Family of armored vehicles WZ 551 (China)
In 1986, China first showed its new armored personnel carrier WZ 551 (aka "Type 90" or ZSL-90). The characteristic appearance of this car was the reason for the emergence of suspicions of copying the French VAB car. However, France did not confirm the transfer of documents or finished equipment, and China claimed that the new armored personnel carrier is a completely domestic development based on one of the Chinese chassis with some foreign help. The latter concerned the power plant of the base truck and the new armored vehicle. These units were of West German origin.
Although the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier can indeed be considered a Chinese development, there is reason to believe that NORINCO specialists, when creating this project, took into account some trends in the development of foreign armored vehicles. This is what can explain the external and layout similarities of the "Type 90" and some foreign armored vehicles of that time.
The development of the WZ 551 project started in the early eighties. The purpose of these works was to create a new modern wheeled armored vehicle for transporting personnel. In addition, the possibility of using such an armored personnel carrier as the basis for other types of equipment was taken into account. In the first half of the eighties, several prototypes of the new machine were built, on which the proposed ideas were worked out. In the middle of the decade, the new armored personnel carrier went into series.
The main task of the WZ 551 was to be the transportation of soldiers and their support on the battlefield, which affected its appearance. In addition, in the guise of a Chinese armored personnel carrier, some ideas are visible that have already been used with foreign equipment of a similar purpose. For example, the frontal part of the hull strongly resembles the units of the French VAB machine and Soviet-designed armored personnel carriers.
The armored hull of the WZ 551 wheeled armored personnel carrier has an interesting layout. In front of it there is a department of management with jobs for the driver and commander. In the upper frontal part of the hull, two windshields are provided, if necessary, closed with armored covers. In a combat situation, viewing devices located above the glasses are used for review. Medium can be replaced by night vision devices. There are two hatches in the roof of the hull through which the driver and commander can get into their seats.
Immediately behind the control compartment is the engine compartment. The units of the power plant are shifted to the port side, due to which the right side has room for a narrow hole connecting the control compartment with the aft habitable volume. In the stern there is a troop compartment with seats for 10 fighters. The stern sheet provides a door for paratroopers.
The body of the armored personnel carrier WZ 551 is welded from armor plates of relatively small thickness. It is known that the reservation of the car, located at rational angles of inclination, provides protection against small-arms bullets. weapons and light fragments. There is no exact information about the level of protection.
Armored personnel carriers of the early series were equipped with a BF8L413F diesel engine from the German company Deutz, produced in China under license. The early powerplant included a manual transmission with nine forward speeds and one reverse gear. In the future, the composition of the power plant changed in accordance with the capabilities of Chinese industry. Newer engines and automatic transmissions were used.
The six-wheel chassis received an independent spring suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers. The front axle wheels are steerable. For the convenience of the driver, a power steering was used. To move through the water in the aft part of the hull, there are two jet propulsion. These units are made in the form of propellers inside the annular channel.
The armament of the first armored personnel carrier of the WZ 551 family changed several times. The first prototypes were not equipped with any weapons. Later, a small turret was mounted on them, resembling the combat module of Soviet armored personnel carriers. Finally, a machine with a standard turret for Chinese armored vehicles, on which coaxial machine guns of 12,7 and 7,62 mm caliber were mounted, went into production. In addition, the turret could carry a pair of smoke grenade launchers. Next to the turret, on the hatch in the roof of the car, a high armored shield was installed, covering the shooter from bullets and shrapnel. The export version of the armored personnel carrier called WZ 551F differed from the base one in the absence of a shield and a number of other details.
Almost half the length of the hull of the BTC WZ 551 is occupied by the troop compartment located in the stern. It provided space for ten fighters with weapons. For landing and disembarking, the landing force could use the door in the aft hull sheet, as well as four hatches in the roof. The sides had four loopholes for firing personal weapons. It was proposed to search for targets and aim weapons with the help of periscope observation devices placed on the roof of the hull, above the embrasures.
Despite the large capacity of the troop compartment, the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier turned out to be quite compact. Its length was 6,65 m, width - 2,8 m, height - 2,7 m. The combat weight was 15 tons.
The first armored personnel carrier of the family had good mobility. On the highway, the car could accelerate to 85 km / h. The fuel range when driving on the highway reached 600 km.
The supply of serial armored personnel carriers for the ground forces began in the mid-eighties. Soon, work began on new modifications of the machine, designed to perform various specific tasks.
One of the first appeared police modification of the armored personnel carrier. The car for law enforcement agencies and the People's Armed Militia (internal troops) received the designation ZSL-90WJ. The police armored vehicle differs from the basic version in the composition of communications equipment and weapons. In addition, police armored personnel carriers were traditionally painted white and had a black stripe on the sides.
To perform transport tasks, a special modification of the armored personnel carrier was developed. The WZ 551S lost its armament and landing seats. The carrying capacity was 7 tons.
