The people's liberation army will soon
be able to airlift full-scale chinese
main battle tanks on board an upgraded Y-20 cargo plane, now being outfitted
with the first of its kind domestically
built engine. The new WS-20 engine which has not as of
yet been formally announced as having
integrated onto the Y-20 was reportedly
seen flying on the aircraft, according to
multiple news reports cited in the
chinese government-backed global times
newspaper.
The Xi'an aircraft industry group
company limited under the state-owned
aviation industry corporation of china, the maker of the Y-20 released a photo
that showed a turbofan engine with a
high bypass ratio that had never been
seen before. Beijing-based aerospace
knowledge magazine reported on saturday, the global times reports.
A new WS-20 equipped Y20 Wood, according
to the paper be able to operate with
much more thrust and less fuel as well
as be able to take off and land on
shorter runways. An increased ability to operate in more
austere circumstances certainly
increases the tactical scenarios in
which a Y-20 could help deploy troops, equipment, supplies, weapons and even
large platforms such as tanks.
An ability to transport a type T-99 main
battle tank would be massively
significant to any kind of ground war
effort. especially since the us army M1
abrams tanks need to deploy overseas by
boat. Air deployment of a massive tank
exponentially decreases deployment
attack timelines and would enable a
heavy mechanized force to strike on a
vastly different timetable.
With the domestically made engines the Y-20 can become capable of long range or
intercontinental flight while carrying
heavy equipment like main battle tanks
without stopping at a transit airfield
for refueling, the global times reports.
The US Army's massive emphasis upon
rapid reaction deployment possibilities, something which could be described as an
ability to optimize expeditionary
warfare. Rests in large measure upon the
logistical reality that heavy mechanized
vehicles such as an abrams simply cannot
travel by air. This circumstance helps explain why the
army is fast tracking an air-droppable
mobile protected firepower light tank
vehicle.
Should major threats or some kind of
large-scale land war quickly become
urgently needed, getting armored forces
to the fight would become an instant
priority. The development almost immediately
brings taiwan to mind, given that an
ability to air deploy type T-99 tanks
could give attacking chinese forces a
rapid forcible entry option and possibly
be trail closely behind or accompany
some kind of amphibious assault.
Tank carrying aircraft transiting from
mainland china to taiwan could of course
travel much more quickly and much less
visible than tank transporting ships. This could even quite possibly be part
of why the us has been moving to sell
abram's tanks to taiwan, a clear way to
enable massive armored defense against a
possible chinese invasion. Perhaps having abram's tanks on the
island of taiwan could impede or slow up
any chinese ground invasion long enough
to allow time for the u.s military to
intervene.
