Car made in China while the bike is made in Germany.

 

 

 

On 10/11/2017 at 7:24 PM, bangkokheat said:

timely event, problems on the horizon? Maybe I'm just paranoid

Yep you are- they are instead of Ukranian tanks that were ordered a while back but only a few were delivered due to them being needed 'elsewhere'. The Thai army is looking at Chinese APCs as well so for commonality it makes sense (radios, ammunition, servicing, etc). Other Chinese kit is already in service and some was on the streets of Bangkok during recent events.

 

The country's US sourced tank fleet is extremely dated (some were designed in the early 50s). Sourcing from one place is far better than piecemeal replacements. 

 

These are more like Russian tanks than the Abrams (for a spotter like me). The closest look- a- like to the Abrams are the Brit Challenger 2 and the downsized Korean K1. Chinese designs often mirror Russian kit. Most modern tanks have this slab sided appearance due to the specialist armour now used.

For some reason the site is playing up and I've wasted ten minutes trying to edit the previous post with pictures. Here's a couple of pics of Type 85s on the streets of Bangkok. Lets not forget the Brit kit as well (armoured Jags as they were known to some)- these are getting on in age as well.