According to the latest data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute , in the past five years, despite the unprecedented COVID-19 epidemic and global economic downturn, the international arms industry has maintained an upward development momentum. The United States, Russia and France, as important weapons export countries, have made a lot of money. Although China's arms export environment is not ideal due to objective factors, the rapid development of China's military industry still attracts attention from all parties. Now, China has replaced Germany and promoted it to the world's fourth largest arms exporter.
talks about overseas customers of China's domestic weapons. Except for Saudi , the UAE and other tycoons who spent a lot of money to introduce Chinese drone , the rest are all countries like Pakistan that maintain traditional friendly relations with China. But in fact, with the great development of China's complete set of equipment in sea, land and air, many new customers have also become the main exporter of domestic foreign trade weapons. The most renowned of these is naturally the Nigerian , known as the "African Armed Forces".
Thanks to the support of the largest population and the richest oil resources in all Africa, Nigeria has ushered in economic ascendancy in the past 20 years and has become the richest country in Africa. The Nigerian government, which is "not short of money", attaches great importance to military construction and constantly collects weapons from the international arms market, intending to build a military force that is beyond recognition. Chinese weapons with good quality, low price, high cost performance, and world-class advanced level are naturally favored by Nepal.
The Chinese weapons and equipment in the Nigerian army now include ST1 wheeled assault gun , SH-5 truck, Rainbow-3A drone, etc., but when it comes to the heaviest star equipment, of course, it must be the VT-4 tank.
VT-4 tank is a third-generation main battle tank , developed by China's military industry for the international market needs. At the beginning of research and development, many technologies on the 99A main battle tank were used in an orderly manner, including the power system and the fire control system . Therefore, the comprehensive performance of the VT-4 is enough to rank among the world's advanced main battle tanks. Compared with the T-55 and T-72 tanks used by the Nigerian Army, VT-4 has added many new technologies that adapt to modern battlefields, including digital networks, active protection systems, and real-time target information sharing. The Nigerian Army couldn't put it down, and finally signed an order for 35 VT-4 tanks with a total value of US$152 million. In other words, the Nigerian side successfully introduced tanks that were enough to sweep across Africa at a unit price of US$4.34 million, which is a very cost-effective deal no matter what the perspective is.
But just recently, the Sino-Nepal military cooperation with VT-4 tanks as the core has thundered. According to a report from a military media in the country, during the recent fire exercise, the troops equipped with VT-4 tanks were unable to open fire smoothly, and the fault was solved for a total of 30 minutes. Based on this, the Nigerian military concluded that the shortcomings of the VT-4 tank are very obvious and are not enough to serve as the main equipment of the Nigerian army in the future. In the future, only a small number of VT-4 will be used for testing and training, and the standard tank of the armored force will choose to introduce the Russian T-90.
According to the reports of Nepal media, it seems that Chinese tanks have serious quality problems, so a major accident occurred during the important exercise. A shell was fired in half an hour. If it were placed in the real battlefield environment, it would have been bruised by the enemy's anti-tank firepower. If the real situation is as Nigeria said, then it is not impossible to choose to stop losses in time. The question is, is the VT-4 tank, known as the "99A Youth Edition", really as unbearable as Nigerian media reports?
If the VT-4 had such poor performance, Nigeria would not have made the decision to purchase Chinese tanks a few years ago. Now I regret that it is not worth the loss from the perspective of economic and military development. In this case, it is worth mentioning that the Nepal military deliberately belittles the VT-4 tank.
First of all, the advanced level of weapons and equipment is naturally very important and is an important factor in the combat effectiveness of an army.But even in the 21st century where high-tech is competing to develop, the term "weapons theory" is not regarded as a golden rule. The Nigerian army's introduction of VT-4 tanks from China can only be regarded as the first step in its military development. The subsequent comprehensive training of military personnel and the high coordination of people and equipment is the top priority. Without high-quality soldiers as the basis, any modern equipment is nothing more than a pile of scrap copper and iron.
Nigerian tank soldiers barely fired for 30 minutes, which shows that their familiarity with equipment is beyond imagination.
Secondly, the VT-4 tank is not completely suitable for the battlefield environment in Nigeria. The main threat to the Nigerian Army is the domestic "Boko Haram" armed group. It is completely useless to deal with such a military group that carries AK-47 and RPG rocket launcher in a pickup truck. For this country, the best way should be to purchase combat vehicles suitable for counter-terrorism operations based on their actual situation, and at the same time comprehensively improve the quality of soldiers and cultivate tank soldiers with modern armored operations.
Finally, it is not ruled out that Nigeria's "little thoughts" to lower the subsequent VT-4 tank purchase price by moving out of the Russian-made T-90 tank . However, we also have to kindly advise Nigeria. Looking at today's international market, can we find another option with performance, quality and price that exceeds the VT-4? If it cannot be found, Chinese weapons are still their preferred option. Don’t completely affect the door to military cooperation between the two countries just because of the little profit in front of you.
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