【军武次位面】作者：海东青
The Type 59 tank, as a veteran of the battlefield that has supported the armored forces of the Republic for more than half a century, has always been regarded as a sacred object by military enthusiasts, especially its many improved models, which are even more talked about, and left a joke of "looking at the turret from a distance and scaring people to death from a distance, and seeing five pairs of load-bearing wheels from a close distance". However, among the many 59 changes, there is one family member who is the most special, and it is our protagonist today - the Jaguar Tank.
▲ Jaguar main battle tank, quite a sci-fi turret and five pairs of load-bearing wheels do respond to that sentence - looking at the turret from a distance is scared to death, and looking at five pairs of load-bearing wheels up close.
Since then-US President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, Sino-US relations have rapidly normalized, and in the 80s, they entered the so-called Sino-US honeymoon period, of course, this so-called honeymoon period was actually out of the need to jointly confront the Soviet Union. However, at that time, although the scale of China's army was very large, its weapons and equipment were extremely backward and could not keep up with the times. On the one hand, the United States hoped that China could play a greater role in the process of confronting the Soviet Union, and on the other hand, China was also eager to learn advanced Western science and technology, so the two sides hit it off, and many Sino-US cooperation weapons projects were immediately launched, and the Jaguar tank was one of them.
At that time, China's main tank was still several thousand old Type 59 medium tanks, although China had launched the second-generation main battle tank project (that is, the later Type 88 tank), but it was far from quenching its thirst, so China decided to directly use Western advanced technology on the basis of the existing Type 59 tank to improve an advanced tank. In the mid-80s, China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation and the American Cadillac Gage Marsh Company officially began to cooperate, and the Jaguar tank project was launched. Some people may wonder why it is the Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation, because the Jaguar tank was launched under the banner of foreign trade tanks at the beginning, after all, in that bitter era of "the army must be patient", advanced equipment was taken to foreign trade first.
▲The old Type 59 medium tank was still the main tank of China at that time, and this veteran was really powerless to deal with the Soviet T-62/72/80 tank.
Although the Jaguar tank is still the foundation of the Type 59, its appearance has been greatly westernized, and it has a bit of the flavor of the American M1 Abrams main battle tank. In order to accommodate a better power system, the chassis was lengthened, but the five pairs of load wheels remained the same, and two pairs of carrier wheels were added.
The engine and transmission are replaced by advanced American products, the engine is the 8V-92TA 8-cylinder diesel engine of the American Detroit Diesel Engine Company, with a power of up to 560kw, which is much larger than the 382kw (550 horsepower) of the imitation Soviet diesel engine originally equipped with the Type 59 tank, although the weight has increased from 36 tons to 40 tons, but the maximum speed can still reach 55km/h. The transmission device is the XTG-411 type hydraulic automatic gearbox developed by the Allison transmission division of the General Motors Company in the United States, with 4 forward gears and 2 reverse gears, and the replacement of the hydraulic gearbox has to be said to be a very big progress, at least two generations ahead of the original transmission shaft transmission device of the 59 type, China is still using the transmission shaft transmission device until the 96A tank, and the hydraulic transmission device is used in the 96B tank, which shows how advanced the transmission device of the Jaguar tank was in that era.
▲ Jaguar tank prototype.
The enemy targeted by the Jaguar tank was obviously the Soviet T-72 main battle tank, which at that time became famous for defeating the Israeli M60 and Merkava-1 tanks in the war between Syria and Israel, and not only occupied half of the foreign trade market, but also became the absolute backbone tank of the Soviet army. Whether in the foreign trade market or in the face of a million Soviet troops in northern China, the Jaguar was destined to meet this legendary tank head-on. In order to effectively combat the T-72, the Jaguar tank was equipped with a set of sharp talons - a British L7 105mm rifled gun and an Israeli M111 105mm armor-piercing shell. Strictly speaking, there are actually three types of artillery equipped with the Jaguar Project - the original British L7, the American M68 and the Chinese Type 83, but the latter two are imitations of the legendary L7.
L7 is indeed worthy of the word legend, since its inception has swept dozens of countries around the world, has become the absolute monopoly of the Western 105mm tank gun, China will naturally not let go of the opportunity to obtain it, China's imitation of L7 artillery called 81 type artillery, in order to circumvent the "Chinese imitation of L7 can not be exported" contract restrictions, China has modified it to a certain extent, the birth of the 83 type artillery, this gun is probably the orthodoxy of the Jaguar tank plan.
▲The Soviet T-72 series main battle tank, which was once the absolute main tank of the Soviet Army (in fact, the current Russian army is also), is a symbol of the era of the Cold War and a legend, but this legend has caused great pressure on China.
A good horse with a good saddle, if L7 is a thousand miles horse, then Israel's M111 armor-piercing projectile is a high-grade leather saddle, when the Bekaa Valley tank battle, Israel's M60 tank and Merkava 1 tank were beaten by Syria's T-72M tank It can be called a dog's blood, which made the T-72 "invincible myth" and NATO countries' "T-72 phobia" The battle also made Israel learn from the pain, and then Israel developed the M111 armor-piercing projectile, which is no less legendary than the L7 armor-piercing projectile quickly proved itself in actual combat, and it effectively penetrated the front of the hull of the T-72M tank many times, not only made Israel ashamed, but also shocked the world, and soon countries rushed to buy imitations, and China was no exception. The combination of the Type 83 105mm rifled gun and the imitation M111 armor-piercing projectile gave the Jaguar tank the capital to compete with the T-72.
▲ Jaguar tank prototype.
As for the armor, it was not so mature, at that time China had already developed composite armor, but not for tanks, but for target shooting (mock T-72). However, since it has been developed, it should not be difficult to apply it to tanks, and the Jaguar tank equipped with domestic composite armor may not be able to compare its protection with the third-generation main battle tank of the Soviet Union, but it is also quite impressive. If the Jaguar tank can really be developed successfully, the surging power, strong firepower, considerable protection, will certainly make it a classic, in fact, the Jaguar tank has indeed been successfully developed, as early as the beginning of 1989, the two companies in China and the United States announced that the development work has been completed, and is already making a prototype, however, after all, the military is an extension of politics, with the changes in the international situation in the 90s, the very promising Jaguar tank is still invincible to political changes, after only two prototypes were produced, it died completely, leaving it to future generations to regret。