The Thai T-84 should not fire any Chinese ammunition - especially the BTA4

BTA4 is designed for Pakistan’s T-80UD and requires modifications to be used. The Thai T-84 has not been modified for BTA4 at all; it has no capability, nor is there any reality-based evidence to suggest it can fire BTA4! On the contrary, Pakistan’s T-80UD can fire BTA4, but gaijin refuses to add it, claiming that ‘there is no proof of actual use of BTA4.’ So, does the Thai T-84 have any evidence to prove ‘the capability to use’ and ‘actual use of’ BTA4?

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This claim seems entirely baseless. BTA4 is just exported DTW-125, and by NORINCO’s own words it is compatible with other 125-mm guns with no mention of it requiring modification within the public patent of the projectile. We do know that Thailand has BTA4, purchased with the VT4, through pictures taken of the projectiles during Thai training exercises.

That is to all Chinese 125mm, which in theory includes T-84 since the gun breeches aren’t that different however we do have suggestions to the pakistani forces modifying the round to make them compatible to T-80UD, and assuming they are all completely compatible that wouldn’t be the case.

The only Chinese 125-mm is the ZPT98, which is a derivative of the 2A46 with a reinforced breech to increase barrel lifespan with the new DCT-10-125 projectile. It’s not “in theory,” the BTA4 is actively used with the T-80UD and there is literally no other 125-mm they could be talking about aside from the 125-mm that the ZPT98 is a derivative of.

I haven’t been able to find anything confirming that the T-80UD’s autoloader had to be remodeled to accommodate BTA4. The only thing I’ve found is that the projectile can cause the guns to wear down quicker than lower powered Soviet-era projectiles, which is also the entire reason that the ZPT98 was developed to reinforce the breech to handle the higher pressures of the DTW-125 and later the DTC-10-125. However, that doesn’t mean the BTA4 wasn’t capable of being fired from 2A46, just that it could reduce the gun’s lifespan.