Editing WZ-1224 (section)

==History==
Class: Main Battle Tank (Prototype)</br>
Developed: late 1970s</br>
Service: N/A</br>
Vehicles Built: 1</br>
Operators: N/A

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, China increasingly began to recognize the drawbacks and flaws of their Soviet-based tank designs, many of which (like the Type 69) were simply upgraded versions of the now-obsolete Type 59. To produce modern and competitive designs, Chinese tank developers worked in two directions. The first was simply to continue improving existing designs. The other was to develop a brand new indigenous tank that would be different from anything previously built in China. One of the attempts at the latter was the WZ-1224.

The WZ-1224 (a factory designation) was a unique design, originally intended to replace the Type 59, although other sources claim it was simply a technology demonstration built to advance certain elements of Chinese armor engineering. Development started in the late 1970s and at least one prototype was built. Unlike previous Chinese tanks that were heavily influenced by Soviet designs, the WZ-1224 carried many elements present in western armored vehicles. The vehicle had a low silhouette but the turret was welded instead of cast and the armament consisted of an indigenously-developed experimental 120mm smoothbore cannon designed with the help of Western components imported from Israel.

In the end, the novelties have proven to be this tank’s downfall. The automatic loading mechanism development was unsuccessful, and the gun didn’t perform as well as it was hoped for, not to mention that the turret was quite complicated (and expensive) to produce. Following unsuccessful trials in early 1980, a modified version of this tank with a simpler cast turret called the WZ-1226 was built. Two prototypes of this new tank were built and tested in 1981, each with a different engine. Unfortunately these trials too were unsuccessful. The Chinese military came to the conclusion that even with the cast turret the design was fundamentally flawed and the project was completely cancelled soon after the trials ended. The 120mm gun development continued and an advanced variant of the 120mm smoothbore was later used on the PTZ-89 Tank Destroyer.