A VT-5U main battle tank displayed at the Airshow China 2022 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on Friday. (WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY)
China has designed and built what is believed to be the world's first combat tank that can be remotely controlled, said a spokesman for State-owned China North Industries Group Corp.
Cheng Ziheng said on Thursday in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, that each crew of the VT-5U main battle tank will be given a remote-control device.
Engineers have also designed a remote-control station that can be mounted on an armored vehicle
"In highly risky combat circumstances like a street battle with heavily armed enemies or operations in minefields or mountainous regions with the risk of enemy ambush, crew members can evacuate the vehicle to a comparatively safer place and then use the device to manipulate their tank to continue fighting. The design is intended to better protect the crew's safety," he explained.
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Soldiers can also remotely control the tank to move into places under heavy enemy fire to rescue their injured comrades, Cheng said.
Engineers have also designed a remote-control station that can be mounted on an armored vehicle. Compared with the crew's hand-held control device, the station has stronger communication and data-processing capabilities, enabling crew members to operate their tank from a farther distance, he noted.
According to open information, the VT-5U has become the world's first combat tank that can be remotely operated, Cheng said.
Moreover, the new tank model is equipped with a robotic reconnaissance system, which deploys a quad-rotor drone to monitor the battlefield environment and situation, and the enemies' movements.
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The drone system can double the detection range of the tank and will give it a better situational awareness than other tanks, he said.
Commonly known as Norinco, Cheng's company is the country's biggest maker of land armaments and a major contractor to the People's Liberation Army Ground Force.
As one of the world's latest light-duty main battle tanks, VT-5 was first shown to the public at the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in November 2016.
Norinco said it was developed based on combat-proven technologies and boasts a powerful, indigenously designed engine.
The company said VT-5 is capable of operating in various terrain including desert, forest and urban areas as well as soft-soil regions that cannot support heavy-duty tanks. It has a maximum weight of 36 metric tons and a crew of three.
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The tank is armed with a 105-mm rifled tank gun, which can fire armor-piercing shells, high-explosive warheads and anti-tank missiles, and a 12.7-mm remotely controlled machine gun.
It is the first Chinese export tank that has a conveyor-belt shell autoloader, which, compared with previous autoloader types, has better reliability and safety and higher speed when loading the main gun.