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This  is the first of hopefully many more newsletters on the PLA and if you have any requests please pass them on.

Armour in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War

In the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War the following Chinese AFVs were employed - the Model 59 main battle tank, the Model 62 light tank, the Model 63 amphibious tank and the Model 63 armoured personnel carrier. The Model 62 were at the vanguard of the first PLA units to cross into Vietnam and were used for infantry support.

Chinese VISMOD AFV

The PLA have used the Model 62 light tank as a visually modified vehicle for blue force opposing forces (OPFOR) use. This vehicle’s gun a ‘T’ shaped muzzle brake similar to the one used on the 90mm gun of the M48 main battle tank. It also had a circular infra- red searchlight mounted on the top and a fume extractor mounted 1/3rd up the barrel. The mantlet was also squared off to represent the M48.

WZ131-1 Light Tank

In 1967 the PLA decided the Model 62 (WZ131) light tank needed updating as the 85mm gun was starting to show its age. The improved tank was designated the WZ131-1 and the project had a long history resulting in various upgrades that eventually led no where.

One upgrade was the addition of skirts over the tracks and bar armour around the rear arc and sides of the turret to detonate HEAT rounds before hitting the turret. In Chinese they translated as ‘improved screen added outfit cannon tower bars’. They do however give a great place for tank hunting teams to throw and hang explosive charges where they will sit against the sides of the turret.

A laser rangefinder was added to the top of the mantle to improve accuracy and at the same time, to improve the survivability of the commander in close battle, a 12.7mm machine gun turret from the Model 63 APC was to the commander’s cupola. Very similar in shape to the 12.7mm machine gun turret used on the M-113 ACAV, this copied the US Army in the Vietnam War where crews often added the ACAV turret to various AFVs. This increased their firepower in the event of close in attacks by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces by increasing the survivability of the gunner. This was the reason behind the adding of the Model 63 machine gun turret to the Model 62. In the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War the Model 62 suffered from severely from RPG hits due to the close in nature of the terrain. It was not introduced into service as it added 479mm to the profile of the tank and the experience of the Israeli Army in the 1973 Yom Kippur war where tank commanders were decapitated when the machine gun turrets atop their M48 and M60s were shot off in combat.

The Model 62 light tanks in PLA service have been modified with a bank of four smoke grenades launchers in armoured mounts added to both sides of the turret. The WZ131-1 had a combat weight of 19.86t, four crew and had an overall length with the barrel forward of 8.016m, a width of 2.994m with its side skirts and a height of 2.742m to the top of the machine gun turret and 2.263m without the turret. Its 316 kW diesel engine gave it a maximum speed of 60 km/hr and a maximum range of between 400 and 450km. Improved ammunition storage gave it 62 rounds of 85mm ammunition onboard compared to 46 on the Model 62. This could have been incorporated in the Model 62 during refits and maintenance. Compared to the Model 62 3,000 rounds of 7.62 mm machine gun ammunition was carried compared to the Model 62 and 825 rounds of 12.7mm machine gun rounds compared to 300.3das to the top of the metres long with the barrel including the barrel , by 2.994 inc85m wide by 2.35m high

The United States no longer has a light tank, not replacing the M551 Sheridan and Taiwan has updated the M41 as far as it can conceivably go. According to a Chinese article, Taiwan will start replacing the M41D from 2007 with an 8 x 8 wheeled light armoured vehicle mounting a 105mm gun. This may be a case of Chinese mirror imaging, foreshadowing the replacement of the Model 62 with the Chinese eight-wheeled 105mm gun armed wheeled tank destroyer.

The United States Army has had a difficult time trying to provide a light tank/wheeled armoured gun system for its personnel after the retirement of the M551 Sheridan after the 1991 Gulf War. The programme to make a light tank/armoured gun system (AGS) for the US Army started in 1980 and the M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System has yet to come into service. The M8 Armoured Gun System was developed – a light tank with a 105mm low-recoil gun but it showed how difficult it is to balance firepower, mobility and survivability on the modern battlefield. The PLA tried to find a replacement for the Model 62 light tank during the Cultural Revolution with the ill-starred WZ 132 light tank.

