Chinese Army Inducts New Armored Vehicles, Howitzers & Rocket Launchers

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s Xinjiang Military Command has taken delivery of three new advanced weapon systems – armored vehicles, howitzers and self-propelled rocket launchers – over the past week.

The unit deployed in a snowy plateau region at an elevation of more than 4,500m inducted dozens of Type 08 eight-wheeled armored vehicles of different variants with some of them equipped with large caliber rifled guns, auto cannons, machine guns and howitzer systems, js7tv.cn, a video news website affiliated with the PLA, reported on Sunday.

Another newly delivered weapons system is a new-type, four-wheeled 122mm-caliber self-propelled howitzer, to a group which recently conducted its first live-fire target practice deep in the Karakorum Mountains at an altitude of 4,500m. The howitzer partially uses technologies from the PCL-181 155mm-caliber self-propelled howitzer.

In addition, a batch of new PHL-03 long-range self-propelled heavy rocket launchers, which are highly mobile, fast-reacting, highly accurate, very deadly and jamming-resistant, recently went into service at a unit deployed in a snow-covered region at an elevation of more than 5,200m, Chinese media reported.

The command received the first batch of newly developed Type 15 light tanks in early 2021.