QN506
Contents
Description
The QN506, officially nicknamed the "New King of Land Warfare" (新陆战之王) during the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow, is a defense product based on the ZTZ59's chassis with a new 30 mm turret system and missile systems, as well as sporting the latest TVD cameras for the crews of the vehicle. Marketed as a competitor for the Russian BMPT and aimed for urban battles/counter-guerrilla operations, the vehicle has yet to secure orders from overseas customers.
Introduced during Update "Sky Guardians" as one of the main rewards for the "Repair Factory" event, the QN506 was the first ground vehicle to introduce fire-and-forget missiles to ground battles. While the protection and mobility of the QN506 are mostly identical to the ZTZ59 which its chassis is based on, the 24 guided munitions and 30 mm cannon can certainly make both aerial and ground targets have a very bad day.
General info
Survivability and armour
The QN506 is based on the chassis of the ZTZ59 with additional ERA and rubber side skirts. To fit the new combat compartment, the QN506 has a heightened compartment with additional 30 mm plates, as well as sporting the ZPT99G turret in the centre of the hull. Contrary to what some may think, the combat compartment is completely isolated from the crew compartment (that is, the turret is unmanned), so while any shots to the turret will very likely disable the gun or the turret traverse, the crew is very likely to be left unharmed. As the crew is placed near the front of the tank in a tandem configuration (with the driver slightly offset from the other crew members), any centre mass shots will likely knock the vehicle out in one go.
The flat frontal plate and the fragile unmanned turret are huge weak spots that can be penetrated by autocannons and disable the QN506's ability to fight back. The ERA on the upper glacis could potentially help the QN506 survive a few shots from HEATFS or early ATGMs, but should not be relied on for any protection seeing as the QN506 can face high-powered APFSDS rounds that can go through the front plate without issue, as well as tandem-warhead ATGMs. The ATGM launchers mounted on each side of the QN506's unmanned turret are vulnerable to overpressure damage; Sometimes, even just a few rounds from an autocannon can detonate the launchers or ignite the ammo belts, either burning your crew alive or causing a catastrophic ammunition detonation (and subsequent loss of the vehicle. While some fires of this nature can be survived, it is better to temper your expectations if your ammunition does burst into flames at any point. Even if the fire goes out without issue, it may also burn through your ammunition (literally), so going to a nearby capture point to refill your lost ATGM/30 mm cannon ammo may be a good idea.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret, underbody)
- High hardness rolled armour (additional armour plates, missile racks)
- ERA (hull front)
- Rubber-fabric screens (side skirts)
- Structural steel (slat armour)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 30 + 10 mm (29°) Top 100 mm (60°) Upper glacis 100 + 15 mm (48-61°) Lower glacis |
30 mm Top 80 mm Bottom |
30 mm Top 45 mm Bottom |
30 mm Front 20 mm Rear |
| Turret | 25.4 mm 25.4 mm Gun mantlet 25.4 + 10 mm (26°) Turret ring |
25.4 mm 25.4 + 10 mm (26°) Turret ring |
25.4 mm 25.4 + 10 mm (26°) Turret ring |
25.4 mm |
| Explosive reactive armour | Front (Slope angle) |
|---|---|
| Hull | Upper glacis(62°, 66°): 120 mm Kinetic/ 370 mm Chemical |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick, and tracks are 15 mm thick.
- Side skirts are 5 mm thick, and the underbody is 20 mm thick.
- Additional armour plates are 10 mm thick.
- There is a 30 mm internal RHA screen separating the crew compartment from the middle of the hull.
- The middle of the lower glacis (about 1/3) is covered by an attached track, adding an additional 15 mm of armour.
Mobility
The QN506 retains the 12V150L engine identical to the ZTZ59s; most tanks at its rank have at least 800 hp which also means that the QN506 will not be the first one to reach the frontlines. This also may make it more challenging to flank enemies effectively, as other light tanks around its BR such as the Type 16s and Centauros will outpace your vehicle due to their high HP/t and wheeled design. The reverse gear of -7 km/h is suboptimal but workable, and the neutral steering speed is around average taking into account the lack of neutral steering and that other contemporaries like the Type 16/Centauros as well as the M1128 and PTL02/WMA301 have much wider, slower turning circles due to being wheeled). Overall, the hull will get you to where you need to go without too much issue, although the QN won't be winning any medals for speed.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 56 | 9 | 30 | 806 | 992 | 26.87 | 33.07 |
| Realistic | 51 | 8 | 460 | 520 | 15.33 | 17.33 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
China introduced the 2A72 alongside the turret of the BMP-3 in 1993, and reverse-engineering of the gun was completed by the late 1990s. The standalone gun was named ZPZ02 while the lightweight turret housing this gun was named ZPT99 instead, an anomaly in the PLA's naming conventions. Unlike its Russian counterpart at the time, NORINCO developed APFSDS for the gun, giving more options and better odds of penetrating enemy targets.
