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Amphibious Warfare Capabilities of the People's Liberation Army:
An Assessment on Recent Modernizations[1]

Type 63A Amphibious Light Tanks (ALT) (mistakenly called Type 99 by the media for a short period of time) is equipped with a 105mm fully stabilized main gun, capable of firing a 105mm version of the Russian Bastion gun-launched laser-guided missile. It is also equipped with a new 1215L-7BW engine, thermal night version equipment and a GPS system. ERA is installed over the frontal arc of its all-welded steel armor turret to increase its battlefield survivability.

Type 63C AAPC is a heavily modified variant of the PLA's “workhorse”, the Type 63 APC, with an amphibious kit that extends a welded nose and back. The system is an enhancement for ship-to-shore operations and has greatly improved its swimming capabilities. There is also a modified version to serve as the command APC for the formation.

While it is an improvement over the old design, the new amphibious vehicle has its share of criticism: The Type 63C AAPC is more like a hack job that somewhat resembles the Italian Alligator conversion kit for the M113 APC. However, the Type 63 AAPC conversion didn't bother adding the two water-jets. Instead, it uses an unarmored boat outboard motor at the rear of the vehicle. The result with the conversion will be both slow in the water due to the poor propulsion and on land due to all the extra weight. Both the type 63A ALT and Type 63C AAPC have little reserve buoyancy and the water line is too low to be use in even a slightly rougher sea. However, with the ability to be launched from LSTs away from the beach, the PLA can avoid the bottleneck of unloading equipment right at the beach in the middle of a firefight and be able to return fire before landfall.

The Type 63C AAPC is armed with a 12.7 heavy machine gun and carries 13 fully equipped infantry.

Type 86 is a PLA copy of the Russian BMP-1 IFV. It went thought a similar upgrade program as the Type 63C . Unknown numbers are in service with the 2nd Marine Brigade.

It is equipped with a low-pressure smoothbore 73mm gun with 40 rounds of ammunition and a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun. It mounts one ATGM externally with 4 additional missiles carried inside. It can carry 8 fully equipped infantry.

Its chassis is based on Type 77 Amphibious APC that saw extensive service with the PLAMC. The hull and turret of the 122mm Type 89 are made out of all-welded aluminum construction that provides the crew protection from small arms fire and shell splinters.

Its 122mm howitzer is based on the Russian D30 howitzer. Unlike both Type 63A and Type63C, the Type 89 is also in service with non-amphibious PLA units.

While it is not new equipment, nevertheless it was the PLA Amphibious force’s workhorse in many years. It is estimated that 200 to 300 of its last production version (Type 77 II) are still in service of the 900 produced. The original Type 77 was based on the Russian BTR-50PK APC but with a more powerful engine. All Type 77 versions are capable of carrying a field gun on top of its top compartment but with no protection. Currently it is mainly being use as resupply vehicle and as load carrier.