The Type 69 and Type 79 are two models of Chinese main battle tanks. Both developments of the Type 59 (based on the Soviet T-54A), they were the first independently-developed main battle tanks by China. Their lineage can be seen through the distinct gap between the first and second roadwheels. Other improvements included a new engine, ballistic computers, and laser rangefinders. The more advanced Type 79 was equipped with a 105 mm rifled gun, also seen on the later Type 88 tank.
During the 80s, China was reported to have sold hundreds of Type 59 and Type 69 MBTs to Iraq. By 1991 Gulf War, western analysts claim that Iraq had upgraded some Type 69s with a 105 mm gun, a 160 mm mortar, and a 125 mm gun with an auto-loader. All of them were reinforced with frontal layer armor welded on the glacis plate. All these versions were known as Type 69-QMs. It was reported during the 1991 Gulf War that the Iraqi Type 69 units fought harder than the elite Republican Guard units, equipped with T-72 MBTs. One possible explanation is that Saddam ordered his Republican Guard units to preserve their strength, while sending the rest of the army, equipped with inferior Type 69 tanks, to frontline fight.
According to battle reports from the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Type 69-QMs were used by the Iraqi Army units defending Nasiriyah in March 2003, most of them being employed as artillery pillboxes. They were key players in the ambushes which decimated the US Army 507th Maintenance Company and Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, before AH-1 Cobra helicopters wiped out the Iraqi tanks. Two Type 69s destroyed at least four vehicles of the 507th, among them a heavy truck rammed by one of the tanks. There is also a first hand account of about four Type-69s hidden behind some buildings, pounding the Marines' Charlie Company with indirect fire and likely disabling several AAVs. Some combat useless Type 59/69s were emplaced as decoys or mere obstacles.| Type 69/79 MBT | |
|---|---|
| Type | Main battle tank |
| Place of origin |  People's Republic of China |
| Service history | |
| Wars | Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), Operation Desert Storm (1991), Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-–10) |
| Production history | |
| Designer | No. 60 Research Institute |
| Manufacturer | First Inner Mongolia Machinery Factory/Inner-Mongolia First Machine Group Company Limited |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 36.7 tonnes |
| Length | 6.24 m (Hull) |
| Width | 3.3 m |
| Height | 2.8 m |
| Crew | 4 |
| | |
| Armor | 203 mm |
| Main armament | 100/105 mm rifled tank gun |
| Secondary armament | 7.62 mm coaxial and bow machine guns, 12.7 mm antiaircraft machine gun |
| Engine | diesel 580 hp (430 kW) |
| Power/weight | 15.8 hp/tonne |
| Suspension | torsion-bar |
| Operational range | 440 km |
| Speed | 50 km/h |
