The government-run news organization cited an army war game as one example. With zero recent combat experience, the PLA's tactics and training in some cases are inadequate, Global Times reported. IISS predicted the Chinese army might remove from service all pre-1997 tanks and equip a smaller number of combined-arms units exclusively with Type 96s and 99s.īut the PLA will need doctrine to match the more modern equipment. The PLA has around 3,400 Type 96s and 99s. The Type 99, currently in production, adds reactive armor and modern computer systems. The Type 96, in production from 1997 to 2005, boasts a 125-millimeter smoothbore gun, composite armored and stabilized sights. IISS claimed the Type 79s and 88s equip just a handful of units in China’s mountainous northern and western regions. There are around 500 Type 79s and Type 88s in PLA service. The similar Type 88, in production in the late 1980s and 1990s, adds a stabilized sight. The Type 79, which China produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has a 105-millimeter rifled gun and steel armor. It’s unlikely they would play a meaningful role in a high-intensity conflict. These older tanks are “effectively obsolete,” according to IISS. Type 59s account for around 2,900 of China’s 6,900 active tanks. The Type 59 features a 100-millimeter smoothbore or 105-millimeter rifled cannon and steel armor.

The Type 59 is a license-built Russian T-54 that China produced from 1958 to 1978. “The volume and cost involved in producing sufficient modern tank designs to equip this force has, however, proved to be a significant challenge for the PLA, and it is only recently that the percentage of the tank force so-equipped has risen above 50 percent.”

Tank force