In mid-July, a Chinese blog published a picture of a light battle tank in “Smurf” blue camouflage driving through a village, indicating the Chinese armed forces have added a new tank to their marine corps inventory.

The new ZTQ-15 lightweight battle tank of the PLA's marine corps (Picture source: Chinese blog)

The PLA Marine Corps (PLAMC), part of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), seems to have inducted into service a new lightweight battle tank. The image, published in mid-July on a Chinese website, shows what appears to be a ZTQ light tank, also known as the ZTQ-15, painted in the blue-gray PLAMC camouflage.

The size of the PLAMC is expected to increase from around 20,000 to 100,000, divided up into six brigades, in the coming years. Each PLAMC brigade is divided up into one armored regiment and two marine battalions. The brigades are equipped with ZBD05 tracked amphibious infantry fighting vehicles, ZLT05 tracked amphibious assault guns, and ZTZ-96A main battle tanks.” Whereas the ZTZ-96A displaces around 43 tons, the ZTQ reportedly has a combat weight of between 25 to 35 tons. The ZTQ appears to be a downsized variant of the PLA’s VT-4/MBT-3000 MBT, which in turn is based on the Soviet T-72 MBT design. The 105-millimeter gun may be capable of firing laser-guided anti-tank missiles, on top of kinetic energy penetrators and high-explosive anti-tank warheads. The ZTQ is equipped with a modern fire control system and features an autoloader like all Chinese tank designs. According to some reports, the PLA intends to procure up to 300 ZTQ MBTs. The number of tanks in service with the PLAMC, if any, remains unclear.

The new tank could also serve in the PLA’s amphibious mechanized infantry divisions (AMID) rather than the PLAMC. China is also in the middle of expanding this force from two to four AMIDs, with each unit equipped with up to 300 armored and amphibious transport vehicles, as well as MBTs.