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Deployment īy 2008, 200 Type 98 and Type 99 tanks may have been deployed to the Beijing and Shenyang Military Regions. This variant had previously been used by PLA troops during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) military exercises in 2014. Īn updated Type 99 model was officially introduced at the 2015 Victory Day Parade as the Type 99A. Īn improved version was shortly produced and was named the Type 98G or Type 99.

It was first seen in rehearsals for the 1999 National Day parade and was officially revealed on 1 October 1999. The Type 98 or WZ-123 was China's domestic Type 90-II derivative. While the Type 90-II series ultimately did not enter PLA service, it saw success as an export tank and was built under license in Pakistan as the Al-Khalid. The Type 90-II had a 125mm smoothbore cannon with an autoloader, modular composite armor and a centered driver position. The chassis was to be based on the T-72's hull but with Chinese subsystems. The Type 90-II was designed by studying the T-72 tank. In the early 1990s China produced one of its second generation prototypes, the Type 90-II series. The development of China's domestic third generation MBT was started in 1989, under China's eighth five-year plan. The Type 99 forms the core of China’s modern maneuver combat capabilities, with over 1,200 tanks built for the past two decades. Three main versions of the Type 99 have been deployed: the Type 98 prototype, Type 99 and the Type 99A. The People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF) is the sole operator of the Type 99. The tank entered People's Liberation Army (PLA) service in 2001. The Type 99 is based on the Soviet T-72 chassis. Combining modular composite armour and tandem-charge defeating ERA, 125 mm smoothbore gun with ATGM-capability, high mobility, digital systems and optics, the Type 99 represents a shift towards rapid modernization by the PLA. The Type 99 MBT was China's first mass-produced third-generation main battle tank. The vehicle was a replacement for the aging Type 88 introduced in the late 1980s.

The Type 99 ( Chinese: 99式主战坦克 pinyin: Jiǔjiǔshì Zhǔzhàn Tǎnkè) or ZTZ-99 is a Chinese third generation main battle tank (MBT). Off-road: 54 kilometres per hour (34 mph)
