PTZ89 (120 mm)

Description

The 120mm gun found on PTZ89 was a L/52 smoothbore cannon produced by Factory 447; with its quick firing rate and high velocity, this gun can proves deadly to the enemies it might encounter and packs a real punch to them.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• PTZ89

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.

Available ammunition

After the production of this gun, this gun comes with a few selections of ammunition and currently DYW1 APFSDS and DYS120 comes available at stock.

Comparison with analogues

Comparing PTZ89 120mm to its main analogues, NATO's Rh120 L/44, Warsaw Pact's 2A46M and its domestic competitor Type 88C, it shines over the velocity (thanks to its larger chamber) at 1740 m/s, it just lagged behind the newer Rh120 L/55 by a mere 10 m/s, making PTZ89 a surprising powerful gun in its tier.

Usage in battles

The main feature of PTZ89 120mm gun is its raw firepower- it was designed to handle masses of MBTs from range. So the ammunition find on this cannon is filled with lots of propellent, sending its projectile at the whopping 1740 m/s, which is still lethal even at longer ranges; so a good way to play with PTZ89 and its cannon is to stay behind and unleash your DYW1 APFSDS at the rate of 5 second per shot. In case for brawling, since it comes with an autoloader, it can also unleash hell to the enemies in brawling as well.

But do keep in mind that just like most Mainland Chinese vehicles, the depression is "depressing" and this autoloader stops working after all 10 rounds in the tray is fired away, so keep your ammo count in check and at best plan the shots beforehand; it will be embarrassing if you run out of autoloader ammo in heat of battle.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Above average shell velocity at 1740 m/s that gives it flat trajectory
• 5 seconds autoloader with 10 rounds on it.

Cons:

• Traverse rate, both vertical and horizontal, is not ideal
• Depression angle is inefficient
• If trigger-happy, 10 rounds might not sufficient in heat of battle

History

In the late 1960s, Mainland China started their development a new MBT for the possible war with USSR and even the WWIII, a major part of this new tank- WZ1224 was a 120mm smoothbore gun; but due to technological limits, the cannon didn't start development until PLA has captured a T-62 and knew the huge gap between Mainland China and mainstream tanks.

Later when new MBT was finally developed, this PTP73 100 mm smoothbore AT gun based 120 mm gun was not chosen: WZ1224 didn't make it into part of the national funding and was abandoned, L7 was chosen for new ZTZ79 and ZTZ80 instead and PLAGF acquired 2A46M from Romania which they have reverse-engineered that gun successfully. The attempt to acquire Rh120 L/44 wasn't quite successful either; but in attempt to keep this gun, Factory 447 at Batou, Inner Mongolia (the same city where the famous Factory 617 is) put this gun onto a WZ321's chassis. Luckily this gun made it through state certification at 1986 and was backed by the funding from PRC's 7th 5-year plan; eventually made its way into service as the PTZ89. Serving as a defense line handle the possible masses of Soviet armored brigades invading Mainland China.

After around 3 decades in service, PTZ89 peacefully ended its service in 2018 with the last batches of them decommissioned in Korla (库尔勒) Military Sub-district, Xinjiang.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

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 article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

China tank cannons
30 mm	ZPL02 · ZPZ02
73 mm	Type 85
76 mm	M32K1
85 mm	Type-62-85-TC · Type 63
100 mm	PTP86 · Type 59 · Type 69 · Type 69-II · ZPL04
105 mm	Type 83 · WMA301 · ZPL94 · ZPL98A
120 mm	122TM · PTZ89
125 mm	Type 88C · Type 99A · ZPT98
152 mm	PL66 Gai
	Foreign:
20 mm	KwK30 (Germany)
37 mm	M6 (USA)
45 mm	20-K (USSR)
47 mm	Type 1 (Japan)
57 mm	Type 97 (Japan) · ZIS-2 (USSR)
75 mm	M2 Howitzer (USA) · M3 (USA) · M6 (USA)
76 mm	D-56T (USSR) · F-34 (USSR) · M1 (USA) · M7 (USA) · ZIS-3 (USSR)
85 mm	ZIS-S-53 (USSR)
90 mm	M3 (USA) · M41 (USA)
100 mm	D-10S (USSR)
105 mm	M68 (USA) · M68A1 (USA)
115 mm	U-5TS (USSR)
122 mm	A-19 (USSR) · D-25T (USSR)
152 mm	ML-20S (USSR)