The appearance of the new Russian main tank, the T-14, based on the unified Armata platform, made a splash. This machine has become the subject of a lot of discussions, including in domestic and foreign media. Not so long ago, thanks to the German press, we were surprised - and the employees of Uralvagonzavod, apparently with great surprise - learned that the Armata project was based on some German developments thirty years ago. Now the list of strange publications about the T-14 tank has been replenished with an article from the Chinese edition China's Daily.
Chinese opinion
On June 5, an article “Tank maker seeks to increase exports on land armaments” appeared on the website of the Chinese edition. Under this heading, which did not attract much attention, there was an interesting article about the latest actions and statements of the Chinese corporation Norinco, which produces various weapons and military equipment, including tanks. The China’s Daily edition told about new projects of the corporation, as well as about the latest interesting statements of its press service.
Norinco Corporation intends to use the newest and most popular technologies to promote its products. Ads for weapons and equipment produced by the corporation should now appear on the popular WeChat smartphone app. This application is designed for instant messaging and has an audience of about 500 million people. Recently, many enterprises in the Chinese defense industry have started to advertise on WeChat and thus promote their products in the international market.
Tank T-14 "Armata". Photo Ru.wikipedia.org, Vitaly V. Kuzmin
In addition to regular advertising, the application contains various articles with full information on any topic. Usually, WeChat publishes materials that, for various reasons, cannot be posted on the official website of the corporation. One of the recent publications of Norinco Corporation in the WeChat application was devoted to the latest Russian and Chinese developments. The only tank manufacturer in China decided to study the situation with the latest projects of the two countries.
The authors of the publication remind that Western countries have curtailed the production of tanks for a long time. Because of this, new armored vehicles of this class are being built only in Russia and in China. Thus, if any third country wishes to purchase a new tank, then it will not have much choice. She will have to choose between the Russian and Chinese proposals.
Currently, the Russian industry has only one export tank project - the T-90S. China, in turn, offers foreign customers three armored vehicles at once. The client can order relatively cheap VT-2 tanks, VT-1 "middle class" vehicles or the most expensive and advanced VT-4. Thus, as noted by representatives of Norinco, the customer can receive the equipment that best meets his requirements.
China is currently Russia's main competitor in the production of tanks for export. The main competition is for orders from developing countries that want to upgrade their armored forces. At the same time, the tank market is extremely limited, and the volume of new orders is constantly decreasing. Citing the Moscow-based World Arms Trade Analysis Center, the Norinco authors argue that there is a significant decline in demand for tanks in 2014-17 compared to the previous four-year period. As a result, the market competition should be expected to intensify.
According to Chinese experts, the main Russian export tank T-90S, which belongs to the third post-war generation, is quite capable of competing with the Chinese VT-1. At the same time, according to representatives of Norinco, the latest Russian development of the T-90AM does not have significant improvements that can give an advantage over Chinese tanks. As a result, as stated in the article of the Chinese corporation, seeing the advantages of the VT-4 tank, the Russian manufacturer will be forced to offer foreign customers the latest T-14 vehicle.
The debut of the new Russian T-14 Armata tank took place on May 9 at the Victory Parade. According to Russian media reports, Norinco reminds that this vehicle is the first fourth-generation tank. In addition, in a number of characteristics, it surpasses all existing foreign developments. After the start of full-fledged operation, this tank will become the most powerful combat vehicle in the world.
Tank VT-4 (MBT-3000)
However, Norinco Corporation specialists are not inclined to agree with the Russian statements. Moreover, they have a diametrically opposite opinion. The corporation's article published on WeChat claims that the T-14 is inferior to the Chinese VT-4 in a number of ways. Chinese tank builders saw a lag in automation, mobility and fire control systems. In addition, the Chinese tank has a cost advantage.
Recalling the incident at the rehearsal of the parade on Red Square, Norinco experts claim that there are problems with the transmission of the new Russian tank. The Chinese machine VT-4, it is said, has never encountered such problems. In addition, the authors of the article argue that Chinese-made fire control systems have characteristics at the level of world leaders, and similar Russian equipment is inferior to them.
In addition, Norinco representatives touched upon the cost of combat vehicles. According to them, the price of the Russian T-14 tank should not differ significantly from the American M1A2 Abrams. In this case, Chinese armored vehicles have serious advantages, since they are characterized by high performance and low price.