The history of the WZ132 saga can be broken into three parts or phases; phase 1 from 1967 to 1969’ Phase 2 from 1970 – 1972 and Phase 3 from 1973 – 1975. If better is the enemy of good, this project exemplifies it. It went from a simple project competing with the upgraded Model 62 (WZ131-1) to almost an entirely new design. The first design used solid road wheels similar to those on the Model 63 amphibious tank and had a long barrelled 76.2 mm gun with a pepper box muzzle brake, making it look similar to Taiwan’s Type 64 light tank, itself a copy of the US M41 Walker Bulldog light tank. The next version of the WZ132 used the standard 85mm gun.

The capture of the then new Soviet T-62 main battle tank during the Zhen Bao Dao/Damiansky Island Incident gave Chinese armour designers access to the latest Soviet technology including the 115mm UTS-5 smoothbore gun and its APFSDS ammunition. To enable the vehicle to engage modern Western main battle tanks (MBTs) equipped with the 105mm gun, a 100mm smoothbore gun was installed in 1970 with the gun also being tried on the Model 59 MBT.

The diesel motor incorporated a supercharger, using compressed are, to give the tank a speed boost in combat. The WZ132’s 405 kilowatt diesel engine gave it an impressive power to weight ratio of 18 kilowatts per tonne and could climb 45 degree slope. Its maximum range was 500km and unlike the Model 62 it was amphibious, being able to travel a maximum of 6.84 km/hr in the water. The WZ132 design was finalised in 1973 but languished until its cancellation in 1975. It was decided to upgrade the Model 62 instead and resources, likely due to the dismal combat performance of light armoured combat vehicles like the BMP-1, or lack of it, during the Yom Kippur War. Light tanks could not compete on the modern battlefield and resources were needed for other projects rather than another light tank.

The final version of the WZ132 had a combat weight of 22.5 t, and had a hull length of 6.049m and an overall length with the gun forward of 8.528m. It was 2.92 m wide, 2.121 m high at the cupola and besides the 100mm gun, was equipped with a 12.7mm machine gun on the turret roof and two 7.62mm machine guns in the turret. It could carry 41 rounds of 100mm, 500 rounds of 12.7mm and 2,400 rounds of 7.62mm machine gun ammunition.

The Russian Book Red Dragon: Military Technology and Armaments of China: Volume 1 – Tanks, on page 94’ talks of 100 Model 62 light tanks being exported to North Korea armed with a copy of the U-5TS 115mm smoothbore gun used on the on the U- Russian T-62 main battle tank.. If correct then the Model 62 would have incorporated technology from the WZ132 programme and the turret could be the one from the WZ132.

WZ 111 Heavy Battle Tank

In 1960 China decided to develop a light, medium and heavy tank similar to the US program of 1951. The Model 62 was to be upgraded or replaced, the medium tank was to be an upgraded Model 59 and the heavy tank was to be a copy of the Soviet T-10 and known as the WZ111. Only the

Model 69, the upgraded Model 59, entered service.

The T-10 had some major problems including a cramped turret and a flimsy hull, inherited from the IS-3, made worse by the hull now having a stamped belly plate in a shallow V shape, an even larger and heavier turret, and thus even more heavily stressed engine.

The project was cancelled in 1964 after a running chassis had been built equipped with a rudimentary steel box where the turret would go.

PLZ45 155mm Self-Propelled Gun (SPG) System

The PLZ45 system has been in use since the late 1990s when Kuwait bought a battalion and in 2001 a second. For those with access to Jane’s Armour and Artillery some of this is old hat but this article gives the structure of the way the PLA foreshadows the organisation and equipment of the PLZ45 artillery battalion in the PLA’s new armoured corps structure.

Best described as Chinese M109A6 Paladin, the PLZ45 is the latest SPG in PLA service. In a PLZ45 SPG there are three eight-gun batteries (companies) with each SPG supported by a GCL45 ammunition supply vehicle, a copy of the United States Army’s M992 Field Artillery Ammunition Supply Vehicle (FAASV), using the same chassis as the PLZ45.

The PLZ 45 has a chassis length of 6.66m, a width of 3.23m and a height of 2.6m and has a crew of five. It can travel at speeds up to 55 km/hr a maximum distance of and is powered by a 412Kp diesel engine. It has a combat weight of 32t. The GCL45 has a three crew, a combat weight of 33 t and can carry 90 155mm rounds and charges. It can feed the 6 to 8 rounds per minute into the PLZ45 and has a maximum speed of 55 km/hr and a maximum range of 450km. Both vehicles have a cupola 12.7mm machine gun. The maximum range of the gun is quoted at 30km for normal rounds, 39km for base bleed rounds and 50km for rocket assisted rounds.

