Chinese military researchers have outlined an ambitious plan to develop a nuclear-powered main battle tank armed with an electromagnetic railgun capable of hitting targets up to 450km (280 miles) away, possibly debuting after 2045.
Detailed in a peer-reviewed paper published in June in the Chinese journal Acta Armamentarii, the concept envisions a 60-tonne armoured vehicle driven by a 10-megawatt-class small modular reactor (SMR) and a 50-megajoule (MJ) railgun.
The paper was written by researchers from Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group – part of China’s defence industrial system and closely associated with the development and manufacture of tanks and armoured vehicles – and the Beijing Institute of Technology.
The National Key Laboratory of Special Vehicle Design and Manufacturing Integration Technology funded the study through a special research project.