren't interested. Type 15 Light Tank has an RWS though, I believe. 5. 4:30 - regarding the Type 99A's APS, it is an improved version of the APS of the Type 99 - that is to say it is a soft-kill laser based system which detects when the tank is painted by a laser, locates the origin of that laser transmission and fires a laser shot of its own. This is designed to damage or disrupt the device providing targetting information for an ATGM, not to kill the ATGM itself. 6. 4:37 - While not the most detailed pictures in the world, there are images of the uncovered APS out there. Here's one: imgur.com/a/O0ZxEL3 Note that several pics out there (including some in your video) have a clear label on the APS, warning that the system contains a high-powered laser. While one might argue the system can contain a soft-kill laser and hard-kill elements, a look at the available pictures suggests this isn't the case. While China does have the technology of hard-kill systems (like GL5), to date no hard kill APS has been put into service on PLA tanks. Personally I think you missed the two biggest issues with Chinese MBTs: The first is that China has practically no strategic reserve of modern or semi-modern MBTs to call upon in the event their best tanks are used up. They have about 1000 or so Type 99 of all models, and about 2100 or so Type 96 of all models. Were this to run out in a major conflict they'd be down to a few hundred Type 88, 79 and 59D tanks of relative modernity. After that they're down to a ridiculous quantity of shit-tier un-upgraded Type 59s. The Yanks and Russians both have thousands of third-generation MBTs in storage, while China has no such stockpile. The second is that there is no evidence to suggest that Chinese MBTs have integrated blow-out panels and advanced protection for ammunition stored in the tank outside of their carousel autoloaders. You highlighted this as a key improvement for the T-90M, why is the lack of this feature not a problem for Chinese tanks? Also, your sources are kinda terrible. That one from Ausairpower was last updated in 2012... it literally predates the public unveiling of both the 99A and the 96B.

Conclusion: We know nothing

may be off topic, but ppl. often forget what is armor about. its there to eliminate threats, if u have a vehicle that is "just" protected against small arms and shrapnels. that protects u allready against ~80% of the threats u encounter on the battlefield.

I always thought that the problem was there was no originality as most of them were foreign models but modified and under a different name

ZTZ 96B new T 54 in production numbers?

Hi Red, a couple of points and opinion and please keep up the good work, and it would be good if you could select HD footage instead, since many are available on youtube. 1. the chinese are too cheap to install remote machine gun stations on their tanks, the export version of type 96a/b (VT2, as seen in the video) and VT4 both have remote machine gun station as an option. The VT4 Thailand purchased come with remote machine gun station and AC (which again the Chinese are too cheap to put in their own tanks) 2. the thing on top of the type 99A should be soft kill active protection, you can actually see from this video of the parade they throw last year, the cover is open ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7395qcF2MGA.html 3. it appears that no chinese tanks in service is equipped with hard kill active protection, I only know there is a hard kill system call the GL5 and it is again an option to add for export customers, I think they are too cheap to add those on their tanks again 4. same logic apply to the completely unprotected sides, they are just too cheap, but by looking at the export version of VT5 light tank, they do have option to add heavy ERA side skirt for the tanks. I do think being cheap to their tanks is justified, since most of the budget went to the navy and air force and the probably of a massive land battle within China is not very high, not to mention some units are actually still rolling with type 88 tank from like the 80s. But I would love to see the type 99A with active protection and remote machine gun station and enhanced side armor, even in test would be nice to see.

The Chinese APS is a soft kill dazzler system. Rumor has it it has the capability to target attack helicopters as well. There is a hard kill APS being developed. It seems to work the same way as Trophy. The export VT-4 tank does have a remote machine gun due to customer requirement. The Chinese army itself has never requested it.

i think why they didnt add it on the amor is that this tank is most used with troops and if that explode it probably will explode the people outside of the tank

Love you from India ❤️♥️♥️ Carry on making knowledgeable content

War Thunder- "almost fun"

Type 99 , look at the shot trap between the turret and the hull . A kinetic energy round would pop the top right off

Interesting Thank you

My personal guess: This is related to the operational requirements of PLA. 99A is designed as a large-scale field cluster operation. It is mainly deployed in the northern plains (99A is too heavy, and the southern hills and mountains are not suitable for deployment of 99A, so 96A / B, 15 / VT -5, 59). The performance of the tank mainly depends on its firepower, maneuverability, protection, and informatization, so 99A mainly strengthens armor, maneuverability, barrel, ammunition, and informatization, including laser blinding system. Automatic machine guns and GL-5 are more suitable for urban operations. Field operations have little effect. In the next few decades, it is unlikely that external forces will invade Chinese cities or China will transport their tanks to cities in other countries to fight, so let PLA spend money. Large-scale replacement of modules with little effect on tank performance is completely unnecessary. On the contrary, VT-4 and VT-5 are foreign trade tanks like the Russian T-90, so they can be equipped with automatic machine guns and GL-5 functions according to customer needs.

In one of the Russian Tank Biathlons the road wheel came off X,D

I heard the new Abrams tank ver 2021 can submerge into the sea and submarine itself near a ship to then rocket propel itself onto the deck. Quickly greeted by the Road Runner of course.😀

Remote fire machine guns. Only an 80 year old concept. Hell, Guderian, Rommel, Monty, and Patton, and everyone they knew wanted that in '43.