CCTV reveals production line of battle tank for export
Chief Designer Feng Yibai [Photo/CCTV] |
Feng Yibai, the chief designer of VT-4, decided to produce the country's own tank "heart", which was added to the vehicle in 2012.
"VT-4 adopts the automatic technique, which makes the tank like a family car. Drivers only have to focus on accelerating and braking, which is much easier than driving the former ones. Drivers could also help the commander to observe situations," Cao Fuhui, a senior manager of Norinco, said.
The new engine compartment has also shortened the amount of time it takes to replace. Former compartments might require a night for engineers to replace it with a new one, but now it takes only about 40 minutes.
The CCTV documentary said that VT-4s have an automatic shell-loading system, which means only three soldiers are required to operate such a tank. Only two countries can produce this automatic system.