The ground forces received the WY551 ambulance. In the troop compartment, places were placed for one medic and four wounded. To install all the necessary equipment, a new roof had to be used, which increased the height of the habitable volume. For self-defense, the ambulance received a turret with a heavy machine gun.
By dismantling the tower and installing a crane, as well as a number of other equipment, the repair and recovery vehicle WZ 531 was created. The main task of this vehicle is to carry out repairs, etc. tasks that require special equipment.
In order to increase the firepower of motorized rifle units, two variants of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles based on the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier were created. The first, WZ 551A or "Type 92", received a new combat module in the form of a single tower of low height. The turret had a 25 mm automatic cannon and a coaxial 7,62 mm machine gun. The gun ammunition consisted of 400 rounds (200 ready for use and 200 in laying), the machine gun ammunition - 1000 rounds. The gunner-operator of weapons had two periscope and one combined (day / night) sights. On the cheekbones of the tower there were smoke grenade launchers. The rest of the car is similar to the base armored personnel carrier.
It is known about the construction of infantry fighting vehicles armed with 73-mm guns. This modification of the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier received a turret borrowed from the WZ 501 infantry fighting vehicle (a copy of the Soviet BMP-1). This armored vehicle carried a 73-mm cannon, a coaxial machine gun and HJ-73 anti-tank missiles.
Based on the WZ 551, self-propelled anti-aircraft systems were developed. So, in the middle of the 90s, the Yitian car appeared. She received a combat module with a set of equipment for monitoring the air situation and two packages with four containers of TY-18 missiles. For self-defense, a large-caliber machine gun was installed above the commander's hatch. The radar station of the Yitian complex is capable of detecting targets at ranges up to 10 km and taking them for escort within a radius of 90 km. TY-0,3 missiles ensure the destruction of air targets at ranges of 6-15 km at altitudes from 4 m to 400 km. The maximum speed of the intercepted target is XNUMX m / s.
An interesting modification is the 120-mm self-propelled mortar, the exact name of which is still unknown. A turret with a 120 mm caliber gun was installed on the base three-axle chassis. According to some reports, the used tower is a modified version of the corresponding units of the Russian Nona-S system.
In the early nineties, they tried to install a French-made GIAT Dragar turret on the WZ 551 chassis. This version of the armored vehicle received the designation NGV-1. The French combat module carried a 25 mm automatic cannon, a 7,62 mm machine gun and a set of sighting equipment.
In the early nineties, on the basis of a fairly successful design of the WZ 551, several armored vehicles with a different chassis architecture were created. A shortened version with a 4x4 wheel formula appeared, called the Type 92B. Due to the limited performance, this machine was only used as a carrier of anti-tank missiles. The HJ-9 self-propelled anti-tank missile system carries a turret with a set of observation equipment and four missile transport and launch containers.
There was a project for an armored vehicle with an 8x8 wheel formula. The extended chassis was to become the basis for a self-propelled artillery mount with a 122 mm caliber gun. The gun was proposed to be placed in a tower with limited horizontal aiming angles.
On the basis of a four-axle chassis, an anti-aircraft self-propelled gun WZ 554 was developed, armed with a turret with two automatic guns of 23 mm caliber. For a number of reasons, this project stopped at the prototype testing stage.
Since the mid-eighties, the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier and various vehicles based on it have been supplied to the People's Liberation Army of China. In addition, some foreign countries have shown their interest in these machines. The main customers of Chinese armored vehicles have become small, poor countries that are not able to purchase weapons from the world's largest manufacturers. In particular, this affected the volume of deliveries. For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina were able to purchase only 10 cars in the WZ 551F version.
A different number of armored personnel carriers WZ 551 and other equipment of the family is used by the armed forces of Argentina, Gabon, Kenya, Nepal, Sudan, Zambia and other countries. Equipment of the WZ 551 family was supplied to 17 countries. The largest customer was Sri Lanka, which bought 190 armored vehicles of several modifications.
The first version of the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier was created about three decades ago, but such equipment is still of some interest to potential customers. With an eye on export deliveries, new vehicles are being created on the basis of a relatively old armored personnel carrier. So, in November last year, at the Airshow China 2014 exhibition, NORINCO for the first time introduced a new car of the family called VN2.
The VN2 differs from the previous equipment with a new combat module with a 30-mm automatic cannon, a modified set of on-board equipment and a modified design of the armored hull. In particular, the number of onboard embrasures of the troop compartment has been reduced. Information about future deliveries of the VN2 armored personnel carrier is not yet available.
The WZ 551 armored personnel carrier is not the newest or most advanced type of Chinese armored vehicles, but it is actively used by the troops, and is also being built for deliveries to foreign customers. In general, this car can be considered a "strong average", which turned out to be a very convenient basis for various types of armored vehicles.
