The Type 15 (, also designated ZTQ-15), nicknamed the Black Panther (), is a Chinese

third generation Third generation may refer to: * ''Third Generation'' (album), a 1982 album by Hiroshima * ''The Third Generation'' (1920 film), an American drama film directed by Henry Kolker * ''The Third Generation'' (1979 film), a West German black comedy b ...

light tank A light tank is a tank variant initially designed for rapid movements in and out of combat, to outmaneuver heavier tanks. It is smaller in size with thinner armor and a less powerful main gun, tailored for better tactical mobility and ease of ...

operated by the

People's Liberation Army Ground Force The People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF; ) is the land-based service branch of the People's Liberation Army and the largest and oldest branch of the entire Chinese armed forces. The PLAGF can trace its lineage from 1927 as the Chine ...

and

People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps The People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps (PLANMC), also known as the People's Liberation Army Marine Corps (PLAMC), is the marine force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and one of five major branches of the PLA Navy (PLAN) responsibl ...

. It could become a successor to the

Type 62 The Norinco Type 62 () is a Chinese light tank developed in the early 1960s and is based on the Chinese Type 59 with a reduced main gun calibre, lighter armour and a smaller suite of electronics and other equipment to help reduce weight. The ...

light tank that was retired from the Chinese army in 2013.

Development

Sightings of Type 15 were reported by Chinese citizens in July 2018, however its existence was formally confirmed by the Chinese Ministry of Defense in December 2018. The tank was confirmed to be in service by 2018 and was showcased in the 70th National Day parade on October 1, 2019.

Design

Overview

The Type 15 is designed to fulfill the requirement for a lighter, more mobile modern tank that can effectively operate in

highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

and water-rich regions where the heavier Type 99 and Type 96

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension sys ...

s might have difficulties traversing. In the high altitude region like

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

, the air becomes thin and engines start to lose power. Heavily-armored vehicles such as

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ha ...

and

T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard protective measures include a blend of steel and compos ...

main battle tanks will have difficulty to traverse in the hypoxic environment, but the Type-15 light tank can operate at high altitudes with its powerful engine and oxygen generators. The new tank is also much more mobile than heavier main battle tanks due to its light weight and high power/weight ratio.

Armament

Type 15 light tank features a fully-stabilized

105 mm 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

rifled In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the proj ...

gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, pr ...

, which is reportedly superior to the old ZPL-94 105 mm rifled gun fitted on Type 88 and

Type 59 tank The Type 59 (; industrial designation: WZ-120) main battle tank is a Chinese-produced version of the Soviet T-54A tank, an early model of the ubiquitous T-54/55 series. The first vehicles were produced in 1958 and it was accepted into service ...

s. It is reported that the main gun has an effective firing range of 3 km and is compatible with all standard NATO 105 mm tank ammunition. The sustained fire rate is supported by a

bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

-mounted

autoloader An autoloader or auto-loader is a mechanical aid or replacement for the personnel that load ordnance into crew-served weapons without being an integrated part of the gun itself. The term is generally only applied to larger weapons, such as naval ...

system, which reduces the crew to 3. The spent cases are ejected automatically via a hatch at the turret rear. The Type 15 tank can hold 38 rounds of various 105 mm

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

s. The ammunition selections include

APFSDS Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

and HE (High explosive) rounds and gun-launched

ATGM An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

. APFSDS and HEAT rounds are used against enemy armor while HE round is used against enemy infantry positions, light/non-armored vehicles, buildings, and field fortifications. The APFSDS

projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in ...

s are capable of penetrating of armored steel at . The penetration capabilities of 105 mm APFSDS are not considered as sufficient to penetrate the front armor of modern

s such as

VT-4 The VT-4 (), also known as the MBT-3000, is a Chinese third generation main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export. Development During the development of Type 90-II/Al-Khalid (also known as MBT-2000) in the 1980s, the gearbox and e ...

. To defeat well-protected opponents, the tank would use the 105 mm gun-launched

with tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads, offering much higher penetration. The missile reportedly has a range of 5 km and is capable of engaging low-flying helicopters. Other armament includes a QJT-88 5.8 mm coaxial machine gun, a remotely-controlled weapon station mounted on the turret roof, which is fitted with

QLZ-04 The Type 04 automatic grenade launcher (military designation QLZ-04) is a Chinese 35x32SR mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher, developed as an alternative to the older QLZ-87. It may be vehicle-mounted or crew-served. See also *QLZ-87 grena ...