The company headquarters each have two ZCY45 C3 vehicles based on the YW534H APC. The vehicle has a crew of four and has an enlarged and heightened rear superstructure with two C3 terminals. The vehicle has a combat weight of 14.9 tonnes, can travel at a maximum speed of 65 km/hr and has a cupola mounted 12.7mm machine gun for self-protection.

The battalion headquarters, has nine GCL45 forward observation vehicles, one artillery locating/fire correction radar on a 6 x 6 truck chassis, a 4 x 4 truck mounted meteorological vehicle, two W653A armoured recovery and repair vehicles (ARRVs), four 4 x 4 maintenance and repair trucks and two ZCY45 C3 vehicles for the battalion HQ staff.

The GCL45 has the same enlarged rear chassis as the ZCY45 with the observation equipment mounted in a small armoured turret atop of the enlarged rear hull. The combat weight of the vehicle is 15.2t and it has a maximum speed of 65km/hr and a maximum range of 500km. There is a crew of four. As the GCL45 and ZCY45 use the same chassis as the PLA’s latest armoured ambulances which could lead to charges of targeting ambulances in combat.

Look for some of my my work on the PLA coming up (hopefully) in the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief.

Wo Pengyou Zai Jian!

This is the first and hopefullt the first of many for the Old War Dogs. PLA.On the technical side I look at shotgun ammunition, copies of the SIG-Sauer P226 and P228 pistols, a 35mm under barrel grenade launcher for the Model 95, a 40mm automatic grenade launche, the old Model 80-II main battle tank and the Model 81 armoured command vehicle.

Butchering a Classic Design – The New Police Revolver and Ammunition

The new Chinese police revolver being introduced into the Public Security Bureau is a butchered copy of the Smith and Wesson (S&W) Military and Police/Model 10 revolver. The major differences are an enclosed ejector rod, ramp front side and a rear sight, which the S&W Model 19, an improved version of the Mode1 10 incorporated. Unloaded, it weighs 700g and has an overall length of 180mm. The major difference is that Chinese engineers have added a safety catch above the cylinder release.

There two types of service ammunition identified and the best description would be 9 x 19mm rimmed and replicate the old.38 Smith and Wesson cartridge. The first is a duplex rubber round which looks the same size and shape as the old 38/200 and designed for internal security use during riots. This is 30mm long and weighs in at 12.6g.The rubber projectiles will be low velocity otherwise they would foul the rifling. The second cartridge is a copper jacketed semi-wad cutter round – the blunt nose adding to its ‘man-stopping’ ability. Both have a heavy roll crimp at the mouth of the case.

The old Smith and Wesson Model 10 in 38/200 I used to shoot in my early air force days had better ergonomics and a more powerful round than this piece of crap. The safety catch shows, that other than special units, the lack of weapons proficiency of Public Security Bureau officers.

‘Chinese’ SIG-Sauer Pistols

The Chinese have copied yet another Western design but at least make no attempt to hide it. The NORINCO NP22 is the SIG-Sauer P226 and the NP24 the P228. I am not bothering to give the details of the weapons as that gives NORINCO more credit that it deserves.

LG-1-I 35mm Underbarrel Grenade Launcher

This weapons slips over the barrel and attaches to the forward hand guard of the Model 95 assault rifle. It uses a copy of the Russian 40mm VOG25 HE grenade scaled down to 35mm which is muzzle loaded into a short rifled barrel like the Russian GP-25 underbarrel grenade launcher. It is 217mm long, 49mm wide and 95mm high and unloaded weighs 0.8kg and the rounds has a muzzle velocity and a maximum range of 400m.

Chinese 40mm Automatic Grenade Launcher

The Chinese have entered the 40mm automatic grenade market with the LG3. The weapon uses the standard 40mm grenades and weighs 39kg empty. The weapon is 1030mm long, 229mm wide and 195mm wide and is a very clean design. The tubular tripod again is a very clean design that enables the launcher an elevation of -10^o to +42^o and a radius of 180^o and the equipment is quoted being able to put a ten round burst at 2200m in an area 9 x 50m.

