Know your enemy. Chinese PTL02 100 mm Assault Gun


photos are from the Air Power Australia website.
Meet the Chinese version of the French VAB.  According to the Air Power Australia website...
The PTL02 assault gun is the WZ551 equipped with the 100mm Type 86 high velocity smoothbore cannon with a six slotted muzzle brake, fume evacuator and a thermal sleeve. Nothing like the the German and Russian assault guns of the Second World War, it can be compared to the M1128 Mobile Gun System, which is part of the Stryker LAV family. There are three 76mm smoke grenade dischargers either side of the turret and a cupola mounted QJC 88 12.7 x 108mm heavy machine gun. 
 For an assault gun the vehicle is also very thinly armoured, but consistent when a turret is added to an armoured personnel carrier. The sharply angled turret front can only defeat a 12.7mm standard, not armour-piercing (AP), projectile at 100m and a 7.62mm AP projectile at 200m.  The chassis front can stop a 7.62mm AP projectile at 100m, the sides of the vehicle at 200m and the rest of the vehicle is proof against standard ball rounds. Besides the traditional cavalry roles of flank protection, rear area security, and pursuing a defeated enemy, the PLA envisage it using to exploit a break though of enemy defences.
This essentially means that it will operate the same way that our LAV-25 does. How long this vehicle will remain in service is unknown, but it can be expected that the Chinese will soon pass these along to client states so expect US and allied forces to face them on a future battlefield.