35 mm

automatic grenade launcher An automatic grenade launcher (AGL) or grenade machine gun is a grenade launcher that is capable of fully automatic fire, and is typically loaded with either an ammunition belt or magazine. These weapons are often mounted on vehicles or helicopte ...

and QJC-88 12.7 mm

heavy machine gun A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light machine gun, light, medium machine gun, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require weapon mount, mountin ...

Electronics

Type 15 features modern sensory and fire control systems, including

laser rangefinder A laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by sending a laser pulse in ...

, advanced ballistic computer, meteorological sensors, gunner

thermal imaging Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video and/or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared i ...

sight, millimeter-wave radar, and

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

's panoramic

sight Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...

. The fire control system supports automatic target tracking, hunter-killer capabilities, and commander takeover. Other equipment includes

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

system, oxygen-production equipment for the crew,

command and control Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

equipment, battlefield management system, and navigation suite fitted with both

inertial navigation system An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (dire ...

(INS) and

satellite navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

system.

Protection

Unlike previous Chinese tanks with carousel-style autoloader, the ammunition in Type 15 is retrieved from a tail

with blowout panels. The ammunitions are stored in the

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

for improved safety. Type 15 tank features two sets of armor packages providing different tactical mobility. Standard armor package features steel armor protection with additional layers of advanced composite armor panels covering the tank turret, hull, and two sides, with additional lightweight

explosive reactive armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ene ...

blocks protecting the front hull. The enhanced package features thicker

(ERA) blocks, in addition to the composite armor panels underneath, covering the whole tank turret and hull. ERA mounted armor-skirt and

slat armor Slat armor (or slat armour in British English), also known as bar armor, cage armor, and standoff armor, is a type of vehicle armor designed to protect against high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) attacks, as used by anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM ...

can also be mounted on the side and rear side of the tank hull for additional protection. Enhanced armor set is designed for open area battle under heavy defensive conditions. The Type 15 light tank is fitted with a laser warning sensor system to detect incoming rangefinding and anti-tank missiles, and the tank can automatically deploy smoke grenades in dischargers if the tank is being illuminated by enemy laser beam. Chinese-designed active protection system can be mounted on export-oriented VT-5 variant as per customer request. Other protective features include

chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence (CBRN defence) are protective measures taken in situations in which chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear warfare (including terrorism) hazards may be present. CBRN defence consist ...

(CBRN) protection, and fire suppression system. The vehicle also features oxygen generators to aid in high-altitude operations.

Mobility

The Type 15 is powered by a 1,000 hp (746 kW) electronically controlled diesel engine, with hydro-mechanical full automatic transmission. The tank is also capable of neutral steering and features hydropneumatic suspension. Due to its lighter weight, the Type 15 tank can be more easily

airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distanc ...

ed.

Y-20 The Xi'an Y-20 Kunpeng () is a large military transport aircraft developed by the Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation for the People's Republic of China (PRC). The aircraft is nicknamed "Chubby Girl" () in the Chinese aviation industry becaus ...

transport planes can only carry one Type 99 tank but can carry up to two Type 15 tanks and achieve long-range deployment of 7,800 kilometers. ZTQ-15 can also be paradropped by the transport aircraft.

Operational history

During the China-India border dispute along the

Line of Actual Control The Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the context of the Sino-Indian border dispute, is a notional demarcation lineAnanth KrishnanLine of Actual Control , India-China: the line of actual contest, 13 June 2020: "In contrast, the alignment o ...

(LAC) in June 2020, Type 15 tanks were reportedly deployed in the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...

Variants

;Type 15 / ZTQ-15: Designation for military version. ;Type 15 Armored Recovery Vehicle: Recovery vehicle based on Type 15 chassis. ;VT-5: Different design similar to the ZTQ-15 that is made for export. There are noticeable design differences. The driver's hatch on the VT-5 is positioned at the center front hull whereas the ZTQ-15 driver's hatch is located on the left. The upper front hull of the VT-5 is noticeably curved whereas the ZTQ-15 is straight. The modular add-on armor kits are also noticeably different. ;VT-5BD: Customized variant of VT-5 made for

Bangladesh Army The Bangladesh Army is the land warfare branch and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to provide necessary forces and capabilities to deliver the Bangladeshi government's security and def ...

. The main armament 105 mm rifled gun is improved with thermal sleeve and fume extractor system. The tanks are equipped with GL-5 APS, but the automatic 12.7 mm machine gun has been replaced with a manual one.

Operators

* **: 400 units as of 2021.

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think T ...

: The Military Balance 2022, p.256 ** * **: 44 VT-5 units on order.

References

{{Post-Cold War tanks, style=wide Light tanks of the People's Republic of China Tanks with autoloaders Post–Cold War light tanks Military vehicles introduced in the 2010s Norinco