In the 80s, China offered tanks to foreign buyers, which were the development of the Soviet T-54 tank created three decades ago. Even the newest Type 80 at that time largely repeated the design of its predecessors, differing from them only in the chassis. In order to compete confidently in the international arms markets, a new generation of equipment was needed.
Therefore, without stopping their own developments, experts from China decided to seek help from designers from the American company Cadillac Gage Textron, known, in particular, for the creation of a light tank Stingray, supplied to Thailand.
It took four years to create a new export main battle tank, dubbed Jaguar. As a result, two samples were produced for testing in 1989.
Externally, these combat vehicles were very different from the well-known Type 59, the chassis of which was used to mount updated hull parts, internal equipment and towers with multilayer armor.
The 105-mm rifled L7 with 34 rounds of ammunition, widely used at that time, was used as the main weapon.
The machine guns were made in the USA: paired 7.62 M240S and 12.7 mm M2 Browning.
The commander and gunner received modern multi-channel sights with laser rangefinders, thermal imagers, a ballistic computer and a set of special sensors.
The engine is 750 hp with an automatic transmission. The maximum speed on the highway is 60 km/h. The capacity of the fuel tanks was 1000 liters, which provided a power reserve of 500 km. Combat weight - 42,000 kg. The crew is four people.
The successfully developing US-Chinese cooperation was interrupted after the events in Tiananmen Square, and Jaguar tanks never went into production.
This is not the only project of an armored vehicle created jointly with the United States, at the same time work on a joint NFV-1 infantry fighting vehicle stopped.
My poster on an RARE project of Chinese & American T-59 tank upgraded in 1980s called 'JAGUAR'.. ???? pic.twitter.com/ZBa4o4j4wo
— KUNAL BISWAS (@Kunal_Biswas707) November 3, 2021
Alexey Moiseev
