Type 98

The Chinese government made a decision to modernize their tank force by incorporating advanced features into their next-generation MBT, as their older tanks were becoming ineffective. The resulting tank had a hull (chassis) similar to the T-72 or T-80 while having a welded turret like most Western tanks. The aim was to create a tank which could defeat the Soviet T-72/T-80 and approach the capabilities of the German Leopard 2 and US M1A1. Norinco's official designation for the Type 98 is ZTZ-98.

This tank is unique among current Chinese designs. Instead of an autoloader, it has a fourth crew member to manually load the western-style single unit ammunition rounds. Traditional Soviet-style autoloaders were designed to separately load the propellant and warhead components. The transmission is manual instead of automatic like those on the newer Type 90. The tank can also fire DU (Depleted Uranium) rounds.

In Project Reality, the Type 98 appears as the main battle tank of the People's Liberation Army(China).