In the 1970s China's primary MBT in service was the Type 59, a copy of the T-54 medium tank which was obsolete compared to contemporary Soviet and Western designs.

[4] However, the Type 69 failed to satisfy PLA requirements and was only an export success that saw limited domestic service.

[4] This spurred Norinco's engineers to develop a brand-new export tank on the Type 80 chassis.

Due to export restrictions, the Chinese were unable to use an imported 105mm gun on the Type 85 tank.

[4] This was marketed as the "Storm" series of main battle tanks and later named the Type 85 domestically.

[10] However, the first Storm tanks also failed to gather interest among potential buyers.

[8] Both variants of the tank employed the same chassis and round turret but had differences in their firepower and fire control system and the ability to mount explosive reactive armour (ERA).

Beginning from the Type 85, they were the first Chinese tanks to use a welded turret, allowing it to make use of composite armor.

[4] It was also the first tank to use six road wheels instead of five for a smoother ride at higher speeds.

Type 85-III was the first Chinese tank to use both composite armor (in its turret) and explosive reactive armour (ERA).

[4] The Type 85-I (Storm-1) series had a new welded turret design that was angular instead of the familiar bowl-shape.

The Type 85IIAP/M was the first tank in the series to be equipped with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.

The main gun has an elevation of -5 to 18 degrees and electronic turret drive of 20°/s for horizontal control and 6°/s for vertical.

The main gun on Type 80 is loaded manually, and has a rate of fire approximately 7 rounds per minute.

[15] On Type 88B, a form of assist loader is introduced for quicker and easier reload operations with reportedly 13 rounds per minute maximum rate of fire.

Type 80-I replaced the external laser rangefinder with an integrated multi-function gunner sight.

Type 37A features integrated gunner sight with daylight optics, passive night vision channel, and laser range finder.

It has a maximum cruising range of 500 km and can negotiate a gradient of 61% and side slope of 58%.

[15][16][18] In Chinese tank development, the "M" or "II" in the designation typically represents a variant primarily intended for export.

Featured a locally developed ZPL-94[14] 105mm gun, 800 hp engine and semi-automatic transmission.

Upgrade for the Storm-II/Type 85-IIM with 1000 hp engine, ERA, improved FCS, and thermal night sight.

In 1994, when China competed against the Ukrainian T-84 for export to a tropical country, the Type 85-III performed better but suffered a higher number of faults and was thus not chosen.

Upgrades include ability to fire NAIZA-DU & APFSDS-T rounds along with Ukrainian Kombat ATGMs.

Moreover, it features new LRF ballistic computers and fire-control systems and a Solid-State autoloader made by CARE.

The sights of the tank commander, gunner & driver were also replaced with newer ones made by Thales.

[21] The Type 88A mounts a 62 caliber ZPL-94[14][28] 105mm gun that is longer than the NATO L7 cannon and is capable of firing ATGMs.