ZSL92
Contents
Description
The ZSL92 (ZSL92式轮式装甲输送车; industrial code WZ551) was the first mass-produced in-service variant of the WZ551 vehicle family. Although there had been earlier attempts to produce a new wheeled APC for the PLAGF as early as 1970, the eventual cancellation of the vehicles under Campaign 704 halted the development of wheeled APCs for almost a decade until Factory 256 (NORINCO Chongqing Tiema Industries) unveiled plans to modify Mercedes-Benz NG 2026 trucks into the new APC program. Evaluations in the 1980s established a 25 mm weapons system and a revised APC chassis. The earliest variant entered PLAGF evaluation as the ZSL90, while the revised and improved variant entered service as ZSL92. The ZSL92 also set the foundation for the future AFT09 and the PTL02/WMA301 series which are still in PLAGF service to this day.
Introduced in Update "Seek & Destroy", the ZSL92 has sufficient elevation limits to gun down enemy aircraft with its main cannon inherited from the ZSD63/PG87 while having sufficient penetration to end the service of vehicles at its tier from their sides. However, players must be extremely cautious about the minimal protection of ZSL92 and plan carefully for any assaults, as the poor reverse speed will not allow the vehicle to retreat quickly in a pinch.
General info
Survivability and armour
Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | ___ mm | ___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom |
___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Turret | ___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet |
___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Cupola | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm |
Notes:
Mobility
Write about the mobility of the ground vehicle. Estimate the specific power and manoeuvrability, as well as the maximum speed forwards and backwards.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 96 | 9 | 15.8 | 455 | 611 | 28.8 | 38.67 |
| Realistic | 88 | 8 | 283 | 320 | 17.91 | 20.25 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
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Armaments
Main armament
During the early stage of evaluation of WZ551, PLAGF has once opted for PLAN's 25 mm autocannon (Type 61/2M-3) as the designated gun for the future wheeled APC; the overall recoil hindered its further development. However, once PLAGF has acquired Soviet's ZU-23-2 and reverse-engineer then upsized to PG87, the new gun with 25x183B mm caliber shell became the selected ammunition for the future ZSL92. Players will soon have deja vu from ZSD63/PG87 but with only a single gun this time - while the penetration is insufficient against HTs at its tier, with careful aiming onto enemies' lower hull from the sides, it can still cause havoc to them; light vehicles would also have to thing twice before engaging ZSL92 since the autocannon is more than enough to take down any light vehicles at its tier.
| 25 mm ZPT90 | 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 | 400 (200) | 500 | -8°/+52° | ±180° | - | 39.6 | 54.8 | 66.6 | 73.6 | 78.4 | 32.50 | 28.75 | 26.50 | 25.00 |
| Realistic | 26.8 | 31.5 | 38.2 | 42.3 | 45.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
- Default: AP-T · FI-T*
- Type 87 HE: FI-T*
- Type 87 AP: AP-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| FI-T* | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 63 | 61 | 51 | 41 | 33 | 27 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| FI-T* | 1,050 | 0.25 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 29.26 | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
| AP-T | 1,050 | 0.25 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm Type 86 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 1,000 (250) | 700 | - | - |
Usage in battles
The Chongqing Noodles Truck
Chongqing, where the ZSL92 was born, has been a widespread food throughout Mainland China - its noodles (or 重庆小面) which are known to be adaptive to its ingredients; but one feature is more well-known - its hot spices, telling players to be adaptive to the battlefield for maximum efficiency while delivering the "hotness" of the vehicle; while it is nowhere as low-profile as the Fiat CM6614 series which are nicknamed "pizza truck" to players, the 25 mm autocannon can keep sufficient combat efficiency.
Before players have access to any other WZ551 chassis vehicles in game, there is a major thumb-of-rule for any vehicle based on this chassis: never, ever be the first one to hit the frontline. Do remember that WZ551 has been, and always been an APC; a major difference to any IFV with some protection against shrapnel or bullets, in most cases, due to the rather thin protection of WZ551, any enemies with .50 cal ammunition is more than enough to gun down the crews before they could even harm any components at the first place, even rifle caliber bullets can penetrate the sides (at only 8 mm). This will be a major problem for any WZ551-based vehicles, therefore players would have to think not twice, but three times before heading out for a hunt; the speed of ZSL92 is sufficient to hit vantage points for scouting or occasional flanking, however players should also take retreating routes into consideration as the transmission doesn't allow for the easiest way - going in reverse, so players would have to seek for a point with enough turning radius to turn and run from the main enemy column. If players are also aware of the turret itself, the 25 mm gun is in fact mostly identical to PG87 for ZSD63/PG87 but now minus a barrel; if the gun is powerful in terms of previous vehicle, in ZSL92's case, due to lacking the Type 94 APDS and abundance of HTs around its tier, this limits the target for ZSL92 as well as the aforementioned has at least 80 mm armor on sides. While terminate their service is not viable, it is always a good idea to stall the enemies by taking down their tracks and seek for LTs for extra income as they're not rated for autocannon shots in this case; in terms of its designated role in-game, SPAA, the gun itself is devastating at any tier to any aircrafts within 2.5 km radius as intended. Although the 52° elevation angle hinders from finishing off high-diving targets, such angle is more than enough to make strafing aircrafts to think twice before engaging, at best if having any indestructible covers - the RoF and caliber can take down any attackers at short bursts hitting their wings, always find a good cover and lure aircrafts into the radius.
