Commanders!
With the Tales from the Dark Battle Path in its second half, it’s time for a preview of what comes next. We’d like to present you with the first vehicle of the next Battle Path, which is the Chinese
VN20.
As usual, a bit of history first. The VN20 Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle (or HIFV) is a relatively new machine. It was unveiled in 2020 during a NORINCO exhibition in Northern Mongolia. As the VN designation suggests, it was built for export.
It is based on the VT-4 MBT chassis and, with its weight of 50 tons, it represents an attempt at China’s entry to the super-heavy IFV segment which seems to be all the rage these days. It has a crew of three men (driver, weapon operator and commander) and can carry 6 soldiers.
The vehicle is extremely well-protected thanks to MBT-level armor and an ERA kit (likely FY-4 ERA). It’s not very mobile though – for its 50 tons, the engine only produces some 670hp. Nevertheless, the maximum speed is around 70 km/h.
Two main configurations appeared since 2020.
The first one featured a turret similar to that of ZBD-04A IFV and armed with a combination of 100mm and 30mm guns, well-known from the Russian BMP-3 series. This was the initial variant with different side armor and cage armor. It caught the world’s attention by featuring rearward-firing machineguns installed near the troop compartment door, likely an attempt to protect disembarking troops (or as a troop motivation enhancer, you never know).
The second variant appeared in 2022 and was armed with a more advanced and unmanned 30mm turret (likely based on the one used on the VN17 IFV) and an improved set of ERA. The turret allegedly offers STANAG 4569 Level 6 protection, which means it can withstand 30mm APFSDS fire at 500 meters.
The VN20 is still offered for export but so far no countries have shown interest. Two or three prototypes exist.
In Armored Warfare, the VN20 will be a Tier 10 Premium Tank Destroyer.We have decided to put the VN20 into the Tank Destroyer class this time in order to match it against the T-15 Armata.
You can likely already guess its performance from looking at it. It’ll be a well-protected monster, not just by armor, but also by its enormous pool of hit points. It can be regarded as a Chinese counterpart to the T-15, although it’ll also be very different.
The armor will effectively be MBT-level with composite plates complemented by third generation ERA elements. However, it’s worth noting the vehicle will only be equipped with soft-kill APS. It’ll also be surprisingly agile despite its high weight. But there will be two aspects that make it relatively unique.
First, the vehicle will offer
two turrets.It’ll start with the “old” one from the earlier prototype, which is effectively based on ZBD-04. In real life it is a manned turret but we took some liberties and “converted” it into an unmanned one as the ingame vehicle’s hull is based on the more advanced 2022 prototype and therefore has its crew located in the hull.
It’ll offer a wide variety of weapons, including:
- 30mm autocannon
- 100mm rifled cannon (capable of firing HE shells only)
- Red Arrow anti-tank guided missile launcher (single tube)
The second turret (unlocked via Battle Path progression) is more akin to the VN17 one. It is once again unmanned (this time also in real life) and offers a simple combination of a 30mm autocannon and (more advanced) Red Arrow guided missiles (two tubes).
But that’s not all.
Aside from deploying infantry, The VN20 will come with a brand-new active ability called
Turret Deployment.This ability will do pretty much what the name says. It will deploy an automated static turret armed with 30mm grenade launcher that will fire at enemies within range until destroyed or picked up. Now, that might not sound exactly overwhelming but the turret’s purpose isn’t to do what Mechanized Infantry does, which is why its firepower will not be as high as that of, for example, an AT team. On the other hand, it’ll offer high rate of fire and some minor splash damage.
What the turret can do, however, is hold the attention of enemy vehicles by being very durable. This will come in handy especially in PvE when you are getting overwhelmed by AI vehicles and the turret will be able to take some of that load off your back. For a while, at least. Its secondary function is basically being a tripwire. Some enemies may get behind you or attack your base from an unexpected direction and the turret will alert you to their presence as well as show their position with its tracers.
The ability will definitely come in handy this autumn as we are working on something new aside from the Battle Path. You’ll learn more in the near future but for now enjoy the game and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!
