A new type of infantry fighting vehicle was recently spotted in service with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Global Times reports. A brigade attached to the PLA 81st Group Army recently held a commissioning ceremony for a batch of the new equipment. This new tracked armored vehicle will likely be used to transport troops and replace some of the less capable and obsolete equipment. The curled reinforced ribs on its sides, a machine gun and two sets of smoke launching devices make it a lightly armed vehicle. However, this allows the vehicle to have a larger interior space and a reasonable production cost,
The new armored vehicle is likely developed based on the chassis of the upgraded version of the Type 89 tracked armored fighting vehicle. The Norinco Type 89 tracked armoured fighting vehicle is a Chinese armoured personnel carrier. It was developed from the earlier export market Type 85 AFV vehicle. It entered service in the late 1990s and was first shown publicly in 1999. There are approximately 1,000 in service. It has the industrial index of WZ534 and although it was mainly developed for the PLA, there is also an export version YW534. In the 1990s a new designator system was introduced in the PLA and the Type 89 armoured personnel carrier is nowadays known as ZSD-89 armoured personnel carrier.
