New ZBD04A reconnaissance IFV variant revealed

As part of the press release (here) covering 40th Group Army's trek to the "Stride 2015• Zhurihe A" Red vs Blue confrontational drill, they are head-lining a new  ZBD04A reconnaissance variant vanguarding an armored recon unit ahead of the main body.

Judging by large number of ZBD04A variants currently in service,  the PLA seems to be happy with this design. The original ZDB04... well not so much, only 500 copies were commissioned.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Zhuhai Surprise: ZBD04A/WZ502G export variant.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Photo of the day: ZBD04A/WZ502G of Chengdu Military Region

According to this PLAdaily article (here) an armored regiment of Chengdu Military Region (MR) is now upgunned with the latest ZBD04A/WZ502G, this marks the fourth China Army MR to be equipped with this latest Norinco IFV.  The first three MRs with ZBD04A/WZ502G equipped units are Beijing, Shanyang and Lanzhou.    The challenge now for this Chengdu MR unit is to adopt ZBD04A/WZ502G properly for operations in the mountainous terrain, over the primitive road network and to trailblazer a new highland war-fighting doctrine for other units to follow. 

Lanzhou MR's ZBD04A/WZ502G on maneuver, photo taken March 2013.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Photo of the day: New tracked IFV with bolted armor

Since not having enough armor protection is one of the loudest complaint against the ZDB04 tracked IFV, it was not popular with overseas customers.   it appears that Norinco took the complaint to heart and address that deficiency with some bolted armor slap on its new family of IFV.

Monday, June 06, 2011

A new Chinese tracked vehicle family emerges

Little is known about this new IFV but thus far it seems to have developed a complete family of variants in various stages of testing or field deployments. Some unconfirmed claims pointing to a heavy Type 89/ZSD89/YW534 mod, but without a closer inspection or an official acknowledgement from Norinco, they are still speculations.

At any rate, the PLA is long over due for a modern tracked vehicle,  this is especially true consider the weak armor protection the old Type89 and 86 families have to offer. 

 Engineering variant

 APC variant from the official Xinhua News

 Command variant

 Recon variant

 

SP 120mm turreted mortar variant

Photo from the PLAdaily

Friday, August 03, 2012

Photo of the day PLZ05A Tracked 120mm Gun-Mortar.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Photo of the day: ZBD08 ATGM carrier variant

Not sure what new ATGM it will carry but rumor has it, it will be the new the "Sino-Spike" we have seen previously.