The QN506 can only bring 2 belts of ammo in total into the battle. Each belt contains 100 rounds, and the ammo type of those two must be different (except the default one). This feature forces players to conserve their fairly limited ammo (especially when compared to contemporaries such as the BMP-2 and BMP-2M) and use it wisely.
| 30 mm ZPZ02 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 200 (100) | 330 | -5°/+52° | ±180° | Two-plane | 38.1 | 52.7 | 64.0 | 70.8 | 75.3 | 1.30 | 1.15 | 1.06 | 1.00 |
| Realistic | 23.8 | 28.0 | 32.8 | 37.1 | 40.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
- Default: APDS · HEF-I* · APDS · HEF-I* - You may bring 2 belts of this ammo, unlike the others. Unfortunately, half the rounds in this belt lack effectiveness against both tanks and planes (against enemy tanks the HE rounds will do almost no damage, while against enemy aircraft the AP shells may often overpenetrate and do lackluster damage), while the 30 mm HEF-I doesn't have proximity fuse. It is suggested to research other more useful ammo as soon as possible.
- 30 mm HE: HEF-I* · APDS · HEF-I* · HEF-I* - This ammo type focuses on AA role as it contains more HEF-I compared to the default one. However, the absence of a proximity fuse and the relatively low amount of burst mass hurts its effectiveness a fair bit.
- 30 mm APDS: APDS · APDS · APDS · APDS - This one is a full APDS belt which can do decent damage against lightly-armoured vehicles. However, its performance dramatically decreases against sloped armour, meaning you will most likely need to be side-on against enemy MBTs to do any consistent damage. It is, however, the belt of choice up until you get the 30 mm APDS-FS belt as your primary anti-tank ammunition, and can dispatch enemy light vehicles and some enemy aircraft with moderate effectiveness.
- 30 mm APDS-FS: APFSDS · APFSDS · APFSDS - This belt is a full APFSDS belt with the best performance in terms of penetration. This belt has around 100 mm of penetration at point blank and can go through the side armour of most vehicles it sees, MBTs included. Note that most MBTs around this BR have a sufficiently thick lower glacis to stop the rounds if engaging from the front (with some exceptions, as tanks like the Type 74s can be fairly easily penetrated from almost any angle), and you may have to try and shoot out either the enemy's barrel or gun breech to disable them before flanking around for the final blow.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEF-I* | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
| APDS | 85 | 84 | 81 | 77 | 74 | 70 | |
| APFSDS | 102 | 99 | 94 | 88 | 81 | 75 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEF-I* | 960 | 0.39 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 75.46 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| APDS | 1,180 | 0.29 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | ||||
| APFSDS | 1,190 | 0.13 | - | - | - | 78° | 80° | 81° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 (+1) | 0 (+2) | No |
Additional armament
The 20 smaller tubes on the launcher are laser-guided QN201DD missiles. This armament is considered the secondary gun of the QN506. Marketed as a "multipurpose economical missile" by Guide Infrared, while they might lack the penetration to handle MBTs frontally at its rank with ERA or composite armour, 20 of them are more than enough to take out both light tanks and MBTs from the sides or sometimes the lower glacis. Unfortunately, the QN201DD can be disrupted by IRCM due to its guidance being semi-automatic, so you may have to destroy the enemy's IRCM with your autocannon before launching your QN201DDs. The missiles are often best used as a finisher after disabling a vehicle (usually an enemy light tank or SPAA) with a missile to overpressure or directly knock out their crew.
Besides the anti-tank role, this ATGM is also capable of acting as a makeshift surface-to-air missile. It has 4 km of effective firing range and top out at a fairly high velocity of 450 m/s. Unlike most lower-BR SACLOS missiles, the QN201DD has an acceptable turning rate and flies very stably. With the tracking radar and proper guidance, it may get a direct hit on careless helicopters and jets. Still, at the end of the day this is a missile meant for anti-tank, not anti-aircraft, and against players who are manoeuvring or trying to actively dodge your missiles landing a direct hit can be challenging due to the fairly low maximum G loading of the missile and the lack of a proximity fuse. You cannot guide multiple QN201DDs at once or launch them on the move, which do end up limiting some of the missile's potential use cases.
