While the Chinese Army’s (PLA) ambitions to invade and merge the island of Taiwan is high in the check-list of officials in Beijing, its soldiers might just have to swim across to reach the Taiwanese shores.
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A video surfaced on social media recently and shared by TaiwanNews showed that the PLA Navy-Marine Corps’ newest Type-05 amphibious vehicle sinking within 30 seconds after being launched into the water.
The Chinese government has repeatedly threatened Taiwan and has been conducting aggressive military drills to merge what they call a ‘Renegade Province’
The type of invasion Beijing is planning would surely include amphibious vehicles and fighting forces- apart from military airborne troops. These amphibious landings will require amphibious vehicles, capable of ferrying troops from their mother ships to the land. The Type-05 Amphibious Fighting Vehicle was developed for the same purpose by Norinco.
A video of the Amphibious Vehicle has got the netizens to mock Chinese aspirations. However, the clip is said to be of the year 2002 when the vehicle was undergoing testing and development. According to the video, engineers have overcome this problem.
The clip shows the tank cruising in the waters of Yangtze river when suddenly water began treading on its front-end as it accelerated, leading its nose to plow underwater and the entire contraption lurched downward. The vehicle sunk within seconds, leaving its crew to bail out in the river.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1294486716443549697
The outside world recently became aware of the video after it was posted on CCTV’s YouTube channel on July 22 of this year. On Saturday (Aug. 15), Twitter user Hiro Hamakawa posted a 38-second clip of the tank showing the last of the crew members abandoning ship at the 27-second mark.
Nevertheless, the vehicle has since then performed admirably and developed into a potent platform, being one of the fastest amphibious platforms in service having a top on-water speed of 28 km/hr.
Its armament includes 105mm rifled cannon, a 30mm cannon, and 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounts all depending upon the variant.
It also has computerized fire control systems, light spot commander sight with laser rangefinder input, and light spot gunner sight with passive night vision.
For all-weather amphibious assault operations, the vehicle is equipped with GPS navigation and a thermal imaging system. The assault vehicle variant is operated by a crew of 4, with the driver positioned front-left of the turret, and loader, gunner, and commander occupying the turret.
