Tuesday, August 30, 2011

New PLA TEL chassis??

This new Chinese TEL chassis looks remarkably similar to the 9K331 Tor M1 -- The Chinese edition sports a rectangular headlight, where as the Russian Tor M1 is illuminated by the classic round.

In 1999 the PLA ground force armed its Air Defense Brigade, 31st Group Army, Nanjing MR with 35 sets of imported Tor M1 Air Defense systems. However, the follow-up negotiation for a co-produced variant yielded no fruit. The PLA reportedly has a requirement for 160 additional systems.

It is easy to start speculating with this set of photos but it is not warranted without any additional evidence.

Notice the rectangular headlight and new rubbered road wheels.

7 roadwheels


The rounded headlight of the Tor M1 currently in service with 31st Group Army's AD Brigade.

4 comments:

danh said...

are you sure that Tor M1 is with the PLA? Because those look like MiG-29s in the background rather than anything the PLAAF flies.

wtlh said...

No they looks like J-10s. Note the canards.

danh said...

Yeah sorry about that. I mistook the canards for the LERXand associated shadowing. But your right definitely J-10. The distance between nose and intakes and the top of the fin is wrong for the MiG too.

btw is it just me or is forum down for everyone?

Coatepeque said...

no, the forum is fine.