【Military Sub-Plane】Author: Le Le
In recent years, with the joint development of the "Dragon Fighter" fighter jet with Pakistan, the performance has been continuously improved, and the export to other countries has made its popularity in China more and more high. But what few people know is that domestic cooperation with Pakistan is not only in the air force, and the 054AP type frigate that caused a lot of heated discussion a while ago, the cooperation between the two countries in the army, especially in the field of main battle tanks, has deepened. In fact, more than 85 percent of the more than 2,000 tanks currently equipped by the Pakistani Army are provided by China. Models from the high-end foreign trade model VT-4, down to the most classic 59, squeezed and squeezed, spectacular, and the development process of all this, but also from the beginning.
▲Domestic VT-4 foreign trade tank
In the early days of Pakistan's founding, it has always been relatively close to the United States, and in the late 50s and early 60s, the Peshawar Air Base of the Pakistan Air Force was even the take-off site for the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft of the United States for a long time. In May 1960, the Soviet Sam-2 anti-aircraft missile shot down the U-2, piloted by American pilot Gary Powell, and took off from Peshawar Air Base. As a result, Pakistan also acquired American-made F-86 and F-104 fighter jets and M48 series tanks in the 1950s and 1960s. After 1963, Pakistan's relations with our country skyrocketed, and began to receive domestic assistance from J-6, 59 tanks and other weapons. As a result, the Pakistani army in the late 60s, there was a rare situation in which the J-6 flew alongside the F-104 and the 59 and the M48 side by side.
The J-6 was the main equipment supplied to Pakistan in the early days
After 1980, china basically ended its military assistance to other countries and turned it into military exports. Therefore, the pakistani army, which was already equipped with more than 1300 59s at that time, did not continue to buy tanks on a large scale at the beginning, until India in the late 80s, after obtaining T-72 tanks from the Soviet Union, Pakistan began to purchase new tanks to deal with the threat posed by the T-72. At that time, the foreign trade model launched on the basis of the 69II. tank in China was sold very hot internationally. Especially in 1981, it exported 2800 vehicles to a Middle Eastern country at one time, an unprecedented scale. As a result, Pakistan also procured 250 improved 69II.MP tanks at that time. At the same time, 300 85II.AP tanks were procured to ensure the combat capability of the Armored Forces of the Pakistan Army. Of course, the performance of these two tanks is not enough compared to the Soviet T-72, in pakistan's mind only as a transitional model, the real high hopes are the MBT-2000 "Khalid" main battle tank jointly developed by the two countries at that time.
▲ The final completed "Khalid" tank
In October 1988, the then Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army publicly announced to the outside world that Pakistan was cooperating with China in the development of the next generation of MBT-2000 Khalid main battle tank, which was the famous VT-1 after a later adjustment in china's internal numbering. In January 1990, the Pakistani government approved the $1 billion Khalid tank cooperative program. Due to Khalid's design base, the early stages of the project progressed very quickly, with the first prototype being built in June 1991, but development has since stalled.
The dismounted 90II is considered to be the prototype of "Khalid"
The fundamental reason behind this is that China could not provide reliable power for "Khalid" at that time, while Pakistan hesitated and wandered between the engines provided by Britain, Germany and Ukraine, and was undecided, coupled with the design and manufacturing technology of the third generation of domestic main battle tanks at that time, it had not yet made a comprehensive breakthrough, so that "Khalid" still did not make much progress by 1995. At that time, India imported more advanced T-90 tanks from Russia. Therefore, Pakistan decided to introduce a batch of tanks before the Khalid project matured to ensure realistic combat effectiveness.
▲ Indian Army T-90 tank
After months of testing in Pakistan, the Type 85III tank, which was in the bidding at the time, although the fire control performance was good, but the technical integration was insufficient, and the engine did not take into account the hot weather failure in the test, and finally lost to the Ukrainian T-80 tank, so that Pakistan finally purchased 320 T-80 tanks from Ukraine for $650 million. However, due to the dispute between Ukraine and Russia over the export of the T-80, the first 35 T-80s provided by Ukraine were defective variants produced in the Soviet era, followed by modern models that had been improved by Ukraine. After Pakistan received the T-80, it was found that its firepower was seriously insufficient compared to the Khalid, which made Pakistan once again recognize China's pursuit of tank firepower. Therefore, in addition to improving the T-80 shells in hand, the Pakistani side also recognized the design technology on the Chinese main battle tank, and the development of the "Khalid" was able to develop at a high speed again.
▲ The Type 85 III tank that went to Pakistan for testing at that time
In 2003, the year after the delivery of the Ukrainian T-80, the Khalid was put into mass production, and for now, Pakistan is very satisfied with the performance of the Khalid, believing that it is an advanced tank belonging to the third-generation tank technical standard, with more than 500 vehicles in service, and derived the improved "Khalid I." model, which is also the backbone of the Pakistan Army tank force. In addition, around 2008, Pakistan also modernized more than 1100 59 tanks that were still in service, mainly replaced with 730 horsepower engines, 125 mm smoothbore guns, explosive reactive armor, better cast turrets and corresponding fire control equipment improvements after the 59 was named "Ai-Zara". Pakistan is satisfied with its performance, and in addition to its own large-scale renovation, it has also been shown at the Defense Show several times in the hope of obtaining export orders. To this day, the improved "A-Zara" and "Khalid" are still the two most equipped tanks in the Pakistan Army.
▲ On the transformation of 59, Pakistan is not behind
In addition, Pakistan has procured 176 VT-4 main battle tanks in recent years. As a high-end model of domestic foreign trade tanks, the VT-4 is an excellent performance, but the price is also relatively expensive, and the average price of a single vehicle was about 5.4 million US dollars when it was exported to Thailand before. For the Pakistan Army, which has always pursued cost performance, this price is relatively high. Therefore, at one point there was a view that Pakistan would continue to improve Khalid to a level close to VT-4 to reduce costs, but eventually an order for 176 vehicles from Pakistan broke that claim. In addition, the purchase price of the Pakistani side has also declined compared with Thailand, with less than 4.9 million US dollars. It is generally believed that this is due to Pakistan's long-term trade with domestic tanks and its corresponding advantages in the areas of technical training and logistical maintenance. From the current situation, Pakistan's final number of VT-4 purchases will reach 300, thus maintaining the high-end model of its tank unit at a more reasonable level.
▲ VT-4 equipped in Thailand
In the process of tank trade between the two countries, there has been a distinct technical context, from the 59 to the 69II.MP, 85II.AP, and finally to the VT-1, VT-4 process, the performance of the domestically supplied tanks has gradually risen, and it is becoming more and more suitable for Pakistan's needs and equipment status. More importantly, in the process of trade, both sides often take what they need. For example, in the research and development process of VT-1, the corresponding third-generation main battle tank technology was successfully applied to the research and development process of the later domestic Type 99 tank. Pakistan's purchase of VT-4 is also like the purchase of "Dragon Fighter" fighters, which is a business card to help China better enter the international market. Of course, the large number of advanced tanks obtained by Pakistan also provides an important role in ensuring Pakistan's national defense and security. In the nearly 60 years of cooperation between the two, mutual benefit and mutual assistance have always been the core idea, and it is enough to become a model for other countries.