Al Khalid Tank

The Al-Khalid is a modern main battle tank developed and manufactured in

Pakistan by the local company Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) for the Pakistan Army.
The Al Khalid tank is based on the Chinese Norinco Type-90-II Main Battle Tank
(MBT). The Al Khalid has been developed in association with China North
Industries Corporation (NORINCO), which is also marketing a similar vehicle on the
export market called the Main Battle Tank 2000. The Al-Khalid Main Battle Tank
(MBT) forms the backbone of Pakistan Army’s Armoured Corps. The Al-Khalid is a
further development of the Chinese Type 90-II tank. The tank is locally produced
at the HIT complex, and an estimated 600 vehicles are in service with the Pakistani
Army. The main gun is able to fire six to eight rounds per minute. The Al-Khalid
also comes equipped with an autoloader, reducing the crew to three, another
facet of Russian tank design philosophy which was incorporated into the tank. The
Al-Khalid tank is also armed with a 7.62 mm-coaxial machine gun, a 12.7 mm
externally-mounted air-defence machine gun that can be aimed/fired from within
the tank and smoke grenade launchers.
Al-Khalid has modular composite armour and explosive reactive armour,
nuclear-biological-chemical defences, an effective thermal smoke generator,
internal fire extinguisher and explosion-suppression system. The tank is also
equipped with Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) bricks for added protection. ERA
bricks cover the turret front, roof, sides and hull glacis. The commander also has a
panoramic hunter-killer sight at his disposal, which is used to designate targets for
the gunner. Al-Khalid also comes equipped with a laser warning system, which
detects incoming ATGMs and provides the crew with better threat perception.
The tank is itself coated in IR (infrared) reflective paint to lower the thermal
signature, along with launchers which can launch thermal smoke, chaff and
fragmentation grenades. The standard version of the Al-Khalid is equipped with a
snorkel. The snorkel system allows the tank to cross water obstacles up to 5
meters deep, after some preparation by the crew. Navigation is assisted by an
inertial navigation system (INS) and a GPS satellite navigation system. The tank is
also fitted with a collective NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) system. It
incorporates internal fire extinguisher and explosion-suppression systems in order
to add to crew survivability. The latest model of the tank is also rumoured to be
equipped with an Active Protection System (APS), which can defeat incoming anti-
tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG).