Armored Warfare News

Commanders!

• ZTZ-20 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank
  
• QN-506 Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer
  
• VT-5 Tier 9 Premium Light Tank
  
• Type 96B Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank
  
• Iron Crate
  

Between August 8 and August 15, 2024, the following items will be available:

[h3]ZTZ-20[/h3]
 

The ZTZ-20 is a fictional Chinese Main Battle Tank for the 21st century. It combines western influences with some ideas taken from the T-14 Armata. You can read about its (real and fictional) history in our dedicated article.



In Armored Warfare, the ZTZ-20 is a Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank. On its own, it’s a beast of a machine and one of the most powerful vehicles in the game, featuring both a powerful gun and thick armor. It does have a special feature though – its missiles can cover a wide area with burning White Phosphorus that reduces enemy vehicle camouflage and deals damage to anyone entering the zone.

The ZTZ-20 MBT is available in our Web Shop via Loot Crates. Collect 100 blueprint pieces from these crates to obtain the vehicle.

 

 


[h3]VT-5[/h3]

The VT-5 is a modern Chinese Light Tank that was developed specifically with export in mind. There are many reasons why a country without its own tank development should opt to purchase a Light Tank instead of a full-scale Main Battle Tank. It’s equally as fast if not faster with equal firepower but, what is most important, it is affordable. The VT-5 excels in all these categories. While its armor cannot match that of an MBT, it can protect its crew against most infantry threats thanks to its ERA and cage armor sets. It also has a powerful 105mm gun capable of firing guided missiles, it is packed with advanced electronics and is supremely agile thanks to its 1000hp diesel engine. Simply put, wraps cutting edge technologies up into an affordable bundle. You can learn more about it in a dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the VT-5 is a very powerful Tier 9 Premium Light Tank. Fast and agile, it features solid levels of protection (the configuration in the game is the one featuring the ERA kit as well as the turret cage armor) and a good rate of fire. Additionally, its gun is capable of firing guided missiles. It’s an ideal machine for players who value speed and agility, as it offers plenty of both. The VT-5 is capable of dancing around its opponents on the battlefield, outperforming even some AFVs in mobility.

This bundle is available in our Web Shop.





[h3]QN-506[/h3]

The QN-506 fire support vehicle is a Chinese attempt to design a cheap, export-oriented alternative to the Russian BMPT series. Instead of converting a second or third generation MBT, the engineers at Wuhan Guide Infrared Co., Ltd., likely to keep the vehicle as affordable as possible, opted to base their project on the Type 59 MBT, which is, in its basic form anyway, a copy of the old Soviet T-55 medium tank from the late 1950s. They jam-packed it with cutting edge electronics and a number of weapon systems, including ATGMs, an automatic cannon or smaller caliber rockets. However, despite the use of an unmanned turret, the protection levels of this vehicle are still quite low and, so far, there haven’t been any signs of interest in the QN-506. You can learn more about this vehicle in our dedicated article.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In Armored Warfare, the QN-506 is a Premium Tier 9 Tank Destroyer that gameplay-wise resembles the popular BMPT series. However, unlike the Russian Terminators, it has a number of interesting features including tree different weapon systems (30mm cannon, 70mm unguided rockets and 151mm ATGMs) and loitering recon ammunition flying towards the end of a map and spotting everything in its path. The last ability is unique to the QN-506 and makes it one of the most potent support vehicles on the battlefield.

This bundle is available in our Web Shop.





[h3]Type 96B[/h3]

The Type 96B MBT, as its name suggests, is an evolution of the Type 96A, featuring such elements as an upgraded fire control system and a much more powerful engine, resulting in considerably better mobility and speed. Unlike the Type 96A, however, the Type 96B is a prototype, designed for the Chinese military team to use during the annual Tank Biathlon event in Russia. In 2017, the Chinese team won the second place, being defeated only by Russia. You can learn more about its history in our dedicated article!



In Armored Warfare, the Type 96B is a Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank. Gameplay-wise, it’s very agile and fast for its class and uses advanced ammunition, making it highly suitable for players who prefer mobility over armor protection, even though it can take a lot of punishment as well.

This bundle is available in our Web Shop.



[h3]Iron Crate[/h3]



This crate allows you to win a Tier 4 to Tier 10 Premium vehicle (or its value in Gold if you have it already). The crate contains some very rare vehicles, including:

• ZTL-11 Tier 9 Premium TD
  
• VN17 Tier 8 Premium AFV
  

This bundle is available in our Web Shop.

Commanders!

