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Two types of Chinese fifth-generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) have appeared in Armenia and Sudan, which highlights the prefoliation of such advanced weapon systems.
In Armenia, the GAM-102LR was showcased during the May 28 First Republic Day military parade in the capital, Yerevan, although it was presented by the Armenian military under a local name “Nizak”.
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The GAM-102LR is produced by Poly Defense, a major Chinese defense manufacturer operating under Poly Technologies. It was first introduced at the EDEX 2025 defense exhibition in Egypt.
The ATGM features an advanced optical homing seeker with top-attack, fire-and-forget, and lock-after-launch capabilities. It is said to have a range of six to ten kilometers, with a warhead capable of penetrating 1,000 mm of rolled homogeneous armor behind explosive reactive armor.
Armenia is, of course, not the first customer of the system. Last year, an older version of the ATGM, the GAM-102 — presented during the Zhuhai Airshow 2018 —, was used by the Cambodian military during border clashes with Thailand. Several missiles were captured by Thai forces in the province of Ubon Ratchathani. It remains unknown if any GAM-102s actually scored hits.
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Another type of Chinese fifth-generation ATGMs appeared in video footage from Sudan that surfaced on social networks on May 28.
The footage shows fighters from the Rapid Support Force (RSF) firing an M321-ER against a target of the Sudanese military, allegedly during the El Fasher offensive in the state of North Darfur last year. It has not appeared in any country other than Sudan yet.
The M321-ER is produced by the China South Industries Group. It was first presented at IDEAS 2022 in Pakistan, although since then its specifications have not been revealed. It is only known that the missile utilizes an advanced optical homing seeker.
The RSF may have gotten the M321-ER somehow through the United Arab Emirates, its main backer. It remains unclear how effective the system is.
Just a few years ago, such fifth-generation optical homing ATGMs were produced by a handful of countries, mainly the United States and Israel. Now, however, they are becoming more and more available and affordable.
And while China appears to be playing a larger role in the production and export of such systems, as seen from Armenia to Sudan, and Cambodia before, other countries are doing the same, most notably Iran with its Almas family of optical homing ATGMs, which has already found its way to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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https://hawarnews.com/ar/142168 perhaps only china will be forced to use a virus or an atomic bomb against syria
https://hawarnews.com/ar/142160 maybe the uyghurs will just create enough separatism in china that china will strike syria, because everyone deserves the territory of syria more than the syrians do.