Looking for Info. on Chinese military capabilities

5/31/02 | K. Jones

[vannrox]

JANE'S DEFENSE PUBLICATIONS

[JasonC]

China certainly does not have T-90s. India bought 124 of them from Russia (only about 4% of their force), and has a deal to build 186 more in India under license. But the second portion of that will take years. They bought them to counter a Pakistani purchase of 300 T-80s from Ukraine. The bulk of the Indian tank fleet are T-72s or earlier.

[JasonC]

A Chinese T-80 is not the same thing as a Russian T-80. Both of them name tanks for the model year they first come out. But the Chinese are well behind the Russians. A T-59 is a Chinese T-54. A T-63 is a Chinese T-55. A T-69 is a Chinese T-62. The T-80 and T-85 are Chinese T-72s, two different models. The latest Chinese tanks are about equivalent to Russian or Ukrainian T-80s. No Chinese built tank matches the capabilities of the Russian T-90 yet.

[cgk]

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm no expert on tanks... I saw the countries listed including China for the T-80 and assumed they were all the same kind of tank. Would you happen to know of a better place to get more correct or pertinent information on this topic?

Mrs Kus

[JasonC]

Might start here -

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/index.html

In particular, compare -

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/t80tank.htm - Russian T-80, 46 tons with 125mm smoothbore

to -

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/type-80.htm - Chinese Type 80, 36 tons, originally armed with 105mm

I hope this helps.

[Slingshot]

So sorry, The title is 'Unrestricted Warfare'.

Place that in google and you will find it.