Bronco CB35082 Chinese YW-531C Armored Personnel Carrier

The YW 531 (another designation: Type 63) is a modern Chinese armored personnel carrier. The first prototypes of the vehicle were probably created in the early 1960s, and mass production started in 1963. The YW 531 is powered by a single engine in its basic version KHD BF8L 413F with 320 hp. The vehicle is armed with a single 12.7mm Type 59 machine gun.

The YW 531 was created as a result of a program announced by the PRC government in 1958 to create a home-made armored personnel carrier. Unlike many other vehicles of the Chinese army, the YW 531 is not a copy of a foreign one, but a vehicle built from scratch in domestic research centers. The car - especially in the first production batches - is characterized by a great simplicity of execution and a simplified structure as well as poor electronics. Despite this, the implementation of the vehicle into mass production encountered many difficulties and took several years. Several versions of the YW 531 were created in its course. The first one, produced in very small batches, was called the YW 531 (or Type 63). The version produced in large series from 1968 was the YW 531 (or Type 63A). An export version (YW 531C) driven by an engine was also created Deutz BF8L413F . The command and battlefield management vehicles (YW 701 or YW 701A) were also built on the basis of the chassis and the YW 531 hull. The YW 531 vehicles were sold to many countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.