On the materials of the sites:
http://armyrecognition.com/
http://globalsecurity.org/
http://otvaga.narod.ru/
http://army-guide.com/
http://defenseupdates.blogspot.ru/
Although the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier can indeed be considered a Chinese development, there is reason to believe that NORINCO specialists, when creating this project, took into account some trends in the development of foreign armored vehicles. This is what can explain the external and layout similarities of the "Type 90" and some foreign armored vehicles of that time.
The development of the WZ 551 project started in the early eighties. The purpose of these works was to create a new modern wheeled armored vehicle for transporting personnel. In addition, the possibility of using such an armored personnel carrier as the basis for other types of equipment was taken into account. In the first half of the eighties, several prototypes of the new machine were built, on which the proposed ideas were worked out. In the middle of the decade, the new armored personnel carrier went into series.
The main task of the WZ 551 was to be the transportation of soldiers and their support on the battlefield, which affected its appearance. In addition, in the guise of a Chinese armored personnel carrier, some ideas are visible that have already been used with foreign equipment of a similar purpose. For example, the frontal part of the hull strongly resembles the units of the French VAB machine and Soviet-designed armored personnel carriers.
The armored hull of the WZ 551 wheeled armored personnel carrier has an interesting layout. In front of it there is a department of management with jobs for the driver and commander. In the upper frontal part of the hull, two windshields are provided, if necessary, closed with armored covers. In a combat situation, viewing devices located above the glasses are used for review. Medium can be replaced by night vision devices. There are two hatches in the roof of the hull through which the driver and commander can get into their seats.
Immediately behind the control compartment is the engine compartment. The units of the power plant are shifted to the port side, due to which the right side has room for a narrow hole connecting the control compartment with the aft habitable volume. In the stern there is a troop compartment with seats for 10 fighters. The stern sheet provides a door for paratroopers.
The body of the armored personnel carrier WZ 551 is welded from armor plates of relatively small thickness. It is known that the reservation of the car, located at rational angles of inclination, provides protection against small-arms bullets. weapons and light fragments. There is no exact information about the level of protection.
Armored personnel carriers of the early series were equipped with a BF8L413F diesel engine from the German company Deutz, produced in China under license. The early powerplant included a manual transmission with nine forward speeds and one reverse gear. In the future, the composition of the power plant changed in accordance with the capabilities of Chinese industry. Newer engines and automatic transmissions were used.
The six-wheel chassis received an independent spring suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers. The front axle wheels are steerable. For the convenience of the driver, a power steering was used. To move through the water in the aft part of the hull, there are two jet propulsion. These units are made in the form of propellers inside the annular channel.
The armament of the first armored personnel carrier of the WZ 551 family changed several times. The first prototypes were not equipped with any weapons. Later, a small turret was mounted on them, resembling the combat module of Soviet armored personnel carriers. Finally, a machine with a standard turret for Chinese armored vehicles, on which coaxial machine guns of 12,7 and 7,62 mm caliber were mounted, went into production. In addition, the turret could carry a pair of smoke grenade launchers. Next to the turret, on the hatch in the roof of the car, a high armored shield was installed, covering the shooter from bullets and shrapnel. The export version of the armored personnel carrier called WZ 551F differed from the base one in the absence of a shield and a number of other details.
Almost half the length of the hull of the BTC WZ 551 is occupied by the troop compartment located in the stern. It provided space for ten fighters with weapons. For landing and disembarking, the landing force could use the door in the aft hull sheet, as well as four hatches in the roof. The sides had four loopholes for firing personal weapons. It was proposed to search for targets and aim weapons with the help of periscope observation devices placed on the roof of the hull, above the embrasures.
Despite the large capacity of the troop compartment, the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier turned out to be quite compact. Its length was 6,65 m, width - 2,8 m, height - 2,7 m. The combat weight was 15 tons.
The first armored personnel carrier of the family had good mobility. On the highway, the car could accelerate to 85 km / h. The fuel range when driving on the highway reached 600 km.
The supply of serial armored personnel carriers for the ground forces began in the mid-eighties. Soon, work began on new modifications of the machine, designed to perform various specific tasks.
One of the first appeared police modification of the armored personnel carrier. The car for law enforcement agencies and the People's Armed Militia (internal troops) received the designation ZSL-90WJ. The police armored vehicle differs from the basic version in the composition of communications equipment and weapons. In addition, police armored personnel carriers were traditionally painted white and had a black stripe on the sides.
To perform transport tasks, a special modification of the armored personnel carrier was developed. The WZ 551S lost its armament and landing seats. The carrying capacity was 7 tons.
The ground forces received the WY551 ambulance. In the troop compartment, places were placed for one medic and four wounded. To install all the necessary equipment, a new roof had to be used, which increased the height of the habitable volume. For self-defense, the ambulance received a turret with a heavy machine gun.
