Al-Khalid tank

1 x 12.7 -mm machine gun ( tower top )

Al- Khalid is a Pakistani battle tank. This pattern is (besides the atomic bomb ) the tip of the efforts of the Pakistani government to an independent Pakistani military production dar.

Description

The planning and testing was subject to numerous problems to the production in 2000 could start. A year later, the troops received the first copy. Currently, it is estimated that more than 320 vehicles of this type in the armed forces of Pakistan in the service. There are more to come. Decisive for the development of the tank was the cooperation with the People's Republic of China and Ukraine. The influence of the Chinese defense company Norinco is visible, for example, at the 125 -mm smooth-bore gun with self-loading mechanism, which is built on the Chinese Type 98. Be drawn 90 II parallels in the literature between the Al- Khalid and the Chinese type, which is the basis of the design of the Pakistani model. Since the Type 90 II has not met the expectations of the People's Liberation Army, however, you can assume that the draft has been amended accordingly.

The Pakistani tank has as its Chinese counterpart a Kompositpanzerung, supplemented by reactive plates. Likewise, it is based on modern electronics for sighting the enemy. The tank is fully night capable of fighting. Particular attention was paid during development to suitability in desert terrain, thus the decision was made at the expense of the Chinese engines on the reliable Ukrainian engines. At the same time also shows the dilemma is an independent arms production. The tank is indeed assembled in Pakistan, but come the most and especially many critical components from China or Ukraine. Thus can be of real independence question. The real savings in the tank self- development can be seen in terms of the price of foreign exchange for the purchase of comparable Western or Russian copies. The cost to the finished prototype are, according to the Pakistani military with only 20 million U.S. dollars.