Norinco's WeChat article appears to be an advertisement for Chinese armored vehicles and an attempt to belittle a potential competitor. The second half of the material fully confirms this. The further description of the VT-4 looks like an advertisement and can hardly be considered a fair and unbiased assessment of the capabilities of this machine.
According to the manufacturer, the VT-4 tank has a modern fire control system, the latest active protection, and is also equipped with a new automatic transmission. In addition, the tank's electronic equipment includes equipment for communication with other vehicles and command. Such equipment allows a tank unit to exchange information about the state of the battlefield and the location of targets in real time.
The chief designer of the VT-4 tank, Feng Yibai, notes that the vehicle is equipped with a 1200 hp diesel engine. with an electronic control system. This power plant provides the tank with a maximum speed of 68 km / h. The "main caliber" of the armored vehicle is a 125-mm smooth-bore gun. The ammunition load includes both armor-piercing sub-caliber feathered projectiles and high-explosive fragmentation ammunition. It also provides for the possibility of firing guided missiles with a range of up to 5 km.
Feng Yibai separately notes the characteristics of the protection of the tank, developed under his leadership. Despite the high level of protection, the tank's combat weight is 52 tons. It is argued that foreign vehicles with similar protection characteristics weigh about 60 tons. This feature ultimately increases the mobility of the Chinese tank in comparison with foreign competitors.
Norinco's senior research and development manager Liu Song believes the VT-4 can compete with all modern foreign tanks, including the American M1A2 Abrams and the German Leopard 2A6. In August last year, a demonstration of the VT-4 tank took place in Inner Mongolia, which was attended by representatives of 44 foreign countries. According to Liu Song, some foreign officials have shown interest in the new Chinese development and have expressed their willingness to begin negotiations on possible purchases. Details of these events and negotiations were not disclosed. Nevertheless, it became known from the chief designer of the project that the VT-4 tank will be tested by the Pakistani military.
Chinese experts tend to appreciate the export potential of VT-4 tanks. Thus, military expert Shi Yan, who is quoted in Norinco, believes that the new Chinese tanks may be of interest to many countries in the Middle East. Chinese VT-1 vehicles are already in service with many Asian countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and China intends to increase the number of overseas customers.
In addition, China is developing a new generation light tank. This machine is reportedly intended for use in mountainous conditions. In particular, the new light tank will receive a hydropneumatic suspension designed to work in difficult conditions.
China sold 461 tanks to foreign customers from 1992 to 2013, according to the UN Register of Conventional Arms. 296 cars were bought by Pakistan. During the same period, Russian enterprises delivered 1,297 tanks to their customers. The USA and Germany sold 5,511 and 2,680 tanks in 21 years, respectively.
Russian response
It is easy to see that the authors of the Chinese publication do not have much respect for the new Russian development. Moreover, in their desire to advertise their own products, they seem to be ready for various not entirely honest statements. Naturally, such an approach to promoting their developments could not fail to cause an appropriate reaction from the Russian side.
On June 9, the Internet edition "Vestnik Mordovii", known for its interest in armored vehicles, published a material under the loud title "One Russian" Armata "is equivalent to 10 Chinese MBT-3000 tanks". The author of this article, Lev Romanov, tried to parse the Chinese claims and answer them. As the title suggests, the Russian journalist more than disagrees with the Chinese experts.
L. Romanov began his article with a reminder of foreign publications that appeared soon after the "premiere" of the newest Russian tank. Earlier, the American press wrote about certain borrowings from American projects, later similar publications appeared in the German media. However, the Chinese article seriously stands out from other foreign statements. China, which has extensive experience in copying foreign developments without the appropriate permission, has come to the assertion that the VT-4, which has a specific origin, is superior to the T-14.
Tank "Al Khalid" (MBT-2000). Photo En.wikipedia.org
Vestnik Mordovii recalled some of the features of the VT-4 project, also known as MBT-3000. This tank is a further development of the Al Khalid tank (MBT-2000) of a joint Sino-Pakistani design. The development of the basic design began in 1988, and in 1991 the first prototype of Al Khalida was put to the test. In the future, several modifications of the armored vehicle appeared, differing from each other in the types of engines used. For various reasons, it took about 10 years to deploy the serial production of tanks.
After Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests, Western countries imposed sanctions against this state. Among other things, the sanctions made it impossible to use American and European-made engines. As a result, the Al Khalid tanks received Ukrainian engines of the 6TD-2 type. Such motors were considered optimal in terms of cost-performance ratio.
