Army of Tanzania is now equipped with a new chinese main battle tank Type 59G 271211.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 09:41 AM

A new chinese upgrade of the Type 59 main battle tank was unveiled during a military parade in Tanzania. Our initial analysis shows that this new Chinese main battle tank upgrade is based on a modified chassis of the old Type 59 with the turret of the new chinese made Type 96G main battle tank.

The Tanzania armed forces was equipped with 24 Type 59 MBT, it can be assumed that modernization of these tanks was made by the Chinese defence industry. This new tank would be named as the Type 59G.

The Type 59G is equipped with arrow-shaped spaced add-on armour modules which are mounted on the front of the hull and the turret. Wheels and tracks are now protected by rubber hull skirts.

The turret used by the Type 59G looks very similar to Type 96G. The main armament of Type 96G is composed with a smoothbore 125 mm gun with autoloader of Russian 2A46M design. Auxiliary weapons include one 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, with a maximum fire-range of 1,800 m and a fire rate of 250 rounds/min. A 12.7-mm calibre anti-aircraft machine gun is mounted on the commander cupola, with a maximum fire-range of 2,000 m.