TYPE 86A INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE - CHINESE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY 1995

Description

The Type 86, also known as WZ501, is a Chinese copy of the the Russian BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). China obtained several BMP-1s from the Middle East in the 1980s, and these vehicles were used as patterns for reverse engineering, which was known as Project WZ501. Later in 1986 the project received its approval certificate and the vehicle was officially named as Type 86. The batch production began in 1987, with several hundred vehicles built for the PLA as well as foreign customers. Not surprisingly the Type 86 is not equipped by the PLA in a significant number. Experience from the Middle East conflicts in the 1980s and the 1991 Gulf War has showed that the BMP-1, a 1960s-era Soviet Union design originally to be used in the nuclear war, is not suitable for modern land warfare. Despite this, as the PLA’s first generation IFV the Type 86 has played an important role in the PLA in developing doctrines for the armour troops and obtaining experience of using armoured combat vehicles to support main battle tanks in the joint operations. (Scale : 1/35e)