| QN201DD missile | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Belt) | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer |
| 20 (20) | - | - | - |
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| QN201DD | ATGM | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 | 200 |
| Missile details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| QN201DD | ATGM | 450 | 4,000 | 7 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 750 | 80° | 82° | 90° | ||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 (+1) | No |
Additional armament
The 4 larger tubes on the missile launcher house the fire-and-forget QN502CDD missiles that have a tandem warhead. These missiles are considered the 'special guns' of the QN506. The QN502CDD is a fire-and-forget missile which locks on before launch and guides autonomously, and can be fired whilst in motion. It takes a top attack flight profile against targets at a moderate to long distance away, but will also fly directly toward enemies if they are fairly close (approx. <400 m). The ATGMs can be fired off fairly quickly, and will snap-lock onto enemy targets up to 8 km away near instantly. As the missiles take a top attack flight path, they may hit enemies that have moved behind cover after the missile has been fired, although the missile may also impact the terrain in front of the enemy or lose lock in this case. Due to the missile's IR guidance, it will also not set off enemy laser warning systems (LWS) on certain rotary wing and ground vehicles, although helicopters with MAWS will get a warning for an incoming missile.
Despite its unique capabilities, the QN502CDDs are quite challenging to use in practice. The awful -5° depression angle of the platform drastically limit its usage against tanks, as the QN506 as a whole cannot exploit terrain features to launch its missiles against enemy armoured vehicles. It also requires more than half the hull of the enemy vehicle to be exposed in your gunner's sight to successfully lock the target, which can be a struggle considering the tank's high profile can mean you can get caught out while trying to get a good missile launch angle. It also has a fairly slow (although faster than contemporary Spikes) top speed of 205 m/s and mediocre tracking that most enemy helicopters with proper vigilance can easily evade with a roll. Another issue is that as you cannot manually guide the missiles, the centre mass-tracking alone may result in poor missile impact angles and damage. To mitigate this, you can choose to launch the missiles in pairs or a few seconds after the first missile hits (or try turning the turret sideways slightly to change the missile's trajectory) to ensure the newly replaced crew members in the enemy tank will be hit and knocked out instantly.
When fighting on hilly maps or near obstacles, it may help to raise your gun a bit before launching the QN502CDD, as it might crash into map geometry or obstacles before it starts lofting. The lock will remain as it is inside a 90° arc from your gun sight.
| QN502CDD missile | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Belt) | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer |
| 4 (4) | - | - | - |
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| QN502CDD | ATGM (tandem) | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Missile details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | ||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| QN502CDD | ATGM (tandem) | 205 | 20,000 | 16.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.39 | 80° | 82° | 90° | ||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 (+1) | No |
Machine guns
The 7.62 mm MG is only effective against light vehicles with open compartments. It can be used to knock down small bushes and light obstacles, but for the most part will only see use as a desperation tool when shooting back at an enemy.
| 7.62 mm Type 86 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 1,000 (250) | 700 | - | - |
Radar
As a light tank, the QN506 uses an electro-optical targeting system to help it fight aerial targets. This equipment will not trigger the LWS of locked hostile aircraft, increasing the anti-air capabilities of the QN506 to both guide the QN201DD and fire its autocannon with accurate leading. However, you still have to manually find aerial targets due to the absence of a search radar, although the presence of thermals on the commander and gunner sight greatly help with this.
| Electro-Optical Target Tracking Radar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Tracking Range |
Minimum Tracking Range |
Azimuth Tracking Angle |
Elevation Tracking Angle |
Minimum target speed |
| 8,000 m | __ m | ±__ | -__°/+__° | __ m/s (__ km/h) |
Usage in battles
As a Chinese light tank, the QN506 carries a variety of weapons to use in battles. The QN506 is a fairly effective vehicle when it comes to destroying enemy light tanks and helicopters without mercy. However, the QN itself is also very vulnerable to enemy fire due to its lacking armour and volatile ATGM launchers. The QN also struggles against MBTs at closer ranges, as almost no armament the QN has aside from the Fire-and-Forget QN502CDDs can reliably handle a T-72 or Leopard 2 from the front. Contrary to the expectations of many players, the QN506 does not have any meaningful advantage on hilly maps. The QN502CDDs can't lock enemy ground targets unless their hulls are mostly exposed, while the QN201DDs lack the penetration to reliably hurt enemy vehicles and the 30 mm cannon unable to depress past -5 degrees.
With the electro-optical targeting system, the QN506 is capable of shooting down helicopters and careless jets with its powerful weapons. While jet aircraft can often be elusive with their longer ranged missiles and slow fire rate on the 30 mm autocannon of the QN, the real talent of this vehicle is against helicopters. Helicopters can get MAWS warnings from your missiles; However, there also exist a plethora of enemy helicopters that you will see without MAWS as well, such as the YAH-64, AH-64A, Mi-24P (Germany), G-LYNX and Mi-28A and many more; Helicopters equipped with MAWS are surprisingly rare at the QN's own BR, and as such most players won't even be aware of a small, fairly slow and smokeless ATGM headed towards their vehicle. The QN502CDDs guide for over a minute and have respectable range, and you can quite often easily handle two or even three enemy helicopters on your own should your team prove ineffective at shooting them down.
