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Chinese soldiers too fat for their outdated tanks
2014 Feb 20, 4:06am 707 views 5 comments
by zzyzzx follow (9)
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zzyzzx
2014 Feb 20, 4:10am
Perhaps China should give their equipment to North Korea where people are much smaller as a result of starvation.
New Renter
2014 Feb 20, 4:44am
The Soviet answer to that was to select smaller than average people to operate their tanks. Sometimes this was an entire family.
I was told this while looking uo at a T72 by my tour guide at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation. Our guide was a former US Army tanker himself, a major no less.
If you ever get the chance to visit this collection I highly recommend it.
haha, they just discovered their own military industrial complex: remaking everything for a different size, that's the way to spend a ton of money on weapons without raising alarm among the neighbors.
zzyzzx
2014 Feb 20, 8:39am
The Soviet answer to that was to select smaller than average people to operate their tanks.
I had only heard of doing that in aircraft, but it makes sense that someone would have thought if this as well.
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http://news.yahoo.com/china-soldiers-too-big-outdated-tanks-report-062507074.html
Beijing (AFP) - Chinese soldiers have become so much taller and fatter in recent years that they often find themselves cramped in tanks designed three decades ago, state media reported.
A survey found that People's Liberation Army troopers were on average two centimetres (0.8 inches) taller and five centimetres (two inches) fatter around the waist than 20 years ago, the military's official PLA Daily reported Tuesday.
As a result, it is harder for soldiers to squeeze into a tank designed for smaller personnel 30 years ago, it said.
Rifle stocks are also too short for some, limiting their accuracy, it added.
The findings of the survey, which began in 2009 and included more than 20,000 soldiers, suggested an upgrade to the military's equipment was necessary, the newspaper said, citing Ding Songtao, head of the poll project.
"Equipment must be in the right size for the battlefield, as clothes have to be in everyday life," Ding was quoted as saying.
Obesity rates have almost doubled in China since 1980, according to a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a London-based think tank.
The rise was attributed to diets changing with incomes rising, it said, and lifestyles become increasingly sedentary.