Thailand approves the purchase of 10 additional Chinese-made VT4 main battle tanks 10504172

Defense & Security News - Thailand
 
Thailand approves the purchase of 10 additional Chinese-made VT4 main battle tanks.
Thai Ministry of Defense has approved the purchase of 10 additionnal Chinese-made VT4 main battle tanks also called MBT-3000 to replace old U.S. M41 light tanks in service with the Thai armed forces since World War II.
     
Thai Ministry of Defense has approved the purchase of 10 additionnal Chinese-made VT4 also called MBT-3000 main battle tank to replace old U.S. M41 light tanks in service with the Thai armed forces since World War II.
Chinese-made VT4 main battle tank in live demonstration at Zhuhai Air Show 2016.
     
In May 2016, the Royal Thai Army (RTA) has signed an agreement with China to procure the VT4/MBT-3000 main battle tank (MBT) produced by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO).

According the British publishing Company Jane's Information Group the first contract features an initial 28 units of MBT-3000 and is valued at around $150 million, but the Royal Thai Army (RTA) could procure additional main batle tanks.

In the future, RTA could purchase a total of 150 MBT-3000 main battle tanks from China.

The MBT-3000 also named VT4 for the export version is a new generation of main battle tank designed and manufactured by the Chinese Defense Company NORINCO. According NORINCO, the MBT-3000 is the latest technology of main battle tank especially designed to meet the challenge of high-tech warfare.

The main armament of the MBT-3000 consists of 125mm smoothbore gun fitted with a thermal sleeve and fume extractor. It is fed by an automatic loader which holds a total of 22 projectiles and charges which can be loaded at the rate of eight per minute.

In addition, the tank is equipped with a set of guided weapons, allowing use of a guided missile with a range of up to 5 km.