(The size of the second-generation MBT force fell from 800 to 500 over the last five years.)
“The reorganization of PLA maneuver units into combined-arms brigades in 2017 may result in these second-generation designs being removed from service altogether as the overall size of the PLA’s tank fleet shrinks again,” according to IISS. Ongoing military reforms, especially the new emphasis on smaller and more agile units will likely impact the long-term future of second-generation MBTs currently in service.
#BRITTISH TANK FORCE TODAY FULL#
(ZTZ-79 MBTs were largely exported.)Įnjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. However, “early indigenous Chinese tank designs, such as the ZTZ-79 and ZTZ-88, had limited production runs and are now only in the inventory of a small number of units in northern and western China,” IISS states.
Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. Both second-generation MBTs were indigenously designed and developed combining a Soviet-style chassis and turret with Western technology including local copies of the U.K.’s Royal Ordnance 7 rifled tank gun. The 500 second-generation MBTs currently in service are the ZTZ-79 (some analysts consider the ZTZ-79 a first-generation MBT) and ZTZ-88/ZTZ-88B, with the former in production until the end of the 1980s and the latter throughout the 1990s. “The original ZTZ-59 remains in service with a significant proportion of the PLA, despite being effectively obsolete, even in its upgraded forms,” IISS notes. The PLA still operates 2,850 ZTZ-59, ZTZ-59-II, ZTZ-59D, license-built variants of the obsolete Soviet T-54 MBT, with the latest version of the tank undergoing upgrades in the 1980s. In comparison, in 1997 the force consisted of 6,200 first-generation and 1,600 second-generation MBTs. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) currently fields the world’s largest active service main battle tank (MBT) force, according to an analysis published in the newly released Military Balance 2018 report, produced by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).Īs of 2017, the PLA’s operational tank fleet is composed of roughly 3,390 third-generation, 400 second-generation, and 2,850 first-generation MBTs.
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