Breaking news
Thailand approves the purchase of 10 additional Chinese-made VT4 main battle tanks 10504172.
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Defense & Security News - Thailand
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Thailand approves the purchase of 10 additional Chinese-made VT4 main battle tanks.
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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.
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 Chinese-made VT4 main battle tank in live demonstration at Zhuhai Air Show 2016. |
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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. |
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