Against helicopters with MAWS, however, you have another unlikely advantage; the missile's late MAWS triggering. While the missile is slow, it has the ability to seemingly appear out of thin air due to how late it triggers MAWS. Proper SAMs and direct-fire ATGMs often used to engage enemy helicopters are fast, with MIM146s on the XM1069 flying at 1,027 m/s, 95Ya6 on the Pantsir-S1 flying at a staggering 1,300 m/s and Stinger/Rolands flying at a respectable 680 and 570 m/s respectively - but your QN502CDDs fly at a max speed of around 200 m/s. However, while other SAMs fire much faster, they also trigger MAWS much earlier. When normal SAMs fire at a helicopter it will usually receive the MAWS warning near-instantly; however, with the QN502CDD, the MAWS won't warn the helicopter of an incoming missile until the QN502CDD is close to hitting, which usually can catch people off guard as they think they might have more time to dodge. As the missile lacks a proximity fuse very aggressive dodging or maneuvering can lead to a miss, but overall still lets the QN have a niche against rotary wing vehicles across all situations.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 4 fire-and-forget IR missiles that have high penetration (1,000 mm) and long range
- 20 semi-automatic high speed missiles for taking out enemy targets from the sides
- High-definition TVD cameras and retractable CITV
- Opto-electronic tracker for locking and tracking aerial targets effectively
- Thermal vision helps find enemy aerial and ground threats effectively
- QN502CDDs are highly effective against enemy rotary aviation as they are unexpected and have a fairly long firing range - a rare niche to have for a non-SPAA vehicle
- Scout drone allows it to effectively position against enemies on larger maps for higher degree of success
Cons:
- Rather low mobility as a light tank for its rank
- Insufficient protection against common rounds
- Fairly tall profile for a "light tank"
- QN201DD has insufficient penetration for targets with composite armour/ERA
- Low rate of fire for the autocannon
- Slow -7 km/h reverse speed and poor -5° gun depression
- Cannot fire its QN201DDs on the move, and QN502CDDs are limited heavily by terrain and launch distance on most maps
History
The story of how an opto-electronical equipment manufacturer entered the arms trade sector (the first listed private-sector company to do so) traces back to Huang Li (黄立), who quit his position from Hubei Electricity Experiment Institute (湖北省电力试验研究所) in 1999 and had established Guide Infrared with his savings less than a year before. His company was quite involved in the SARS pandemic due to the dramatic rise in demand of thermometers: although he found French thermal sensors very effective, US sanctions on such sensors to Mainland China were issued in 2008, so the company invested billions of CNY to develop domestic thermal sensors and the company overcame this challenge by the late-2010s. Meanwhile, Guide Infrared also earned the certificate to research and manufacture ordnance in 2014 and established a missile institute in 2017; they also acquired a factory with non-lethal munition product line and started research on complete weapon systems. [1]
During the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow, there was an uncommon product in the Guide Military (subsidy of Wuhan Guide Infrared 武汉高德红外股份有限公司) showroom - a vehicle with 24 visible missiles onboard and sporting a 30 mm autocannon on a ZTZ59 chassis. As the visitors took a closer look to this vehicle, the name "QN506" and "New King of Land Warfare" (新陆战之王) came into the eyes of observers.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
References
| China light tanks | |
|---|---|
| Type 63 | Object 211 · Type 63 · ZTS63 |
| Type 62 | Type 62 |
| WZ551 | ZSL92 · PTL02 · WMA301 |
| ZBL08 | ZLT11 |
| Type 86 | ZBD86 |
| WZ502 | ZBD04A |
| ROC | M41D · M64 |
| Type 59 | QN506 |
| USA | ␗M8 LAC · ␗M3A3 Stuart · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M5A1 · ␗M24 · ␗M18 GMC · ␗M41A3 |
| USSR | ␗T-26 · T-26 No.531 · ␗PT-76 |
- Ground vehicles
- China ground vehicles
- Seventh rank ground vehicles
- Light tanks
- Gift ground vehicles
- Ground vehicles with explosive reactive armour
- Ground vehicles with smoke grenades
- Ground vehicles with night vision device
- Ground vehicles with thermal sight
- Multi-weapon ground vehicles
- Ground vehicles with gun stabilizer
- ATGM vehicles
