State-of-the-art tank will begin its service with China's PLA in two years

A model of the MBT-3000 is displayed during Eurosatory 2012. (Internet Photo)

The MBT-3000, designed and produced by the North Industries Corporation of China will enter the service of the People's Liberation Army in two years, reports by our sister newspaper, China Times.
During Eurosatory 2012, a land and air defence and security international exhibition held in Paris, France between Jun 11 and 15, a model of the MBT-3000 main battle tanks was displayed by the North Industries with the Sky Dragon air defense system. The top speed of the MBT-3000 is 42 miles an hour with a cruising range of 500 kilometers. The maxium gradient of the MBT-3000 is 60%. The main gun can fire APFSDS, HEAT and HE shells and gun-launched missiles with a maximum missile range reaching 5,000 meters. Ammunition such as an armour-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot, a highly explosive anti-tank warhead, and highly explosive shells and missiles can be fired from the main gun.
A 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun are also built into the model. Other weapons included 8 76mm smoke grenade launchers and 4 76mm shrapnel grenade launchers. This fully digitized tank equipped with inertial navigation and GPS considered superior to its counterparts designed by the European nations, according to Jane's Defense Weekly. "Our company is one of the few, if not the only, company to be developing a main battle tank," said Wang Cheng, the West Asia department's assistant general manager for North Industries, to the reporters of Defense Tech based in the United States.
The North Industries Corporation hopes that MBT-3000 will begin its service with the People's Liberation Army by 2014. Even though the MBT-3000 is not in production yet, it is already considered by Chinese officials to be the most advanced main battle tank aimed at the foreign market by Chinese officials, reports Janes Defense Weekly.

Source :http://www.wantchinatimes.com