By dismantling the tower and installing a crane, as well as a number of other equipment, the repair and recovery vehicle WZ 531 was created. The main task of this vehicle is to carry out repairs, etc. tasks that require special equipment.
In order to increase the firepower of motorized rifle units, two variants of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles based on the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier were created. The first, WZ 551A or "Type 92", received a new combat module in the form of a single tower of low height. The turret had a 25 mm automatic cannon and a coaxial 7,62 mm machine gun. The gun ammunition consisted of 400 rounds (200 ready for use and 200 in laying), the machine gun ammunition - 1000 rounds. The gunner-operator of weapons had two periscope and one combined (day / night) sights. On the cheekbones of the tower there were smoke grenade launchers. The rest of the car is similar to the base armored personnel carrier.
It is known about the construction of infantry fighting vehicles armed with 73-mm guns. This modification of the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier received a turret borrowed from the WZ 501 infantry fighting vehicle (a copy of the Soviet BMP-1). This armored vehicle carried a 73-mm cannon, a coaxial machine gun and HJ-73 anti-tank missiles.
Based on the WZ 551, self-propelled anti-aircraft systems were developed. So, in the middle of the 90s, the Yitian car appeared. She received a combat module with a set of equipment for monitoring the air situation and two packages with four containers of TY-18 missiles. For self-defense, a large-caliber machine gun was installed above the commander's hatch. The radar station of the Yitian complex is capable of detecting targets at ranges up to 10 km and taking them for escort within a radius of 90 km. TY-0,3 missiles ensure the destruction of air targets at ranges of 6-15 km at altitudes from 4 m to 400 km. The maximum speed of the intercepted target is XNUMX m / s.
An interesting modification is the 120-mm self-propelled mortar, the exact name of which is still unknown. A turret with a 120 mm caliber gun was installed on the base three-axle chassis. According to some reports, the used tower is a modified version of the corresponding units of the Russian Nona-S system.
In the early nineties, they tried to install a French-made GIAT Dragar turret on the WZ 551 chassis. This version of the armored vehicle received the designation NGV-1. The French combat module carried a 25 mm automatic cannon, a 7,62 mm machine gun and a set of sighting equipment.
In the early nineties, on the basis of a fairly successful design of the WZ 551, several armored vehicles with a different chassis architecture were created. A shortened version with a 4x4 wheel formula appeared, called the Type 92B. Due to the limited performance, this machine was only used as a carrier of anti-tank missiles. The HJ-9 self-propelled anti-tank missile system carries a turret with a set of observation equipment and four missile transport and launch containers.
There was a project for an armored vehicle with an 8x8 wheel formula. The extended chassis was to become the basis for a self-propelled artillery mount with a 122 mm caliber gun. The gun was proposed to be placed in a tower with limited horizontal aiming angles.
On the basis of a four-axle chassis, an anti-aircraft self-propelled gun WZ 554 was developed, armed with a turret with two automatic guns of 23 mm caliber. For a number of reasons, this project stopped at the prototype testing stage.
Since the mid-eighties, the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier and various vehicles based on it have been supplied to the People's Liberation Army of China. In addition, some foreign countries have shown their interest in these machines. The main customers of Chinese armored vehicles have become small, poor countries that are not able to purchase weapons from the world's largest manufacturers. In particular, this affected the volume of deliveries. For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina were able to purchase only 10 cars in the WZ 551F version.
A different number of armored personnel carriers WZ 551 and other equipment of the family is used by the armed forces of Argentina, Gabon, Kenya, Nepal, Sudan, Zambia and other countries. Equipment of the WZ 551 family was supplied to 17 countries. The largest customer was Sri Lanka, which bought 190 armored vehicles of several modifications.
The first version of the WZ 551 armored personnel carrier was created about three decades ago, but such equipment is still of some interest to potential customers. With an eye on export deliveries, new vehicles are being created on the basis of a relatively old armored personnel carrier. So, in November last year, at the Airshow China 2014 exhibition, NORINCO for the first time introduced a new car of the family called VN2.
The VN2 differs from the previous equipment with a new combat module with a 30-mm automatic cannon, a modified set of on-board equipment and a modified design of the armored hull. In particular, the number of onboard embrasures of the troop compartment has been reduced. Information about future deliveries of the VN2 armored personnel carrier is not yet available.
The WZ 551 armored personnel carrier is not the newest or most advanced type of Chinese armored vehicles, but it is actively used by the troops, and is also being built for deliveries to foreign customers. In general, this car can be considered a "strong average", which turned out to be a very convenient basis for various types of armored vehicles.
On the materials of the sites:
http://armyrecognition.com/
http://globalsecurity.org/
http://otvaga.narod.ru/
http://army-guide.com/
http://defenseupdates.blogspot.ru/
- Ryabov Kirill
- Igor Korotchenko
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