This round is the base of all Chinese shotgun rounds as the cartridge does not have any projectile/s in the wad. The case is 63mm long meaning the case is shortened to 2.5 inches allowing more rounds per tubular magazine. The round is used for riot control and the wad is quoted as being unable to pierce the skin four metres from the barrel. The round weighs 10g and has a report on firing of 120dB.

The Model 81 ACV is also designated the WZ 701 and is based on the Model 63 and uses the same extended hull as the WZ750 ambulance. The vehicle weighs 13 tons loaded for combat and contains seating for two crew forward of the rear and up to eight personnel in the rear. This makes for a crowded vehicle which includes a seat against the rear door and normally the personnel in the rear varies from 3 to 5. A battery fire control vehicle would have less personnel for example. The Chinese ACV version in the article was equipped with five Model A-220 short wave/FM radios, one Model 714B back pack radio and one Model 339 message machine.

The Model 80-II main battle tank was designed for export and is an improved Model 69-II. The state of the Chinese armoured industry during this period with the time it took to develop a simple upgrade. Started in as project 8503 its development was not finalised until December 1990 when M1A1(HA) Abrams and Challenger 2 main battle tanks were about to blast apart the Iraqi Army’s armoured forces especially any Chinese vehicle they encountered. They were obsolete from the moment they were ready for production but the design was further developed into the Model 59D main battle tank.

The combat weight is 38.5 tons and has a crew of four. The vehicle is 9.336m long, 3.372m wide and 2.29m high not including the 12.7mm cupola mounted machine gun. Its diesel engine is capable of 535kW and has a torque of 80 kP. The vehicle has a maximum road speed of 57km/hr and a maximum range of 500km. The 105mm main gun is a copy of the British L7/US M68 and there are 44 rounds available. The co-axial 7.62mm machine gun has 2,250 rounds available and the 12.7mm AA machine gun 500 rounds.

With the PLA moving to an all arms mechanised force and reorganising its forces to perform independent action at the operational level, training has become more sophisticated with joint operational planning required as well as training areas to allow for the PLA’s emphasis on ‘informationalised warfare’. Combined arms training requires large instrumented exercise areas and in the past few years the PLA has invested considerable resources in developing new combat ranges and training centres to develop and train its forces for modern joint operations. Based on the instrumented US United States Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the PLA hopes to create a force capable of engaging and defeating enemy forces on the periphery as well as offensive operations against Taiwan.

The NTC has from its beginning had a dedicated opposing forces unit to act as the enemy equipped with dedicated OPFOR forces and equipment to train the US Army against Soviet forces. The United States military incorporates ‘Red Teams’ into its planning and crisis-decision planning process to look at possible counters to their actions and incorporate changes before they could become a reality. Opposing forces training had three benefits: it adds realism not found it set- piece scenarios; this realism, which takes the form of changing battlefield conditions, causes commanders to use initiative to accomplish their missions; and thirdly, it exposes troops to new tactics, theoretically the tactics of a potential enemy.

The PLA adopted the idea creating its first OPFOR unit in the Nanjing Military Region (MR) in the 1980s and provided OPFOR personnel for other military regions. 84 established a large simulation centre in Beijing. The Shenyang MR has a site for tactical logistics simulation training system where two divisions can practice information warfare exercises. Generally in the PLA, OPFOR units are referred to as ‘confrontational’ (duikang xing) or ‘blue’ (lanse) forces. The Shenyang MR contains a large sized OPFOR unit to enable exercises at the ‘higher levels’, with the Nanjing MR high technology OPFOR unit is known as the ‘Black Panther Unit’ (hei bao bu dui). Like the NTC the PLA has visually modified some of their armored vehicles, the early ones including the Type 62 light tank visually modified (VISMOD) to represent the US M48 medium tank. Chinese media reports on recent exercises have shown OPFOR units honing their skills and the units they face all over China. These range from special forces attacks on high value targets to anti-invasion techniques in the recent Peace Mission 2005 exercise with Russian military forces. The latter was more for show as mechanised forces overrun airborne forces if in the area and will decimate a beach head if given the opportunity.

The PLA has created a divisional land forces training areas similar to Ford Polk using technology developed by the Nanjing Research Institute on Simulation Technique (NRIST). Called the digital directional (asset tracking) system, it utilises GPS tracking, audio-visual frequency compression and digital communication techniques, and could be used as a battle management system. This shows that the Chinese military is serious in having its forces to operate seamlessly in joint operations.

