Type 05 amphibious fighting vehicle

The ZBD-05 armored fighting vehicle was developed from this, as well as several other versions including a Assault Vehicle, a command post vehicle, a recovery vehicle and others.The vehicle could be launched at sea, from an amphibious assault ship over the horizon. It features a hydroplane, and a design concept that has been compared to the US cancelled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) programme.

The ZTD-05 is an amphibious armoured fighting vehicle, developed for the PLA Marine Corps. The vehicle is a replacement to the Type 63A amphibious tank introduced in the late 1990s that is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Development
The Type 05 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle uses a planing hull propelled by two water jets achieving water travelling speed much greater than any current amphibious armored vehicle in the PLA Marine Corps which is a considerable improvement over similar type of vehicle like AAV7A1 amphibious assault vehicle (AAV). On top of its enhanced speed, it has increased range of 500 km, allowing it to launch over-the-horizon assaults.

The vehicle is designed with a hydraulic-actuated bow with transom flaps, designed to aid hull skimming across the surface of the water. When activated the bow and transom flaps form a planing surface with the bottom of the hull, allowing the vehicle to go faster because hydrodynamic drag is reduced on the vehicle's hull.

The ZBD2000 features a flat, boat-like hull, with 6 retractable road wheels and front/rear rollers. A welded turret is mounted in the center of the hull, with the powerpack positioned in the front and the passenger compartment in the rear.

ZBD-05 Infantry Fighting Vehicle
The Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) variant of the ZBD2000 was built to accompany the light tank variant in the battlefield in amphibious operations. The vehicle shares the same hull, but replaces the 3-man 105mm rifled gun with a 2-man 30mm cannon turret with a HJ-73C ATGM rail launcher positioned on the roof of the turret, and a 7.62mm coxial mounted machine gun. The vehicle has a crew of 3 and can carry 7-8 (Squad) armed soldiers in its passenger compartment in the rear. The 30mm cannon isn't present in any armoured vehicles within the PLA Marine Corps, indicating a possible brand new 30mm cannon design. ZBD05 vehicles appeared in military parade in 2009 and 2015. Chief designer is Chen Peng Fei from Norinco group.

ZTD-05 Assault Vehicle
The Assault Vehicle (ZTD:装甲车辆-突击-履带式) variant is armed with a fully stabilised 105mm rifled gun. The 105mm rounds carried consist of armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), high explosive (HE), and high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds, and Chinese 105mm laser beam riding guidance anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM). The 105mm missile offers the capability to engage shore targets whilst still swimming at sea, where conventional ammunition would perform poorly due to the motion of sea waves.

Secondary weapons include a 7.62mm coxial mounted machine gun, a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the roof of the turret near the loader, and 2 sets of 4-barrel smoke grenade launchers mounted on either side of the turret. The rear part of the turret has a storage rack for additional equipment which also provides additional protection against HEAT rounds.

Fire accuracy is attained by a computerised fire-control system (FCS), including a fire-control computer, light spot commander sight with laser rangefinder input, and light spot gunner sight with passive night vision. For all-weather amphibious assault operations, the vehicle is equipped with GPS navigation and thermal imaging system.

The light tank variant is operated by a crew of 4, with the driver positioned front-left of the turret, and loader, gunner, and commander occupying the turret.

VN16 & VN18
Modified variants of the ZTD05 and ZBD05, respectively.

Operators

 * 🇨🇳 China: Used by the PLA Marine Corp.
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela: Adopted the VN16/18 for the Venezuelan Marines.