We are happy to announce that the Update 0.180 is now available!



[h2]List of Update 0.180 Changes[/h2]

Tales from the Dark Battle Path Fixes

In this update, we are correcting several issues of the Tales from the Dark Battle Path and its vehicles:

• Elite missions now display an icon in post-match statistics
  
• Garage UI no longer flickers upon moving the mouse over various Battle Path UI elements
  
• BMP-2M: Minor model fixes
  
• BTR-82A: Fixed the missing headlight textures
  
• BTR-82A: Minor model fixes
  

Additional Vehicle Fixes and Updates

With each patch we continue (and will continue) to update vehicles based on your feedback and fix them. In this update, we have the following changes for you:

• AbramsX: Added the Armored Crew Compartment module
  
• Ajax: Added the Troop Compartment module
  
• Boxer CRV: Minor model fixes
  
• KF41 Lynx Prototype: Minor model fixes
  
• Leopard 2A6: Hades skin is no longer missing the commander optics
  
• M8-105 Buford: Added a roof machinegun as a visual element
  
• M8-120 Thunderbolt II: Fixed an issue where a part of antenna was elevating with the machinegun
  
• Panzerhaubitze 2000: Added the missing engine module
  
• Puma: Added the Troop Compartment module
  
• T-14 Armata: Fixed an issue where the Vakuum-1 APFSDS shell aiming circle size would not change when firing or moving
  
• T-72B3: Fixed the broken ERA textures
  

General Changes

• Corrected the description of “Modern” APFSDS shells
  
• Corrected the appearance of the Iraq (Modern) camouflage
  
• Australian (Scales) camouflage is now available for all environments
  
• Rate of Decay: Base door can now be targeted with auto-aim
  
• Fixed several localization issues
  
• Added a number of assets
  

On the 8th of August 2024, starting from 8:00 CEST, the server will not be available for 5 hours due to a planned server maintenance.



Please note that the maintenance can be extended beyond the abovementioned timeframe. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Commanders!

The Bastille Day Mission is over and we have a list of winners for you:

CLICK

The winners already received their prizes. Thank you for participating and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

We’re happy to announce that the T-80BVM progression MBT will be making its appearance in the foreseeable future.



As you already know, we’re introducing additional progression vehicles to Armored Warfare in order to complete the line previously ending with the T-80U MBT. We have launched the T-80UM-1 Bars in October and have announced the final vehicle of the line but, unfortunately, there have been some delays in adding the “middle” model as it is a complicated one. But there has been progress since and today, we’d like to tell you more about this tank.

The history behind this vehicle is actually quite complicated. It started well before the fall of the Soviet Union with numerous proposed T-80 upgrades, but almost ended with it as there just wasn’t enough money to go around in the 1990s. Russia’s military was simply in bad shape and things would not improve until the early 2000s. That, however, didn’t mean there were no attempts. There was the 1997 T-80UM-1 Bars and the Black Eagle that appeared the same year. But things didn’t properly take off until the establishment of a program called “Motobol” in 2005 or 2006.

The goal of this program was to upgrade the existing fleet of Russian T-80s for a number of reasons, most importantly that turbine vehicles fared better in cold environments and that there were thousands lying around the army’s warehouses, a perfect framework for a massive upgrade. Another idea was to offer some for export (for countries like Cyprus and Yemen), but that’s another story.



It’s worth noting that this program wasn’t really connected to the Bars because that was done by Omsktranshmash whereas the Motobol program began at the Kirov Plant (also known as the Leningrad Kirov Plant, LKZ) and the Spetsmash design bureau (KB Spetsmash) in St. Petersburg.

The goal of the program was to modernize the existing T-80B/BV tanks and included the development of numerous components as well as various T-80 variants, most notably:

• T-80UA (T-80U upgrade featuring 2A46M-4 gun, improved 1A45-1 FCS, new gunner and commander optics and Shtora soft-kill APS)
  
• T-80UE-1 (2005 T-80BV overhaul including T-80UD turret, new GT-1250 1250hp turbine engine, 18kW APU, improved 1A45-1 FCS, Kontakt-5 ERA instead of Kontakt-1 and numerous other features)
  
• T-80BV fitted with Relikt ERA (unknown designation, one-off prototype)
  
• Object 219AM2 (T-80U with Arena-E hard-kill APS), one-off prototype
  
• Object 219M (deep T-80BV overhaul, also called T-80BV-RM or T-80UM), one-off prototype
  

Most of these vehicles sort of disappeared in the annals of history. The T-80UE-1 was kind of mass-produced but not really, as Russia couldn’t afford to buy too many of these – it was formally accepted in service in 2005 with 10 allegedly built between 2007 and 2008, but there isn’t much else.



