Posted on 08/16/2007 3:48:02 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Ping!
First impression - A solar powered tank! Cool!
That’s funny, that’s exactly what came to mind when I first saw the picture...
The gun barrel looks like bamboo...
Is that a special Chinese touch?
“China: 3rd Generation Main Battle Tank”
The “Thank You, Bill Crinton, model?”
Looks like a T 80 with reactive armor glued on all over.
Reverse engineered T-80.
It gives me a good feeling blaming clinton for everything, but that doesn't change the fact that no matter how rotten the man was the level of rot present in the echelons of Government and industry do not start and stop at him. For that fact there are many things that our current president does (e.g. the whole illegal amnesty nonsense) that had Clinton done would have caused a huge commotion. The flow of sensitive information to China is going on now as strongly as it was under Clinton. This is not a person-specific problem but much deeper than that. It occurs when people are more apt to delve into ways of getting extra money/influence even when it means putting the national security of their country at risk. That is far more than a Clinton issue, no matter how good it feels blaming Clinton for anything China comes up with. Chinese money affects all greedy politicians alike.
Anyways, on the tank. To me it looks like a T-72 that has an @$$-load of ERA (explosive-reactive armor) packs all over. I would have to be a member of the Chinese infantry when an RPG hit that tank! There would be all sorts of stuff flying in the air.
Bottom line ....that tank is not even close to being a match for our Abrams (or any of the leading Western tanks).
If anyone ever figures out how to do “double-tap” anti-tank rounds or Sabots, reactive armor is going to become obsolete real quick.
have to be = hate to be
Like this.
I know this is a Hellfire, but the concept can be reduced to 120mm MBT rounds.
What you see is heat shielding to keep a hot gun tube from interfering with thermal sights in the mantlet or commander’s position. It unbuckles from the tube in sections for maintainence, giving it that segmented, “bamboo” look. The larger section in the middle is a bore evacuator, a mechanism for keeping hot gases and propellant residue from being vented into the turret when the breach is opened to load another round. The heavy mg on top is prolly a Chinese copy of a Degtaryev.
More importantly, the wrap ensures that the barrel gets heated evenly when the gun is fired. Long gun barrels get very hot, soft and droop (inhibiting accuracy) after being fired a couple of times.
Thank you, I did not know that. I trained as a tanker, but served as a scout, the only thermal sights I used were on a TOW launcher,an M901 ITV, bumper number CS 73, an ungainly beast, but mine!
Looks like a glorified T-80 with reactive armor.
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