The Russian edition notes that when creating the Al Khalid tank, components and assemblies borrowed from Soviet armored vehicles were widely used. So, the T-72M tank, which China got through ties with third countries, "shared" some elements of the chassis, a 125-mm smooth-bore cannon and an automatic loader for it.
Also "Vestnik Mordovii" recalled the comparative tests of Russian and Chinese tanks. Several years ago, Saudi Arabia decided to test the T-90S and Al Khalid tanks. The Russian armored vehicle successfully covered the entire distance at the tankport, and the MBT-2000 faced numerous problems. For these reasons, the Chinese tank was withdrawn from trials, and the Russian T-90S was declared the winner.
It should be noted that in the future, "Al Khalid" underwent modernization. In 2012, an updated version of this tank called MBT-3000 was demonstrated. L. Romanov notes that a noticeable influence of the Russian T-90SM tank was felt in this vehicle. During the modernization, the Chinese tank received new dynamic protection, as well as an updated power plant. Instead of the Ukrainian engine, it was decided to use a domestic 1200 hp engine. Nevertheless, such a replacement had some negative features: the resource of Chinese engines still leaves much to be desired.
New equipment appeared at the driver's workplace. Now all the necessary information was displayed on an electronic display, and it was proposed to control the machine using the steering wheel, which replaced the traditional levers. Nevertheless, as experts noted, the design of the new governing bodies turned out to be undeveloped. In some situations, the steering wheel not only interfered with the control of the tank, but also posed a danger to the driver.
In the published photographs of the fighting compartment of the MBT-3000 tank, specialists and the interested public were able to see some interesting features of this vehicle. At first, attention was drawn to color displays for displaying various information. However, in the same photographs, it was noticeable that at least some parts of the newest Chinese tank were covered with rust. This problem hit the reputation of the MBT-3000 noticeably.
The infamous photo of a rusty tank.
As a result, it turns out that a Chinese-designed armored vehicle with a number of characteristic - and not very good - features is being compared with the newest Russian T-14 tank. Meanwhile, unnamed experts, referred to by the journalist of Vestnik Mordovii, believe that a tank based on the Armata platform has serious advantages over Chinese vehicles. According to their calculations, one T-14 on the battlefield can destroy up to a company of MBT-3000 tanks. This is facilitated by the latest weapon with a record speed of sub-caliber shells and a perfect fire control system based on domestic components.
In addition, L. Romanov notes the use of a new complex of active protection, which significantly increases the survivability of the tank. As a result, the T-14 "Armata" vehicle is protected from the weapons of the most modern enemy tanks, which are superior in their characteristics to the Chinese MBT-3000.
Who is right?
According to various sources, the T-14 tank based on the Armata platform is currently being tested. In addition, various systems are being fine-tuned and preparations for serial production of such equipment are underway. Over the next few years, the first production tanks of the new model will be transferred to the armed forces. Overall, the current progress of the project can be cause for optimism. Nevertheless, there are also moments that are not entirely pleasant for the public.
At the moment, most of the information about the "Armata" project is still hidden under the seal of secrecy. It is unlikely that most of the information about the T-14 tank will become public knowledge over the next few years. For this reason, for now, one will have to rely only on the available fragmentary information, various assessments, etc. All this does not yet allow to form a full-fledged opinion about the newest Russian tank, and also seriously complicates its comparison with other armored vehicles.
As a result, it can be assumed that the Chinese specialists rushed to compare the two tanks and, as a result, came to the wrong conclusion. However, this version does not fully correspond to reality. The fact is that the Norinco publication is more like an advertisement than an attempt at objective comparison. The various nuances of this article can serve as an excellent confirmation of this assumption.
As for the publication of Vestnik Mordovia, it can be considered a worthy response to the claims of Chinese specialists, which are actually based on just one incident with an unplanned stop of the T-14 tank. In the article from Norinco there is only one fact that can cast a shadow on the "Armata". L. Romanov, in turn, gave several examples at once, talking about the problems of the VT-4 / MBT-3000 tank. Such features of the two articles, perhaps, look ambiguous, but they perfectly reveal the theme of praising one's own technique and belittling foreign ones.
As you know, advertising is the engine of trade. However, Norinco's recent WeChat promotional material is hardly a worthy piece of content to promote its products. This fact, as well as the peculiarities of the technology of different countries, suggest that in the future the situation on the international tank market will hardly change. The likelihood of an increase in China's share is still less than the Chinese enterprises would like.
