The Chinese ZTZ-99A main battle tank may have gotten some upgrades, but it ain’t the most cutting-edge just yet. At the recent Victory Day Commemorations—marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War—the Chinese PLA revealed its fourth-generation main battle tank that is set to change tank warfare. With the new tank, called ZTZ-100 a.k.a. Type 100, the Chinese army is moving away from brute 1-on-1 tank battles.
In the past, tank battles were all about firepower and armor tech, but with the Type 100, it’s about integrating information and firepower, where data and precision strikes are fused into a unified operational system. In other words, the days of brute firing at each other to see who survives are over. Well, not entirely. The 99B and 99A will continue to serve alongside this new-age MBT to form a formidable force.
The ZTZ-100 is also the first main battle tank in service to adopt a hybrid drivetrain and the first MBT with an unmanned turret. On the outside, it ditches the straight-edge design and embraces irregular geometric forms to improve survivability in the event of a strike—if anything, be it drones or projectiles, even gets near it.
It’s armed with an Active Protection System featuring dual GL-6 APS units with phased-array radars and no less than 13 multi-spectrum sensors. Together, they create a 360-degree defensive bubble, capable of spotting and intercepting incoming traditional and non-traditional threats like missiles, RPGs, anti-tank rockets, FPV drones, loitering munitions, and even top-down drone attacks, before directing the appropriate countermeasures.
On top of that, it has built-in electronic warfare capabilities to jam enemy systems. For firepower, it carries a 105 mm rifled gun. Smaller than most traditional MBT cannons, yes, but with Electroslag remelted steel and depleted uranium rounds, it is claimed to pierce 720 mm of homogeneous steel (though at what distance, it is not clear). The cannon is also linked to an AR helmet, giving the crew Apache-style real-time head-tracking for targeting.
The ZTZ-100 [CH] proves the PLA is thinking outside the box—less about bigger guns and thicker armor, more about turning each tank into a node in information-based warfare. It should also likely be faster and more agile, thanks to its 40-ton weight. To put it in perspective, a typical MBT tips the scales at 55-709 metric tons.
Not that we are encouraging war, but a strong defense is sometimes the necessary evil to keep ambitious individuals in check.
