The China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) is currently developing a new generation 8x8 wheeled armoured fighting vehicle family, which could potentially be selected by the PLA as a successor to the ZSL92 series. So far five variants of this vehicle family have been identified: infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), armoured recovery vehicle (ARV), armoured command vehicle, assault gun, and 122mm self-propelled howitzer. The vehicle will also likely become available to the export market in the near future.

In 2006, NORINCO revealed a new 6X6 armoured personnel carrier (APC) design for the export market. Although the APC did not attract any customer, it is worth noting that the vehicle has adopted a modular design approach. The 16t APC is composed of six modules: powerpack module, transmission module, control module, suspension module, hull module, and weapon station module. Some commercial ‘off-the-shelf’ technologies were also used in the vehicle design to save development costs.

In later 2006 an unknown model of 8X8 wheeled armoured combat vehicle was spotted undergoing road testing. This vehicle and the 6X6 APC revealed earlier share some common features in their hull designs, and are possibly based on the same core technologies.

Great emphasis have been put on the safety and comfort of the crew and passengers in Chinese-developed armoured vehicles in recent years. As a result, the new 8X8 IFV is likely to feature collective NBC protection, automatic fire suppression systems, noise/vibration/heat-reduction interior design, and even air conditioning as standard configuration.

The IFV’s armour should be capable of resisting direct hits by 7.62mm weapon and blast of 152mm artillery shells. Additional composite armour plats could be fitted for extra protection. The underside of the vehicle is also likely to be enhanced to protect its crew and passengers from the blast of a land mine detonated underbelly.

One important common feature shared by most wheeled IFV designs introduced in the 21st century is the information warfare capability. The new 8X8 IFV could be fitted with a vehicle electronic information system which integrates the driver and commander computers and can be used to exchange data and information with other terminals to achieve the netcentric warfare capability.

The previous ZSL92 wheeled IFV lacks sophisticated observation and fire-control system. This weakness was addressed in the NORINCO 6X6 APC design, which features laser rangefinder, optical and low-light/image-intensified night vision for commander and gunner, and infrared search light. The commander can observe the outside view using CCD camera and a large-size colour visual unit on the commander panel. The driver has a ‘virtual panel’ which displays all vehicle data and information on a computer display.