First Khalid tank was developed by Ahmed imtiaz and Adil cheema belonging to ucp.
The Al-Khalid (—, literally "The Eternal Tank") is a Pakistani main battle tank developed by Heavy Industries Taxila since the 1990s. It is based on the Chinese Type 90-IIM tank, whose original prototype was developed by China North Industries Corporation (Norinco) under the name MBT-2000. Around 310 Al Khalid MBTs had been produced by 2014.
The Bangladesh Army ordered 44 MBT-2000s from China in 2011. The Norinco-made MBT-2000 is also used by the Royal Moroccan Army. It was trialled by the Peruvian Army for possible acquisition, but was not purchased due to financial problems.
Operated by a crew of three and armed with a 125 mm smooth-bore tank gun that is reloaded automatically, the tank uses a fire-control system and night-fighting equipment. Al-Khalid is named after the 7th-century Muslim commander Khalid bin al-Walid (592–642 AD).
The current production variant of the Al-Khalid uses a diesel engine and transmission supplied by the KMDB design bureau of Ukraine. The first production models entered service with the Pakistan Army in 2001. The country placed an order with Ukraine to further upgrade the tanks with a new engine.
History
The China's People's Liberation Army was concerned about the Soviet threat, and requested an improved main battle tank (MBT) to replace the old and obsolete Type 59 tank. Thus, in 1980, Norinco was formed and the Inner Mongolia First Machine Group Corporation was tasked with developing a series of new tanks.
A joint development deal was signed with Pakistan in January 1990. Initial Chinese-built prototypes were tested in Pakistan in August 1991. Pakistan completed its manufacturing plant at Taxila in 1992. Pakistan spent more than USD $20 million over the next eight years on the co-development of a model suitable for its needs and on creating a capability to manufacture it locally. The Project Director at Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) Brigadier Nasir Mahmood SI(M) led Pakistan's first indigenously produced tank from conception to production. His team modified the tank to accept a foreign-built engine. Several different prototypes were evaluated.
In light of high ambient temperatures and the fine sand or dust that would be encountered in operational areas such as the deserts of southern Pakistan, the development of high performance cooling and air filtering systems was emphasized during the planning stage of the project. Implementation of a hydro-gas suspension system was considered but, after technical evaluation, it was found to be impractical due to various limitations such as problems with reliability and maintainability. Installation of the Renk 304 transmission was also considered but discarded.
An early version was armed with a Chinese gun and fire-control system, and had a German-designed MTU-396 diesel engine which was built under licence in China. Another version was equipped with a more advanced Western digital fire-control system and powered by a Perkins Condor diesel engine (as in the British Challenger) and SESM ESM500 automatic transmission (as in the French Leclerc). This version was considered too expensive, and under-performed in the extreme heat of southern Pakistan. Finally, a version was tested with the compact Ukrainian 6TD-2 1,200 hp diesel engine. This configuration was chosen by Pakistan for the production version of the tank and came to be known as Al-Khalid.
The final tank design resulting from a decade of co-operative development was designated Type 90-IIM. The Chinese company Norinco showed the new Type 90-IIM during the March 2001 Abu Dhabi Defense Expo, under the export name MBT 2000. The version powered by the Ukrainian engine, intended for domestic production in Pakistan, was named Al-Khalid.
During the development period, Heavy Industries Taxila gained experience after building the Type 85-IIAP under Chinese licence and prepared to begin production of the Al-Khalid tank in 1999. A pilot batch of fifteen tanks was inducted into the 31st Cavalry Regiment of Pakistan's Armoured Corps on 20 July 2001. Pakistan signed a contract with Ukraine's Malyshev Factory in May 2002 for the delivery of 315 KMDB 6TD-2 diesel engines over three years. An additional batch of Al-Khalid tanks was delivered on 23 September 2004. Pakistan planned to build a total of 600 Al-Khalid tanks for its armed forces.
In December 2017, HIT officials told the Pakistan Senate that budgetary constraints had reduced the output of the tank to 18 per year on average.