According to pictures released by the China Ministry of Defense website, China has deployed the latest generation of main battle tank Type 99A for military exercise in the Tibet region. Type 99 main battle tanks attached to a brigade under the PLA 76th Group Army participated in separate exercises in mountainous plateau terrain on June 4, 2020, citing China Military Online on June 11, 2020.
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Type 99A Main Battle Tanks are deployed in the Tibet region for military exercises. (Picture source China MoD)
Other military equipment was also deployed during these military exercises including artillery vehicles, air defense missile systems, aircraft and helicopters, CBRN vehicles and electronic warfare systems to conduct joint operations and live firing exercises in the Nianqing Tanggula, or Nyenchen Tonglha, Mountains at an altitude of 4,700 meters.
Type 99 is the latest generation of Main Battle Tank (MBT) in service with the Chinese armed forces. It entered in service with the Chinese army in 2001. The Type 99A also called Type 99A2 or ZTZ-99A MBT (Main Battle Tank) is an improved version of the Type 99 MBT designed and manufactured in China by the local defense industry.
The Type 99A was unveiled for the first time to the public in September 2015 during a military parade. This version in the Type 99 MBT family has hunter-killer capability using a commander independent sight. Hunter killer capability refers to a tank equipped with dual independent sights and supporting fire control hardware/software in order to allow the gunner and commander to track and acquire two separate targets at the same time.
The main armament of the Type 99A consists of one 125mm smoothbore gun with a thermal sleeve and fume extractor. The turret is fitted with a carousel automatic loader located below the turret. A total of 41 rounds are carried, of which 22 are in the carousel of the automatic loader. It can also fire a laser-guided missile from its 125 mm/50 caliber smoothbore gun similar to the Russian-made 9M119M Refleks Anti-Tank Guided Missile which has a maximum firing range of 5,000 m.
The Type 99A has a crew of three including the driver, commander, and gunner. The hull and the turret of the Type 99A are of all-welded steel armour. The tank has also an improved composite armor over the front of the hull and turret to provide a higher level of protection against anti-tank guided missiles and rockets. It has a new Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) able to defeat new generation of tandem warhead of anti-tank missiles which is mounted at the front and along the sides of the turret.
