Type 69 and Type 71 APFSDS

Machinery of War Discussion Ground Vehicle
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Type 69 in the main tree features a 100mm smoothbore gun and along with it comes an obscure Type 71 apfsds round that everyone hates due to its bad performance.

So today I’m raising awareness about this shell and what its performance should be. Enjoy.

Caliber: 100mm
Projectile with Sabot weight: 4.7kg
Projectile weight: 3.44kg
Shell length: 502mm
Armour piercing part length: 450mm
Armour piercing part diameter: 40mm
Tungsten core shell length: 180mm
Tungsten core shell diameter: 14mm
Tungsten core shell weight: 0.5kg
Tungsten core shell material: Tungsten alloy
Initial velocity: 1505m/s
Velocity attenuation per kilometer: 150m/s
Penetration:
100mm @ 1500m at 60 degrees

Resources:
《兵工学报箭弹分册》1981年第2期——杆式脱壳穿甲弹的研制 张树权
《华东工学院学报》1985年第3期——穿甲弹芯结构的试验分析 毛季达 赵国志 王网喜
《PT73/PT86式100毫米滑膛反坦克炮兵器与操作教程》
《中国人民解放军通用弹药图册》1987年版
《常规兵器产品手册》

Penetration:
243mm @ 0m (0)- 1505m/s
142mm @ 0m (60)

238mm @ 100m (0)- 1490m/s
139mm @ 100m (60)

220mm @ 500m (0) - 1430m/s
129mm @ 500m (60)

197mm @ 1000m (0)- 1355m/s
115mm @ 1000m (60)

171mm @ 1500m (0)- 1280m/s
100mm @ 1500m (60)

145mm @ 2000m (0)- 1205m/s
85mm @ 2000m (60)

Thumbs up to FuryKnight_208 for bringing this knowledge to us via the gaijin bug report site.


The Type 73 100mm or PT73-100 APFSDS is identical to the Type 71 apfsds projectile, the difference is that Type 71 apfsds is shot from the 100mm smoothbore tank gun and the other from the Chinese 100mm smoothbore field gun.
The 100mm Type 71 apfsds production began in 1971.

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That would be nice. But I recommend you to post this in suggestions, not in discussion.

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Do you know why the Chinese left that gun aside and returned to the old 100mm rifled guns?

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The cultural revolution pulled PRC into a stall in the 60s. The 100mm smoothbore gun is already outdated when it’s produced. Then PRC procured L7s making the 100gun even less useful

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Most likely due to production quality issues. Also, the Chinese had only limited understanding on material science and ammo design back 1970s and thus there were so many flaws in the infamous Type73 APFSDS that its firing accuracy and penetration performance never met PLA‘s requirements in 1970s.
However the Type69 smoothbore cannon did have some potentials. Its penetration could rival early L7 when using properly designed APFSDS ammo. But when its problems were handled China had already decided on buying L7 105mm cannons so it soon became useless and outdated.

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