MGZ Tank

MGZ (Modular-Gun platform-ZAP) stands for Modular Artillery Platform ZAP and ZAP is the name of the group, hence the design proposal for the project was submitted by the ZAP Design Group, an independent group announced by the Grapevine West Design Bureau in mid-July 2021, all members of which are from the Grapevine West Design Bureau's core armed research centre and have design experienced, with its members having worked on the development and modernisation of the ABG series.
This independent design team was set up to fulfil Order No. 12 issued by the Grapevine West Division of the CARB, which aimed to design a special chassis for the export turret (mgzk) and required that it had a high potential for modification and some scope for upgrading.
(From now on the initials of the design groups will be used to denote the different design groups.) The foreign trade turret previously completed by Group X was handed over to Group Z, along with design drawings, a small scale wooden model and a tank chassis manufactured by MMJ. After a few days of research, the team found that the MMJ chassis had a relatively forward centre of gravity due to the front turret, which squeezed the cab space and overburdened the front induction wheels. This chassis was abandoned and the team had to redesign a new one in contrast.
= The Birth of the Chassis =
== Design requirements for the chassis. ==
1. The frontal primary ballistic area meets the protection against normal machine guns (20-30 mm), while the frontal secondary ballistic area needs to be able to defend against full calibre kinetic energy rounds fired by main battle tanks.
2. tonnage not exceeding 15 tonnes
3. power and manoeuvrability should be at the standard level of an average light tank
4. modularity is required
5. for minimising cost and mechanical complexity
After two weeks of day and night work by experienced designers, the first prototype was built and named the mgx. The newly designed chassis largely met the above design requirements, but still exceeded one of them, the tonnage limit.
In order to defend against direct fire from a 30mm machine gun (APDS) at 100 metres, and also to take into account the attack from a single anti-tank weapon (armour breaking rounds). The designers had to find various relatively economical ways of doing this.
Modular composite armour fitted to the basic model would have made it too expensive to build. The installation of explosive reactive armour also seemed unsuitable, so other protective designs had to be found.
The upper head has a very large inclined design and is 44mm thick with RHA armour, plus several strips of 16mm rha armour, similar to wave guards, which have been modified for subsequent models so that the average APFSDS can be easily bounced off.
A complex armour structure is used under the head, with multiple strips of 16mm thick rolled homogeneous steel stacked longitudinally, each with a small gap between them, effectively weakening projectile penetration. Gap air armour is also fitted behind the panels and the prototype mgx armour layout is 16mm+30mm+8mm+10mm [RHA] (total air is approximately 200mm)
Initial tests showed that it was more than capable of defending against APDS fired from the 30mm gun, but the crew could still be injured by flaking fragments from the back plate.
The designers simply reduced the air gap armour space by 10mm and added a piece of 8mm fibreglass armour behind the original back plate, which significantly reduced the probability of shrapnel splash when attacked.
The designers were just about to approve the design when the Design Bureau suddenly added a requirement that it must be protected from direct RPG7 fire at a 120° heading angle, which was torturous.
The final solution was a chassis that exceeded the tonnage limit, but it was not enough to defend against RPG7 fire, so the grille armour had to be fitted later.
Powered by a 12.0L V6 petrol engine with two gearboxes for dual-stream transmission, it has good manoeuvrability and very responsive brakes, a combat weight of 33 tonnes with the turret fitted and a top speed of 68km/h on the road.
== MGZ-110B(Initial type) ==
MGZ production model - 110B, designed and finalised on 28.9.2021.
(Type A is the MGX prototype, but officially finalised from Type B as the initial model)
The main armament is a 75mm rapid-fire cannon and the secondary armament is a 7.62 coaxial machine gun and a 20mm weapon station.
The armour is thickened with a 20mm+20mm [RHA] structure under the head.
A 10mm layer of special material has been added to the top of the turret to provide protection against fragmentation.
The turret is unchanged, but the overall shape of the shield has been changed to the MK.II shield for better protection.
The interior of the vehicle has been changed with the addition of a fuel sleeve and ammunition rack to the driver's right fuel tank, the addition of a bulkhead to the basket and the thickening of the engine compartment.
The total ammunition reserve is 28 75mm shells, 216 20mm shells and 800 7.62mm rounds.
== MGZ-110B Plus1 ==
The MGZ-110B Plus1 is mainly fitted with the G1 grille armour, which provides defence against RPG7 (PG-7 armour breaker) within a 100° heading angle at the front, the grille only covers the front flanks, the tail is not going to be fitted for the time being for various reasons considered by the designers.
== MGZ-110B Plus2 ==
The S-2B burst counter developed by the Grapevine West Design Bureau uses two 8mm RHAs, front and back, sandwiching the explosive jacket with a prefabricated throw plate inside.
The 90° angle of incidence is equivalent to 100KE 400CE and provides an effective defence against man-portable anti-tank attacks (excluding tandem combatants).
== MGZ-115A ==
In mid-October, feedback from the front line could tell us that the 75mm gun, although explosive, often ran out of ammunition after two rapid rounds and that the ammunition was of average power, often causing only a small amount of fragmentation after penetrating the enemy's heavily armoured vehicles, and was easily blocked by anti-collapse liners, making it difficult to kill the crew and equipment inside.
It was therefore decided to fit a smooth-bore gun to the vehicle, with a C.A.R.B E1 105mm smooth-bore gun being used for the A version.
This smoothbore gun is small and light enough to be mounted on a light chassis, and is accompanied by a set of tail pod autoloaders that can be modified in size to suit the model. As the MGZ turret itself is a twin or single man turret designed for the 75 gun, there is less space reserved for upgrades, and the tail pod can only hold 7-8 rounds of 105mm ammunition.
There are two types of ammunition, APFSDS as well as HEATFS, which are standard for the E1 package.
Armour piercing ammunition: 10M (480mm~500mm depth of penetration) [RHA].
Armour piercing ammunition: 550mm [RHA].
Also due to space problems, the main gun has a pitch angle of only 4° and an elevation angle of 17°, and must be loaded parallel to the tail bay.
Fire control is "scrambled fire control", with micro-light night vision and low definition thermal imaging.
== MGZ-115A2 ==
This model is fitted with G2 grille armour and S-3A composite burst counter external armour, a hybrid armour with both composite sandwich and burst counter.
It can withstand partial 120mm main gun fire.
== MGZ-115B ==
The model was finalised in December 2021 with a major gun replacement and upgrade of the fire control system.
As the 105 gun had a number of problems, the designers adapted the MTs18 100mm smoothbore anti-tank gun and transposed it to the MGZ.
After testing the adaptation was found to be good
== MGZ-110 C1 ==
Category:Vehicles
Category:Tanks