Following my country's Type 15 light tank, the US military is not far behind. Recently, it launched a new light tank called MPF. So what is the performance of this light tank? Compared with my country's Type 15 tank, whose performance is better?
In fact, as early as the 1980s, the US Army developed a light tank with good performance, called the XM8 airborne tank. This light tank was also the first vehicle to propose multi-level protection. In order to facilitate air transportation, the basic armor of the tank is very thin, and the weight is relatively light. After reaching the battlefield, the corresponding armor kits are worn according to different needs.
However, unfortunately, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the insufficient military expenditure of the US military, this airborne tank finally could not escape the fate of dismounting.
Later, because the US Army often faces low-intensity security wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan, it even developed a "thin-skinned" armored vehicle equipped with rapid reaction forces such as Stryker. However, the actual combat proved , Even in low-intensity warfare, the Stryker armored vehicle is still too weak in protection.
Nowadays, Stryker armored vehicles have been in service for nearly 20 years, and now all military powers, especially China, also have a large number of wheeled fast reaction forces, so the US Army believes that they must have one The rapid reaction force is stronger than the opponent, and the light tank is indeed much stronger than the wheeled armored vehicle in most cases. This is the fundamental reason why the US Army is eager to seek a new light tank.
So, what is the performance of the new light tank that is unveiled this time? It is understood that the MPF light tank prototype was jointly built by General Dynamics of the United States and British Aerospace. This light tank uses not the design and layout of traditional tanks. Its body is actually made by General Dynamics. The chassis of the AJAX tracked armored vehicle is improved.
Although this reduces R&D costs and risks, it also brings irreparable defects to MPF tanks. You must know that in order to leave enough space for infantry, infantry fighting vehicles are often designed relatively It is tall, and at the same time, in order to facilitate the infantry to get off from the rear of the vehicle, the front engine layout is generally adopted, as is the case for the AJAX armored vehicle body.
But for tanks, such a design will lead to insufficient protection. The front layout of the engine is destined to not have much thick front armor. After all, it is necessary to consider the usual maintenance. The engine compartment cover should be easily opened for the daily maintenance and disassembly of the engine. The heat dissipation requirements of the engine are also not allowed. The armor pile here is too thick.
Of course, the tanks that also use the engine front layout include the Israeli Merkava, but the Merkava tank is surrounded by the five slags of the RPG gods. , The front part of the car body does not have to pile up too thick armor to dare to play this way, while the US Army is different. One of the original intentions of the development of the new light tank is to cope with the conflict between major powers. Such a design is far from enough.
Because of the use of the infantry fighting vehicle chassis, the new light tank of the US Army can only defend against direct fire from 20mm cannons. After adding additional armor, it can only withstand the blows of 30mm caliber artillery. The fate of this new light tank is self-evident if the tail wing stabilized armor-piercing projectile fired by the battle tank.
However, the turret part of the new light tank of the US Army is not satisfactory. It uses the latest US Army M1A2 SEP V3 main battle tank fire control system and the same Captain Independent Thermal Imaging Observer (CITV) , The main weapon is a 105mm gun made by the United States, its firepower can also destroy most tanks that may be encountered.
Compared with the new light tank of the US military, the Type 15 tank of our country, which is also light tank, can be said to have won at the starting line, because the original design intention of our army was to need a model that can adapt to the plateau, the jungle and the rainy softness. The geological environment of the tank, so the 15 type still uses the conventional tank layout, and rely on China’s top armor technology and artillery technology, although the 15 type tank is notThe opponent of the world's top main battle tanks, but it is also sufficient to deal with second-rate main battle tanks like T90 and T72, let alone the new light tanks of the US military.
At the same time, in order to meet the above requirements, the weight of the Type 15 tank is only 35 tons when fully draped, which is three tons lighter than the new U.S. light tank, so light. The weight is also very suitable for strategic air transport. Although our country did not have this in the initial design requirements for the Type 15 tank, it has reached this design index, which is a surprise.
In fact, the U.S. Army is not unaware of the defects of this new type of tank. However, the landlord’s family has no surplus. In the case of limited funds, it can only do so first, and the U.S. Army also restricts the new light. Tan’s combat targets are mainly focused on fighting the enemy’s armored targets other than the main battle tank. Therefore, in the eyes of Brother Tiger, this new toy of the US Army is not so much a light tank as it is dressed in a light tank. Assault Gun~ (Shun)
