The military industry of the People’s Republic of China continues to improve the main battle tank Type 96B. This car is well known for those who closely follow the “Tank biathlon” passing in the Alabino near Moscow.
For the first time in Russia, Type 96 of the modification “A
” arrived in 2014. True, it turned out that the power of an eight-horsepower engine is not enough to compete on an equal footing with the modernized Russian T-72B3 tanks.
Therefore, was initially decided to compensate the lag using the modified lightweight chassis. Then, in the battle for the title of the champion was thrown a thoroughly revised version, which is received the designation Type 96B, which, according to some sources, received an engine capacity of 1200 hp, which allowed the tank to accelerate to 70 km / h.
Judging by the available information, this armored car is currently not only entering the troops, but continues to improve. So, on the recently appeared Chinese images in the web, the first modified version of Type 96B was presented. The first thing that caught the eye of the military experts: on the tank the remotely controlled anti-aircraft installation with a 12.7-mm W85 machine gun was installed on the roof of the tower.
This innovation will significantly increase the safety of the commander of the car. He does not have to be substituted for bullets and fragments during the shooting from the machine gun.
The increased size of the scope also indicates that improvements have also been made here.
The driver-mechanic received a video camera mounted on the upper frontal part of the body. Rollers of the carrier are also reinforced as well as caterpillar belts.
Some of the experts have already managed to call this tank a competitor to T-90M. In fact, despite significant changes, the Type 96B is still inferior to the “Uralvagonzavod” car, first of all, in the characteristics of protection and firepower. The design features of the Chinese machine do not allow to achieve the characteristics of the “ninetiest” in principle – the reserves for improvement are exhausted. What can not be said about Russian technology, which still has a significant modernization potential.
Source:
https://vpk.name/news/208906_tip_96b_kitai_prodolzhaet_sovershenstvovat_konkurenta_t90m.html