The Object 219M is more interesting though, as it represents a predecessor to the vehicle we are discussing today. In many ways the Object 219M (we’ll be using this name as it is by far the best-known one) was the T-80BVM should have been. It featured the following firepower upgrades:

• New 125mm 2A46M-4 gun replacing the 2A46M-1
  
• Replacing the by-then obsolete gun-launched Kobra ATGM capability with a newer system called 9K119 Refleks
  
• New FCS called 45M
  

As a result, the effective firing distance grew by 15 to 20 percent. Effective rate of fire at night was doubled (it took less time to line each shot).

The protection was enhanced by replacing the old Kontakt-1 ERA with the cutting-edge Relikt system and the Arena-E hard-kill APS was added as well. Its mobility was improved by improving the engine output from 1250hp to 1400hp. The tank really came with all bells and whistles – it even came with an anti-mine system and Nakidka camouflage.

A single prototype was unveiled around 2012 and was shown several times to public but, as you can imagine, it was still way too expensive for the upgrade to be launched en-masse. The tank would end up paraded around for a few years until its disappearance. It is said that the hull was used in the Burlak program as a turret carrier and that’s how it got to Omsk.

Following the failure of Object 219M, Russia still had tons of old T-80BVs on its hands and nothing to show for its years of development. The idea was therefore simple – “let’s take the concept of Object 219M, simplify it to make it affordable and we’ll have viable tank in no time.” And that’s what the the T-80BVM basically is.



Developed by Omsktransmash, the first demonstrator appeared in 2017 at the Army 2017 expo in Moscow and featured numerous improvements, but not as many or as high-quality ones as the Object 219M. They include:

• Brand-new Relikt armor (the Arena-E APS was left out despite being initially announced as a part of the upgrade)
  
• New 2A46M-4 gun (the 2A46M-5 model info is incorrect) with improved 2E58 gun stabilizer
  
• New Sosna-U gunner optics (similar to those on the T-72B3)
  
• New ATGM launching system (replaced the old 9K112 Kobra system with the 9K119 Refleks one)
  
• Improved automatic loading mechanism to use the larger Svinets rounds
  
• New R-168-25U-2 “Akveduk” comms system
  

The contract to upgrade the first T-80Bs to this version was signed in 2017 and the mass-produced vehicle first appeared in public in 2018. It has officially entered service in either 2018 or 2019.

Since then, it went through numerous iterations with various armor and optics configurations (including the so-called “mobilized” version with downgraded optics).

It’s unclear how many were built since but the estimates range between 200 and 300 vehicles. The T-80BVM has been relatively widely used in the Ukraine conflict by both sides as a number of these tanks (possibly several dozen) were captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2022 and early 2023. The production on the Russian side still continues and the tank remains (along with the T-90M) the most modern MBT of the Russian Federation.



In Armored Warfare, the T-80BVM will be a Tier 9 Main Battle Tank.

The tank will be possible to unlock from the Tier 8 T-80UM-1 Bars MBT of Marat Shishkin’s MBT branch by completing an achievement using the Bars (not to worry, it won’t be a repetition of the previous requirement and it will emphasize active gameplay).



Regarding the vehicle itself, it’ll be, as one might expect, an evolution of the T-80-style gameplay – a highly mobile, heavy hitting machine with decent protection. There will be, however, several features setting it apart from its peers.



For one, the vehicle will offer 4 differed protection upgrades:

• Basic Relikt ERA coverage
  
• Relikt ERA with additional side plates (based on the later models)
  
• Relikt ERA with another, secondary Relikt ERA layer covering its sides (this second ERA will be placed in soft bags similar to those used on the BMPT Mod.2017 – this version first appeared in 2022)
  

The fourth protection upgrade is the Arena-E hard-kill APS.





The engine will be possible to upgrade to 1400hp (Klimov GTD-1400 turbine – not bad for 46 tons).





And, finally, there’s the firepower consisting of the usual assortment of 125mm ammunition including 3VBM23 APFSDS, 3VBK27 HEAT, 3VOF36 HE and gun-launched ATGM. There will be two new shell types that’ll be available as upgrades though:

• 3UBK14F1 gun-launched thermobaric ATGM
  
• 3VOF77 “Namestnik” programmable HE
  

Both should provide some additional gameplay elements for the vehicle.

And that’s pretty much it.

See you on the battlefield!