The PLA, like the late Soviet army, keeps the majority of its equipment in store for use in war, utilising earlier versions and small amounts of more recent equipment in training. Although this ensures new equipment in times of mobilisation it leads to problems of personnel not being trained on the equipment issued on mobilisation and equipment breakdowns due to poorly kept batteries, hydraulic fluids and deteriorated fan belts if not stored correctly,. This happened prior to Russian attack on Grozny invasion of Chechnya in late December 1994. The mass movement of military equipment and working the equipment up, such as bore sighting tank guns, alerts an opponent to a mobilisation.

To enable advanced joint counter-terrorist training the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Regional Anti-Terror Training School in the Midong New District in the capital, Urumqi started construction in August 2005. The first phase, planned to be completed in mid-2010 at a cost of 700 Million RMB, will be used by regional police forces to research and develop methods to defeat separatists. Covering 367 hectares it will include facilities for advanced driving training and anti-hijacking training of aircraft and trains.

The question is does the PLA forces learn from battles with OPFOR units or are they more for developing new tactics, than training units for combat. The PLA certainly evaluates foreign militaries translating their documents and foreign military journals, having a whole unit used in that role. Foreign officers are sent to study overseas as well as reports from defense attaches and visitors to military conferences, seminars and exhibitions. The mind set however may be different. Can a schooling system, that prides itself on rote learning, and not learning how to judge, challenge and think, produce a force agile enough in thinking to perform in a modern high speed war. Can the PLA produce commanders that can think inside an opponent’s decision cycle?

The PLA has been expending considerable resources to improve their command and control systems. To test the systems out the PLA recently conducted a major joint command and control exercise linking units from the centre linking units from the Beijing, Guangzhou, Shengyang and Chengdu military regions. The headquarters is being run from the Guangzhou MR headquarters ‘to work out the deployment and cooperation between the Army, Navy and Air Force when "separated by hundreds of kilometres’ in the Guangzhou region. Another article noted about this exercise that: ‘To ensure the joint training command is up to speed, various arms and services and various units are linked to each other via networks with their equipment capable of effective coordinated operation.? Based on the principle of ‘integrating military with locality and field locations with fixed locations’, they set up multiple sets of fiber-optics transmission systems and use the method of integrated platforms, integrated networks, and integrated applications to connect the major command systems in the cooperation zone, thus ensuring that commanders at all levels are able to transmit and receive telegrams, data, and images real-time at their levels of command. By using uniform interface, upgrading and designing software, and adopting uniform technical specifications, they integrated their existing equipment and information resources and built a complete set of field electronics information networks, thus realizing interconnection of different information equipment and information systems and effectively raising the quality of joint training.’

The importance of training the C2 systems in the Guangzhou MR cannot be underestimated as the headquarters responsible for the South China Sea and Taiwan. On operations it is imperative that everyone uses the same procedures and commands and the exercise showed that the different commands were not using the same standard operating procedures. Hu Jintao and the Central Military Commission have reinforced the need for standard operating procedures and called for all headquarters units to read and adopt the new regulations for operating headquarters units. This exercise exposed flaws which artificial command post exercises of the past did not. The enemy was not allowed to win and cause problems for the losing staff’s promotion prospects. Peace Mission 2005 held with the Russians last year was so stage managed that it lost any relevance for operational training except for the TU-95MS cruise missile carriers, and continuation training of airdropping procedures.

With the PLA starting to develop their own version of the 1980s Soviet Operational Manoeuvre Groups and the US Army’s mechanised and armoured divisions in Desert Strom, training in command and control and battle management systems will be intensified. The structure of the PLA’s new self-propelled gun (SPG) battalion, itself a copy of the US Army’s Paladin SPG battalion, is a portent of the increasing reliance on automated systems fire control systems linked in with signals intelligence and unmanned air vehicles. This will require more specialist training and either extending the contract time and an ever increasing reliance on volunteers, increasing the wage bill accordingly. The PLA has yet to decide how it will keep the personnel it has invested its training expenditure on in an ever increasing market driven economy wanting people with those same skills. Many Chinese appear to still believe the old adage, Haotie bu zading, haozi bu dangbing, ‘Good iron is not used to make nails, good sons should not become soldiers.

Wo Pengyoumen Zai Jian!

Contributed by Martin Andrew on July 22, 2006 at 08:33 AM in Martin Andrew | Permalink

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