Overall, while lacking higher penetration to become an so-called IFV and somewhat inferior flexibility in terms of reverse, ZSL92 can always be considered as a support vehicle, helping more capable friendly scout vehicles, stalling enemy's advance and gunning down aircrafts are some tactics to employ; while it is nowhere the best around its tier, playing supportively can give vantage to teammates and help the team to secure victory.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 25 mm autocannon with a high rate of fire and sufficient armor penetration for its tier
- Sufficiently mobile for flanking operations
- Sufficient gun elevation to attack incoming aircraft
- Generous ammunition pool
- Roof weapon mounting in unmanned turret, allowing the vehicle to be positioned hull-down
- Smoke grenades
- Amphibious
Cons:
- Large chassis
- Thin armor
- Relatively low reverse speed for its class
- Lacks high penetration rounds for use against heavy tanks
- Crew of three: higher likelihood of being knocked-out quickly by enemy fire
History
In the 1970s, in view of a possible invasion by the Soviet Union and realising the lag in development of armoured vehicles, the Central Military Commission issued a number of different campaigns to develop new vehicles ranging from medium tanks to wheeled APCs. However, circumstances of the time caused many of these, including the WZ522 project with influences from the BTR-60 and a BTR-70 from Romania, to be cancelled.
However, the need for a wheeled APC to serve as part of a quick-response unit and the modernisation of PLAGF units again called for the development of such a vehicle in the early 1980s. While the Second Automotive Works (now Dongfeng Motors) developed WZ522 with a domestic truck chassis as the future ZSL93, the Factory 256 (NORINCO Chongqing Tiema Industries) opted for the chassis of the Mercedes-Benz NG 2026 truck both for reverse engineering and evaluation of wheeled vehicles. This also led to the extension of the chassis of Factory 256's prototype for the overall layout of the new APC with a 6x6 layout, which showed vastly improved performance compared to Dongfeng's solution, but some flaws were still present in the prototype. Thanks to the efforts of the engineer team to persuade the vehicle to be included in the next Five-Year Plan as part of national defence upgrades, the vehicle with a revised suspension for simplified yet reliable maintenance could now be evaluated with three different schemes: one with the turret of the ZBD86 (aka WZ551F), one with a 25 mm autocannon, and a .50 calibre turret solution. Although there were also solutions provided from NATO countries i.e France, UK and US, sanctions in the late 1980s eliminated any possibilities of foreign solutions.
Meanwhile, the 25 mm calibre turret was revised after the introduction of the PG87-25, as part of the would-be Project 8910 (40th Anniversary), which was certified as the ZSL90 in 1990. However, it would be two years later when the PLAGF eventually adopted WZ551 as their new wheeled APC, which is now known as ZSL92 and was first spotted in the 1999 National Day parade. Thanks to the reliable chassis, NORINCO also developed various vehicles under this chassis, such as the PTL02/WMA301 wheeled assault gun, AFT09 ATGM launcher, PLL05 gun-mortar system, ZSL92A with a .50 calibre turret and ZSL92B with a ZPT99 turret as well as HJ-73 ATGMs.
Devblog
In the early 1980s, the PLA recognized the need for the development of a new IFV design to meet the requirements of more dynamic warfare tactics. This led to the development of a new wheeled armored vehicle under the designation WZ551, based on a licensed chassis of the Mercedes-Benz 2060 truck. Development and testing of prototypes with various armament options continued throughout the '80s until the vehicle was officially adopted by the PLA in 1988 under the designation ZSL-90, in both an IFV and APC configuration.
Despite entering service, development on the vehicle continued, especially as the first model was plagued by teething issues chiefly surrounding its engine. The succeeding variant, designated ZSL-92, introduced a new water-cooled diesel engine as well as improvements to the vehicle's chassis in 1994. As a result, performance and reliability improved drastically, leading to the vehicle being ordered in much greater numbers by both the PLA as well as foreign operators. Furthermore, the chassis was a popular platform for the development of several spinoff variants, including missile carriers and assault guns. The ZSL-92 equips the PLA's mechanized units and is still in active service to this date.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Related development
Vehicles of similar configuration or role
External links
| China anti-aircraft vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Radar SPAAG | PGZ09 |
| Gun and Missile SPAAG | PGZ04A |
| Missile SPAA | Antelope |
| Other | ZSD63/PG87 · ZSL92 · WZ305 |
| Germany | ␗Sd.Kfz.222 |
| North Vietnam | Phòng không T-34 |
| USA | CCKW 353 (M45) · ␗M42 |
| USSR | Tor-M1 |
