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Chinese Ground Combat Designation Formats

Keeping track of Chinese ground combat systems has become increasingly tedious with the end of the Cold War. On the one hand, US Government open source publications have failed to keep up with recent developments. On the other hand, Chinese enterprises have developed a plethora of prototypes and concept vehicles for international sales. And on the third hand [Shiva being the patron deity of analysts], there is no shortage of multiple designation nomenclature for individual systems.

The Chinese military has at least four distinct designation systems for land combat systems

1. Type-xx (rendered xx-Type in Mandarin) are counterparts to US 'Mxx' designations, wtih the number roughly corresponding to the system's chronology.
2. ZTZxx (and similar) are role-specific PLA designations, eg ZTZ (Zhuangjia Tanke Zhongxíng) = ('Armored Tank, Medium') Main Battle Tank, for systems in service
3. WZxx are officially-applied industrial designators, eg WZ (Wuqì Zhuangjia zhan che) = Armored Vehicle ('Weapon, Armored Combat Vehicle') for vehicles that have yet to enter service.
4. There is also a profusion of export designations, eg the PLA's ZTZ-96 or Type 96 MBT is exported as the VT-2 (although Pakistan calls it the Type 85-IIAP/IIM while Sudan has named it the Al-Bashir).

Like many Asian militaries, the PLA used a type system to designate its army equipment including its combat vehicles. This made reference to the year in which the vehicle was accepted into service, although it is possible that in some cases it referred to some other year in the development stage; given the secretive nature of communist Chinese society it is often impossible to know. The system's main flaw is that it is impossible to know the type of vehicle that is being referred to, which is particularly problematic in the case of different vehicles that came out during the same year and received the same type number. The Type 85, for example, could refer to either a main battle tank, a tracked APC, or a self-propelled howitzer.

In 1987, a new designation system was introduced which was based on a three-letter functional prefix derived from romanized Chinese abbreviations. The first letter referred to the broad type of weapon (ex: armored vehicle or artillery), the second to the role (ex: tank, IFV, APC), and the third to some design characteristic (ex: wheeled or tracked, medium or light). The type number (year) was then added as a two-digit suffix. The ZTZ-99 therefore refers to the Zhuangjia Tanke Zhongxíng or 'armored, tank, medium' of the year 1999 while PLZ-07 refers to the Paobing Liudanpào Zìxíng or 'artillery, howitzer, self-propelled' of the year 2007.

“WZ-” is the abbreviation of initials of Chinese Pinyin of «Weapon Equipment» (wuqì zhuangbèi), and it is factory designation, not the Army designation. Not all test prototypes could receive the “WZ-” designation, but only those that passed the trials and considered acceptable for mass production. However, these vehicles are still possible to be rejected by the Army, regardless of the permission from government commissions. Hence, there are such tanks like WZ-132, received the “WZ-” prefix but never seen a chance in service of the Chinese army. Meanwhile, vehicles with or without “WZ-” prefix are definitely different ones, but most likely share the same root, like 122 and WZ-122.

There has not been a consistent system for designating variants. The most common convention has been to add either a letter suffix (Type 59A), an arabic or roman numeral suffix (Type 59-I), or a combination of the two (Type 59-IIA). These are carried over when using the new designation system (ex: ZTZ-59-I). A frequently used suffix is G which means Gai ('modernized') and is often used interchangeably with an incremental letter suffix. For example, the ZTZ-96G and ZTZ-96A refer to the same modernized version of the ZTZ-96 tank. In Chinese sources, it is common to see Roman letter prefix designations rendered with and without hyphens in the same paragraph. However, recent arms show display boards tend not to show hyphens. Many sources conflate weapon systems with vehicle designations.

PLA Armored Vehicle Role Designations

Chinese sources commonly use Roman letter prefix designations rendered with and without hyphens in the same paragraph - the Soviets liked hyphens in their designators, while the American do not. Recent arms show display boards tend not to show hyphens. One common typo is 'ZLT' for ZTL tank destroyers, and another is 'ZTK' ( both 'ZTK-09' and 'ZTK-11' are seen in Japanese sources). 'ZTK-11' is a garbling of ZTL11 while 'ZTK-09' derives from ZBL09.

Export Designation Role Prefixes

Some Chinese designations were based on joint projects with foreign firms. An early example (with a prototype was displayed in 1986) was the NFV-1 - an IFV based on the Type 86 with an American FMC turret with 25mm M242. So NFV-1 = Norinco/FMC/Vehicle). Other examples are the WZ551-based NGV-1 (for Norinco/Giat/Vehicle) or proposed NVH-1 and NVH-4. The latter were to be Norinco Type 85s fitted with Vickers turrets (armed with 30 mm Rarden or 25mm Bushmaster, respectively).

Export Prefixes/Manufacturer Name's Short Forms