China: January 3, 2001

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China has begun export marketing of the new Type-90-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft system. This is a tracked armored vehicle mounting a manned turret. The turret mounts four 25mm cannon and four fire-and-forget missiles. The search radar, mounted on the turret, has a range of 11 kilometers. The turret also mounts infrared and daylight television and a laser rangefinder. The 25mm guns have a range of about 2,500 meters and a rate of fire of about 700 rounds per minute (each). A total of 1,000 rounds of ammunition are carried on the vehicle. The missiles could be any type the customer wants of the man-portable shoulder-launched fire-and-forget class (e.g., Russian Strella, American Stingers). The vehicle weighs 22.5 tons including a crew of three (driver, gunner, commander). A command post, ammunition resupply, and power generating vehicle are available as variants of the same basic chassis. The command post variant has a more powerful radar with a tracking range of 45km.--Stephen V Cole