Comparing: Type 59 vs. T95E2

Chinese medium tank. Initially, the vehicle was a copy of the Soviet medium T-54A tank. The Type 59 entered service in 1959. The first tanks manufactured had no gun stabilizer or night-vision device. Later the vehicle underwent several modernizations. Between 6,000 and 9,500 vehicles of all variants were manufactured from 1958 through 1987.

Development began in September 1954, with many components similar to an experimental prototype, the T96. A total of nine prototypes were manufactured, five of which had the 90-mm gun. Four of the vehicles were planned to have the turret of the T96 tank as well as its 105-mm gun. However, because the turrets of the T96 were not ready at that point, two of the new vehicles received turrets from the mass-produced M48A2 tank, equipped with the M41 rifled gun. These prototypes, designated T95E2, were manufactured from May through July 1957.