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Old 10-10-2018, 11:24 AM
RN7 RN7 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shrike6 View Post
You're not totally right on this. The Chinese did have license to produce a copy of the 105mm L/7 Tank Gun and used it on their Type 79 and Type 88 MBTs. Which makes the case for M60 and M48A5s that much stronger. since 105mm ammo is already in their supply chain.
The Type 79 and Type 88 tanks were armed with Chinese licence procured variants of the British designed L7 105mm tank gun. China built around 100 Type 79 and 500 Type 88A/B tanks that were mainly used by Chinese forces rather than exported. After 1995 Chinese tank production switched over to the Type 88C or Type 96 tank armed with a copy of the Soviet 125mm gun.

So out of a tank fleet of over 8,000 units in the mid-1990's about 600 at most can use NATO ammunition, and after the Soviets invade in 1995 that is a rapidly dwindling number of tanks. Replacement tanks could of course be built but the factory that produced the Type 79 and Type 88 tanks and many other Chinese vehicles was 617 Institute, Inner Mongolia No. 1 Machinery Plant at Baotou in Inner Mongolia in Northern China, and it lay right in the path of invading Soviet forces.

Regarding supplying China with surplus M48 and M60 tanks, that is another argument.
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