Chapter 340: Design Drawings of the Third‑Generation Tank

Locust Tree Ridge, 201 Institute.

Zhu Lao stood at the doorway, gazing at the distant road.

"Old Zhu, what's wrong?"

"Old Zhu, who are you waiting for?"

"Qin Miao."

"What? Is he coming over today?"

"Yes." Zhu Lao nodded: "Qin Miao said he'd come today. I'm waiting for him at the door!"

This…

Soon, the roar of a sports car sounded; last night's meeting ran late, after returning I overslept, after getting up I washed my face, then drove the sports car over in a hurry, and sure enough, from afar I saw Zhu Lao's figure.

"Zhu Lao, sorry!"

"It's fine." Zhu Lao smiled: "Comrade Qin Miao, I know you've been busy lately, handling many things; you shouldn't have come to bother me, but… our brand‑new third‑generation tank design is finished, and we really need you to look it over…"

Qin Miao quickly shook his head: "Don't, I've never designed a tank, what am I to oversee? Zhu Lao, your words make me feel embarrassed."

"Right, you haven't designed one, but you're better than many who have!" Zhu Lao gave him a sideways glance: "The design proposals you've made for us are all the most suitable; come on, let's go inside!"

Inside the meeting room.

The projector turned on, the curtains were drawn, and Qin Miao looked at the design appearing on the screen, his face full of surprise: "Are we already using computer‑aided design?"

"That's natural." Zhu Lao nodded: "After Loongson (Dragon Core) hit the market, our 201 Institute was among the first to obtain Loongson computers, and we also use the latest computer‑aided design software you all at Ha Gong Da developed; developing tanks this way is much faster than the old paper‑based work!"

Qin Miao widened his eyes, looking at the design.

"Hmm, not bad; the overall design matches what I imagined."

This is a tank with Eastern characteristics, six pairs of road wheels, hull length and width well controlled, with a small turret mounted, the welded‑turret design making it look more modern.

The front features sloped armor, the gun shield is tiny, leaving almost no shot trap, which is an Eastern trait; the rear compartment is also small, the front mounts a 125 mm tank gun, the overall proportions look harmonious, far superior to Western tanks!

Wait, the front of the hull…

"Zhu Lao, the front hull uses a V‑shaped wave‑deflector design; I think it doesn't meet our needs," Qin Miao said.

"Why?"

"Currently we're developing the basic hull; later we'll definitely add appliqué armor, so the hull surface should be flat to facilitate adding that armor later, and this V‑shape would end up completely covered."

In later years, during the 1999 parade, when it was still called the advanced Type 98 tank, it made its first public appearance, and then… many people criticized it, saying this tank looks just like a T‑72.

What they saw was that V‑shaped wave‑deflector on the front hull; it deflects water to the sides when the tank fords, preventing water from pooling in the center, where the driver sits.

However, experience shows this is a useless appendage—few main battle tanks ever ford, so for safety it's better to wait for an AVLB; but appliqué armor is absolutely necessary for tanks—look at our later MBTs, their exteriors are flat, which in fact means they've added explosive‑reactive armor.

Moreover, ours is more advanced, with no seams at all, unlike the Russian tanks that still have such a big gap.

At this moment, hearing Qin Miao's explanation, everyone nodded in agreement.

Tanks will be in service for many years; as armor technology keeps improving, we should reserve space for future upgrades!

"Comrade Qin Miao, do you see anything else that needs changing?"

Qin Miao's gaze turned toward the rear.

"I think the engine can be changed from longitudinal to transverse mounting, which would shorten the length by at least half a meter, meaning we could reduce the weight by over two tonnes!"

Western tank engines are all longitudinally mounted, because most of their hulls are box‑shaped, so longitudinal vs transverse makes little difference; Eastern tanks have long used a transverse layout, inheriting the Russian trait of valuing compactness and agility.

And on the third‑generation tank, this was improved.

The earliest Type 99 had a longitudinal layout; after the major redesign it was switched to transverse, cutting at least half a meter off the length, and the saved weight could be used for extra armor—doesn't that sound great?

"This, transverse mounting probably isn't easy, after all it's closely tied to the transmission system…" said an engineer in charge of the transmission, frowning.

"How's the transmission?"

"Our design uses a hydraulic transmission system that requires a single output shaft to deliver all power…"

Qin Miao shook his head: "Everyone, I think with our current industrial base, even if we designed it we couldn't manufacture it; we'd end up reverting to the old three‑fluid tank approach."

Back then, the East once experimented with a three‑fluid tank combining hydro‑pneumatic suspension, hydraulic transmission, and hydraulic‑assisted control; it sounded impressive, but the machining precision wasn't there, so it ended up just a mock‑up.

By the 1980s the West had begun using hydraulic transmission, but for the East the machining demands were still too high.

In later years, only after the Type 99 upgrade did we finally adopt this transmission; now, even with Ha Gong Da and Qingshan Factory, our basic industry still can't meet the requirements, so it's unusable.

"Even Ha Gong Da can't manage it?"

"We could perhaps build a prototype, but mass production would still be difficult."

Qin Miao recalled the missile launch vehicle—it failed to go into mass production for exactly this reason; indeed, we mustn't rush things.

"Alright, but if we go transverse, what transmission should we use?"

"We've surveyed the T‑72 tank, so of course we'll use its dual‑side transmission design."

Early tanks used a fixed‑shaft gearbox, no different from a car's; power went out, then to the side drive sprockets, with a clutch mechanism in the middle.

And on the T‑72, a true innovation was finally made.

Each side has a gearbox containing three‑degree‑of‑freedom planetary sets; combined they yield seven forward gears and one reverse.

In normal operation the two gearboxes can be shifted together via a manual hydraulic system to the same gear; when steering is needed, the outer gear is set one notch higher than the inner—too bad we can't have one in forward and the other in reverse, otherwise we could achieve the Western‑style high‑end central steering capability!

Using this transmission in early third‑generation tanks would be no disgrace!