Chinese-made VT4 Main Battle Tank MBT is now officially in service with Pakistan.

According to a video report published by the Samaa news channel on October 13, 2021, the Pakistan army has officially inducted Chinese-made VT4 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs). The Pakistani Army is now the third operator of the Norinco VT-4 main battle tank which is also in service with Thailand and Nigeria.
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Chinese-made VT4 main battle tank of the Pakistani army.  (Picture source Internet)

According to the military balance 2020, the Pakistani army has a total of 2,433 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) including 300 Al-Khalid (MBT 2000), 50 Al-Khalid I, 315 T-80UD, 500 Al-Zarrar, 400 Type-69, 268 Type-85-IIAP, and 600 ZTZ-59.

The VT4 MBT is produced by the Chinese state-owned defense company Norinco, and Pakistan has received tanks in April last year. According to Norinco VT-4 is one of the most modern tanks in the world integrating advanced armor protection, maneuverability, firepower capabilities, and state-of-the-art technology. It shares many subsystems technology and features from other Chinese-made MBTs such as the Type 96A and Type 99A.

The design of the VT4 was unveiled in 2012 during Eurosatory, an international defense exhibition that was held in Paris, France. The first serial production of the VT4 was presented in 2014 at China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, China.

The layout of the VT4 is standard for a modern tank with the driver at the front, turret in the middle with commander and gunner, and powerpack at the rear. It has a gross vehicle weight of approximately 52,000 kg with a length of 10.10 m, a width of 3.50 m, and a height of 2.40 m

The main armament of the VT4 consists of on 125mm smoothbore gun fitted with a thermal sleeve and fume extractor. It is fed by an automatic loader that holds a total of 22 projectiles and charges which can be loaded at the rate of eight per minute. The tank is equipped with a set of guided weapons, allowing the use of a guided missile 9K119 Refleks with a range of up to 5 km. This missile is produced in China under license.

The VT4 tank is protected by dual-layer protection consisting of composite armor and FY-4 explosive reactive armor. According to Norinco, the frontal protection force is equivalent to 500 mm homogeneous steel armor, and the explosive reaction armor is around 700 mm.

The VT4 is motorized with a water-cooled turbocharged electronic-controlled diesel engine developing 1,300 hp. It can run a maximum road speed of 70 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 500 km.