VN-1 ICV

May.22 (China Defense Mashup Reporting by Johanthan Weng) — February of 2009, NORINCO in Abu Dhabi IDEX firstly displayed VN-1 armed vehicle, China’s exporting version 8X8 wheeled Infantry Combat Vehicle. As a rule in Chinese Military Industry, the emerge of one exporting weapon system means that one similar but advanced hardware appears in PLA’s arsenal. When and why China plan to develop the 8×8 Utility Wheeled Armed Vehicle family? One Chinese Magazine this month published one article to show detailed information.

The initiation of 8×8 Armed Vehicle was once influenced by domestic and foreign reasons. In China, the success of ZSL-92 Wheeled IFV let Chinese people change the previous wrong ideas of wheeled armed vehicle. On the other hand, the bloom of western countries’ third generation of 8X8 wheeled armed vehicle, such as “Piranha”, have revealed the excellent off-road driving performance and carrying ability.

After the long-term studying, PLA Army in later 1990s raised the exact performance specifications of its new generation utility chassis of IFV and Armed Vehicle. Finally, three manufacturers, Chongqing Heavy Vehicle Group, NORINCO’s Northern Heavy Machine Factory and Jinan Heavy Automobile Group, provided respective schemes for military department.

In 1999, the plans of Chongqing and NORINCO were selectd by Military Industrial governing department. After that, these prototype vehicles were combined with different gun-turrets for firing test and driving evaluation. In the beginning of 21st century, some photos about these testing vehicles started appear on the Chinese paper medias and spread in world.

At last, Northern Heavy Machinery won the project and in 2005 the manufacturer’ prototype vehicles were involved in later tests (BTW, the VN-1 is mainly developed from this prototype vehicles ). In 2006, the sample utility chassis for Infantry Combat and Mobile Artillery vehicle were produced. After 24 months’ extreme condition adaptability testing, the new 8×8 wheeled Infantry Combat vehicle family was finalized the design and named as ZBL-09 “Snow Leopard”.

ZBL-09 “Snow Leopard” ICV Specifications:

length: 8m
width:3m
height:2.1m (including top ceramic composite armor plate)
Crew:3 people
Carry Infantry: 7 people
Engine: DEUTZ 330KW  V6 BF6M1015C
Unit-Power: 15.7KW/t
Max road speed：100km/h
Max Marine speed: 8km/h
dual-people Turret: including Chinese version 2A72 30mm machine gun, 3 in 1 gunner targeting system (white-light, night-vision and laser ranger), commander’ Panoramic Sight.

Protection:

front protection: 12.7mm Armour-Piercing  Cartridge in 100m distance
front protection (adding ceramic composite armor): 25mm Armour-Piercing  Cartridge in 1000m distance
side protection: 7.62mm Armour-Piercing  Cartridge in 100m distance
side protection (adding ceramic composite armor): 12.7mm Armour-Piercing  Cartridge in 100m distance
rear protection: 7.62mm Armour-Piercing  Cartridge in 120m distance

The general chassis based on ZBL-09 provide an opportunity to build a wheeled fighting or battlefield support vehicles. It has been known that Chinese Army has developed 105mm assaulting wheeled gun and 122mm wheeled SPH. In the coming future, dual-120mm self-propelled Mortar and 155mm wheeled SPH will also be seen in Chinese cyberspace.

BTW, Chinese people also admits that the disadvantages of its new 8X8 armor vehicle family. The larger size of the vehicle brings the inferior maneuver performance; automated manual transmission system is still used; 30mm machine gun has less firepower comparing with western ICVs; simple fire-control system……

After all, “Snow Leopard” armor vehicle has been one milestone in the history of China’s combat vehicle development. In the military parade of 60th founding anniversary of New China, the “Snow Leopard” will probably march in front of Tian’an Men Gate and bring Chinese Army’s land warfare into a new era.