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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).

“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.

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' (I've seen both 'ZTK-09' and 'ZTK-11', especially in Japanese sources). 'ZTK-11' is a garbling of ZTL11 while 'ZTK-09' derives from ZBL09.

Export Designation Role Prefixes

Some odd 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