Interested in PLA armor developments in particular and their army in general? Then take the time to check out the PLA Photo Bot on Twitter.
Here's the deal though. Like the name says (and for some reason Asian websites dedicated to pics of a particular subject are more popular than they are here in the States) its primarily a photo site, but it does give a bit of info on the vehicles/aircraft/ships covered.
Sidenote 1. The above render is of the ZBD-04. Its being touted as the most powerful IFV in Chinese service and it appears that the Chinese EFV was simply a failed interim model. More to come on this vehicle. It seems that the other IFVs we've seen are aimed at the export market only.
Sidenote 2. Working on the translation problem and I remembered advise given before that I ignored at the time but turns out to be the answer. Google translate handles Mandarin quite well but struggles with Japanese and Korean. Babel Fish does it all with few problems. Check them out to save yourself the frustration that I've been running into.
Good post. Keep it coming. It looks amphibious; it is probably cheap, so maybe the Marines can buy it and not wait 10 years for the next development?
ReplyDeleteouch. but i am putting up a post on saturday comparing the armor between a fictional matchup between a Chinese army and USMC mechanized force. suffice it to say that on paper it don't look good.
DeleteSolomon's fulbore Saturday.....or FUBAR Saturday.
Deletewe should probably go with FUBAR!
DeleteHmmnnn... Neat cammo pattern.
ReplyDeleteYup, I wonder what this pattern is called ? The silhouette of this thing is amazing. The low/subdued turret gives it that typical boxy APC type look from afar which in the heat of the moment or in a quick glance will cause people to ignore the cannon on top thinking it to have limited or not Anti-Vehicle or High Explosive capability at first glance till it starts firing. If you were a vietnamese infantryman with a binocular and limited access to other advanced vision devices and if it were dusk/night time.....you can make that error.
DeleteThat seems to be the older model. Should check the photos of the ZBD04A, The seem to have upgraded the armor and streamlined the whole thing
ReplyDeletehttp://china-defense.blogspot.com/2014/11/zhuhai-surprise-zbd04awz502g-export.html
The Export version could pass for a EFV.
i've link to that blog often and have asked my readers to subscribe to it...so yeah. i saw that. but you're missing the point and confusing your nomenclature. the upgraded model of the ZBD-04 is the ZBD-08. being that they're so similar i use the original designation. additionally the export version that you linked to is quite a bit smaller than the EFV.
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DeleteFrom the 1st picture in the link sent by Leon, you can see from the positioning of the drivers hatch and the sight port behind him that the seating pattern on this vehicle is identical to the BMP-2. Havnt seen the BMP-3 from the inside so cant say about its seating pattern.
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