Laos exchanged the T-34 for the T-72B1M: although it has been improved, it still cannot compete with the T-90 series and the third generation of anti-tank missiles, which is a psychological comfort for the Lao Defense Force: I also have a third-generation tank; Laos' neighbor YN has a Russian-made T-90S tank, T-55 modification, and their performance, combined with Su-30 fighter jets, is a great threat to the territory of Laos!
(Russian Fishing Project)
As a result, the Lao Army's T-72B1M can only be used as a front-line mobile battery at best: the old vehicle-mounted battlefield situational awareness system cannot compete with the T-90S; and the Laotian terrain and transportation network are a disaster for tracked vehicles! So, how did the Lao army fight against the Vietnamese armored forces? Wheeled assault guns!
(The target reflection area is too large!) ）
China's ST-3 wheeled assault gun adopts an eight-wheel chassis to adapt to field/mountain road high-speed driving; the 105mm assault gun can fire a new generation of domestic tail-wing stable shell-piercing shells, which can penetrate 600 mm vertical homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 2000 meters; it is also equipped with artillery-fired missiles/terminal sensitive bullets (laser/infrared/millimeter wave trimodal guidance), which can penetrate T90MS, M1A2 improved main battle tanks;
The ST-3 is equipped with a tail-loading machine, eliminating loaders, reducing the number of vehicles, and improving shooting efficiency — especially in rainforest/mountain combat environments, where manual loading is prone to fatigue and low sustained combat capability, and there is no problem with automatic loaders — the YN tank can be quickly and accurately suppressed. At the same time, its armor can withstand frontal attacks of 12.7 machine guns/RPG-7s – they are also one of the main forces of the YN Army's combat detachment;
(Protective armor can be added at the necessary stage)
In order to meet the needs of mountain/rainforest operations, it can carry out precision strikes with large elevation angles and directly turn into a 105 mm mortar; in an emergency, the 105 mm main gun with a maximum elevation angle of 45 ° can even directly shake the barrel for anti-aircraft fire (possibly up to 70 °): loaded with special radio close-up fuze shells for precision air strikes. Although the range will not be too far, it can effectively respond to low-flying fixed-wing fighters, helicopters, and drones, and meet the field air defense - the YN people's Russian-made Wuzhi and Su-22 low-altitude raids will be accurately attacked by it;
In order to achieve multi-purpose goals, the ST-3 fire control system is an anti-stability image fire control system, the gun commander and the commander are equipped with a day and night integrated sighting system, which can detect, identify and lock the target under all-weather conditions day and night, and can shoot moving targets during the movement process, with a high probability of first hit; when necessary, the commander can surpass the gun commander to shoot the target! The ST-3 wheeled assault gun is also equipped with the "Beidou" satellite navigation and positioning system, inertial navigation system, digital map, data link/communication system, etc., which can quickly navigate and locate the enemy's position, receive target coordinates, and then fire shells to strike the target. St-3 wheeled assault guns also have domestically produced remote control weapons stations: equipped with thermal imaging night vision, laser rangefinder, stabilization system and automatic tracking system, which can detect and identify in all-weather conditions around the clock, automatic tracking and locking, and the shooter can fire at the push of the electric button within the turret - in complex rainforest/mountain battlefield conditions, its battlefield situational awareness system is ahead of YN tanks, thereby reducing Lao combat casualties;
The ST-3 first uses grenades to strike the opponent's forward positions at a distance, and then approaches to destroy the opponent's armored targets; if the enemy is hiding in the mountainous terrain, it uses the curved shooting function; it can also fight when encountering the enemy's Wuzhi; therefore, this multi-purpose, modular ST-3 is very suitable for the anti-aggression and anti-infiltration operations of the Lao army;
Regarding the cost of the ST-3: it is a modular design, can be installed with a variety of modular weapons and equipment and electronic equipment, "one gun, four uses" can save the Lao Army a lot of money, build a reliable anti-aggression armor force.