#china

The A-5C (Q-5III/强-5III), NATO reporting name: Fantan, is the export version of the Nanchang Q-5 during the early days of China’s paid military sales in the 1980s. China was in desperate need of funding after economic reforms, and since previous aircraft exports were essentially given as aid rather than sales, military factories were also searching for a means to generate funds for their new projects.

The Type 63 Amphibious Tank (63式水陆坦克), later redesignated as ZTS63, is one of China’s first armored vehicle designs that was both developed and produced locally. This family of vehicles might be familiar, you might have played against it, alongside it, or even commanded one in-game; but have you ever wondered about the story behind the Type 63? As is the case with many Cold War vehicles, the story of this tank will take us back to the 1950s, shortly after the Korean War.

The Mirage 2000-5Ei is an air superiority fighter for the Chinese tech tree. Due to the Chinese purchase of the Su-27 in 1992, Taiwan decided to order new-gen fighters capable of defending their country’s airspace. The choice fell on the French Mirage 2000 thanks to its BVR capability needed for its role as a frontline interceptor. This Taiwanese version of the Mirage 2000-5F primarily differs in its suspended armament: this Mirage can only be fitted with MICA-EM and Magic 2 missiles, making it a pure air-to-air fighter.

Self-propelled artillery systems with large cannons and devastating high-explosive shells have long become popular with our players thanks to their unique gameplay. Our recent update added one of the most modern tank destroyers of this type to the Chinese tech tree: the PLZ05. 

The main arms dealers of the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, primarily designed armored vehicles to meet their own needs. Later, with the increasing demand from foreign customers and the ever-changing development of international science and technology, Chinese engineers had to rethink their approach to developing combat vehicles, leading to the emergence of a unique Chinese school of tank design. Eventually, many technologies developed for foreign customers found their way into vehicles equipped by the People’s Liberation Army as well.

The default skin for the J-8B includes the number “81192” painted on the sides below the cockpit. This number has become the spiritual number of military enthusiasts and players in mainland China due to the Hainan Island Incident between the PLANAF and the USN.

The Republic of China was one of the many nations to use surplus F-86 Sabre jet-fighters. The aircraft would engage in air combat with Chinese MiGs during the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958. Additionally, ROCAF Sabres were among the first aircraft to be equipped with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, which allowed them to compete against the superior performance of the Chinese MiG-17s. However, while the AIM-9's deployment was a considerable setback for the PLAAF, the situation changed when a Chinese MiG-17 returned to base with an unexploded AIM-9B lodged in its airframe. The missile was given to Soviet technicians, and subsequently reverse-engineered into the R-3 series of missiles.

The P-51K is the last variant of the P-51 available to the Chinese tech tree. While it may not look spectacularly different from the other P-51s available in the game, it does present flight characteristics similar to the P-51D-30 that players can utilize in their battle against opposing players.