China converts Type-59 into unmanned tank

The battlefields of the early 21st century have seen the participation of many unmanned war vehicles capable of launching attacks.

If the sky was previously dominated by the US's RQ and MQ family of armed and reconnaissance drones, recently China has joined in with its "Rainbow" UAVs, which are no less capable.

Not stopping there, the above countries continue to manufacture stealth UAVs that are predicted to become the backbone of 6th generation fighters in the future. Some typical representatives include the US's X-47B or Europe's Neuron.

Unlike the above countries, Russia chose its own separate path focusing on the strengths of its armored forces when they continuously introduced and put into practice in Syria many combat robots as well as ground logistics, of which the Uran-9 is a typical representative.

The widespread use of Russian Uran-9 robots is expected to be even larger than drones because the effect of reducing casualties for soldiers on the future battlefield is much greater.

Besides, it is impossible to ignore that the Russians have announced a research project to manufacture a robotized T-14 Armata tank, meaning it will be fully automatically controlled, opening up the prospect of applying this to older generation tanks.

Although coming later, the Chinese Army recently had a bold idea: they plan to deploy on a fairly large scale the conversion of old Type 59 main battle tanks into unmanned tanks.

A product of the country's Unmanned Combat Systems Laboratory, the "Type 59 combat robot" system was initially quite simple, consisting only of cameras and control equipment, allowing soldiers to control it remotely.

The next problem that needs to be solved is how this Type 59 can fire and reload after each shot when there is no one on board. Perhaps this tank is just a test prototype before being equipped with an automatic loading device or for the country's army to apply on more advanced tanks.