One day in mid-October 2015, an unfamiliar armored vehicle appeared at a live-fire landing drill by a unit of the South China Sea Fleet.
"This amphibious armored breaching vehicle with eight cluster rocket launchers on top has just entered service. It's quite powerful at advancing at fords and beachheads," said Zhang Ziji, director of the unit’s services department. "Advanced breaching equipment can significantly reduce losses in landing operations," said Zhang Yan, chief of the engineering and chemical response battalion. The amphibious vehicle, with its digital technologies, greater power and defensive features, supersedes the previous vessels in which engineers carried a single breaching device, said Zhang.
The China-made, second-generation, tracked armored vehicle carries mine ploughs, blasting devices, rocket shells and road-marking gear. It is mainly used for landing assaults by amphibious armored troops to break through anti-tank mines and obstacles. The mine ploughs can detect the position of mines, dig them up and clear the way. The blasting device in the front can destroy walls and other solid obstacles. Rocket-powered demolition mine-sweeping gear on top can fire projectiles at enemy minefields from different angles to clear a path for heavy machinery. The road-marking gear in the back of the vehicle automatically guides following forces.
A team of three –– a guide, driver and operator –– can finish clearing a minefield in under 50 seconds. Staff Sergeant Peng Bing, of a marine brigade, said the vehicle is more powerful and efficient than previous models as it allows operators to choose different blasting and mine-sweeping equipment according to the terrain and battlefield, which significantly improves the vehicle's adaptability and capability for continuous combat. It also provides stronger defense in water and on land. With its positioning gear, a friend-or-foe identification system, aiming and communication systems, it can operate in a wide variety of complicated battlefields.
