I Wonder What China’s Going To Do With This New Toy? – IOTW Report

I Wonder What China’s Going To Do With This New Toy?

The People’s Liberation Army brags that its new VN18 can go 40 miles an hour on land and nearly 20 mph on water. The tank-like amphibious assault vehicle can be adapted to mount a variety of canon or chain guns and can carry 11 soldiers.

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34 Comments on I Wonder What China’s Going To Do With This New Toy?

  1. I worked with a Chinese national who graduated from a U.S. university and we picked him up. Pretty bright guy. Very friendly. Until the subject of Taiwan came up. “No compromise. We must get Taiwan back. The 23rd prefecture.” Dead serious.
    There’s your big issue hanging out there for which most Americans have no awareness.

  2. @hanoverfist: The Zero was all metal. It had fabric-covered control surfaces, but aside from that was metal.

    “The Zero’s sparsely reinforced air frame yielded a very light empty weight of 1,680kg. It was built of a classified aluminium alloy developed by Sumitomo Metal Industries in 1936. Called ‘extra super duralumin’ (ESD) it was lighter, stronger and more ductile than other alloys (e.g. 24S alloy) commonly used at the time.”

    https://www.quora.com/How-effective-was-the-Japanese-Zero-all-variants-was-it-really-as-great-a-fighter-as-its-reputation-implies

  3. “The weapon’s maker claimed U.S. tried to developed faster ones, but failed”

    Translation: The U.S. realized that building 20th century troop carriers for the 21st century battlefield only contributed to a target rich environment that would result in losing 11 troops per every one ordinance deployed by drone.

  4. Looks like they’ve been gearing up to refight the Invading 1930s Japanese infantry.

    As Gunny said, one drone, one shot.

    By the same token, one Exocet in the Falklands war proved the aircraft carrier era was already over, then. We’re still relying on them. The Chinese not so much.

  5. @hanoverfist: Don’t feel too bad. It was a common myth among our WW2 pilots. To save weight on their plane, the Japanese omitted armor and self sealing fuel tanks. As a result the Zero was easily set aflame when hit. Many Allied pilots thought that to ignite that easily, the plane must be made of bamboo.

    BTW, I could be wrong, but believe the only “current” WW2 combat aircraft that was made of wood was the de Havilland Mosquito:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=de+havilland+mosquito+construction&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFmcv58M7XAhXL5YMKHXe-ARMQ7AkISw&biw=1284&bih=614

  6. @Bad_Brad: You could tell me anything about metal alloys and I wouldn’t argue with you. What I know about the aluminum used in the Zero came out of that article I quoted from, and I’ve already forgotten what it said.

    🙂

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