On 22 September 2020, the Pakistan Army (PA) showed-off a newly acquired VT4 main battle tank (MBT) at the Field Firing Ranges near Jhelum. Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa, observed the demonstration and “expressed satisfaction over demonstrated performance” of the VT4.
In a statement via Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Army said that it will employ the VT4 tank as an offensive asset in its strike formations. The ISPR added that the VT4 is comparable “with any modern tank in the world” and offers “advanced armour protection, maneuverability, fire power capabilities and state-of-the-art technology.” The VT4 tank will join the al-Khalid Improved (al-Khalid-I) as a new addition to the Armoured Corps – Pakistan inducted the latter in August 2020.
Pakistan’s VT4 Tank Program
Pakistan originally evaluated the VT4 tank under the Haider MBT program. The PA sought the Haider MBT as an off-the-shelf solution for replacing its older tanks. It would also serve as an interim stopgap to handle delays in the domestic al-Khalid MBT program, including the forthcoming al-Khalid-2.
By 2017, the PA had seemingly narrowed its options to the VT4 by NORINCO (China North Industries Group Corporation Limited) and the KMDB (Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau) Oplot-P. In 2018, NORINCO reportedly revealed that the PA selected the VT4, but it had yet to sign a deal.[1]
However, with the PA now confirming the VT4 procurement program, Pakistan likely signed a contract in late 2018 or by mid-2019. According to sources, the PA is slated to receive 176 VT-4 tanks at a cost of $859 million US, though it may acquire additional batches for a total of up to 300 units.
On April 2020, NORINCO’s Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group showcased an initial batch of VT4s with FY-IV explosive reactive armour (ERA). Due to the green camouflage, it was unclear if those specific tanks were for Pakistan (which had generally used desert schemes on its tanks until recently). However, footage from the ISPR show those exact same tanks, thus confirming that Pakistan was the user of that batch.
In May 2020, open-source export-import (EXIM) logs show that the Pakistan Army received 20 cases of high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds (click here to see the actual logs).
Pakistan is the third country to acquire the VT4, following Thailand and Nigeria. However, based on the reported cost of the program and units on order, Pakistan will also become the largest user of VT4s.
The gross weight of the VT4 is 52 tons, which makes it the heaviest MBT in the PA’s inventory to-date. It is armed with a 125 mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding-sabot rounds, HEAT rounds, and anti-tank missiles to a range of 5,000 m.[2]
The VT4 also has secondary armament consisting of a remote-operated weapon station (RWS) capable of supporting a 12.7 mm machine gun and a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun.[3] The VT4 crew can use secondary armament to engage low-flying aircraft and infantry, respectively.
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