China Unveils Next Generation Main Battle Tank: How it Succeeded Where Russia’s T-14 Failed

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Ground Force has unveiled a next generation main battle tank, with footage published on social media showing both the new vehicle and a new infantry fighting vehicle based on the same chassis. Both vehicles are expected to be formally unveiled at an upcoming military parade on Long Peace Street in Beijing on September 3, with the tank standing out for its use of reinforced dynamic protection across its hull and turret. The design appears to have a layered defensive capability and to prioritise crew survivability, with its weapons station being remotely operated, while it appears to use the new GL6 active protection system which continuously monitors the surrounding by radar to automatically deploy protective munitions for interception of any incoming threats. Although Russia was the first to unveil similarly ambitious next generation tank and armoured fighting vehicle designs in 2015, namely theT-14 tank andT-15 fighting vehicle, the limitations of the county’s defence sector and industrial base in the post-Soviet era have prevented these from becoming operational, leaving their futures in serious question. With the Western world having similarly failed to operationalise a post-Cold War tank design, this has allowed China and neighbouring South Korea to gain a lead.

Chinese tanks were notably years ahead of their Russian and Western counterparts in introducing active protection systems, while the country’s defence sector has brought four clean sheet post-Cold War tank designs into service over the last three decades, compared to none at all in Russia or the West. This has placed it in a strong position to widen its lead with the latest tank program. Although China’s ground forces have received less funding for equipment modernisation than the Navy or Air Force, due to the geographic nature of the primary threats posed to Chinese security by the country’s Western adversaries, the rate of modernisation has nevertheless been among the fastest in the world.

China’s defence sector has made important progress towards operationalising tank designs with a number of revolutionary new features, with a next generation lightweight battle tank confirmed in June 22 to have already reached a prototype and trial stage. The vehicle pioneered new levels of automation to achieve a reduction of crew requirements to just two personnel through very high levels of automation, compared to four personnel on U.S., British and German tanks and three on South Korean, Russian and other Chinese tanks. A new hybrid-powered tank was confirmed to have begun field testing in June 2025, which is reported to have significantly reduced the vehicle’s acoustic signature, accelerated torque delivery, and provided much greater support for potential future energy-intensive onboard systems such as electronic warfare systems and directed energy weapons.

China’s most capable class of battle tank, the Type 99A, first entered service in 2011, although relatively little is known about its capabilities largely due to secrecy surrounding the program.The rate of modernisation in China’s ground forces, however, had long indicated that a more advanced next generation tank design was likely to begin to be brought into service some time in the 2020s as a successor. It remains uncertain, however, whether the new tank will match the Type 99A’s relative heavy 55 ton size, and whether its service entry will result in a total end to production of the Type 96 and Type 99 which have been procured in large numbers over the last two decades. The use of a common chassis for an armoured personnel carrier and a main battle tank, although failing to be completed and financed in Russia, offers significant advantages including commonality of maintenance and training, and the reduced costs for development upgrades and new subsystems. The modular nature of the new tank design raises the possibly that it could integrate new kinds of armaments in future, including a 140mm or 152mm main gun.