The representative of Japanese tanks should be Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Type 9 main battle tank
Mitsubishi STC 9 main battle tank is the third generation main battle tank of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force developed to replace Type 61 tanks and some Type 74 tanks.
the p>9-type main battle tank adopts the 12mm smoothbore gun of Rheinmetall Company of Germany, which is specially produced in Japan. It is equipped with an automatic loader, a laser rangefinder is assembled in the gunner's sight, and a thermal camera is equipped. It has the ability to shoot during marching and at night. The power unit is a two-stroke, water-cooled, supercharged diesel engine, and the automatic gearbox with hydraulic and hydrostatic steering mechanism is adopted. The suspension device is a liquid-gas-torsion bar hybrid type. The main parts are composite armor or spacer armor. There are three prevention devices, automatic fire extinguishing devices and laser detection and alarm devices. The whole vehicle is similar to the Leopard 2 tank in appearance, but each side has six load wheels and three smoke bomb launchers.
the birth of the p>9-type main battle tank changed Japan's impression that the main battle tank lacked firepower and protection, and it has the first-class technical level in the contemporary era. Compared with the previous Japanese-made tanks, it can effectively give consideration to firepower, motive power and protection. ?
the model p>9 adopts a Rh-12 12mm 44-times-diameter musket made of Rheinmetall, which is the same as the Leopard 2. [13]? It is equipped with thermal sleeve, gun bore smoke extractor and gun body curvometer, and Japan has been authorized by Germany to produce D-13 empennage armor-piercing projectile (APFSDS) and DM-12 high-explosive armor-piercing projectile (HEAT-MP) for this gun. Rh-12 is the most famous modern western tank gun. Besides Leopard 2, it is also adopted by American M-1A1/A2. The most unique feature of the Type 9 tank is that it adopts an automatic loading system, which reduces the number of passengers on board to three and has a high firing rate of 11 rounds per minute. Automatic loading has always been a patent of Russian tanks. At the same time, except for Type 9, only French Leclerc tanks adopted automatic loading. However, considering that the size and weight of 12mm shells are too heavy for the short yellow race, it is pragmatic and wise to adopt the automatic loading system in Model 9. ? [14]?
The automatic loading system of Type p>9 tank was developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Similar to the system in leclerc, it is flat-pushing in the rear cabin of turret, and ammunition is transported by belt, which is superior to the rotary automatic loading system of Russian tanks. Type 9 tank * * * can carry 4 rounds of main gun ammunition, of which about 25 rounds are stored in the automatic loading system at the rear of the turret, and the other 15 rounds are located in the bomb bay on the right side of the driver's seat. This configuration is also similar to Leclerc tank. The automatic loading system is controlled by the gunner's computer, and the shells are placed in specific bomb positions according to the types; When loading, the system turns the bomb position of the bomb type to the extraction position and fills it in the gun bore according to the bomb type selected by the gunner;
in terms of sub-armament, the Type 9 is equipped with an anti-aircraft machine gun with the caliber of M-2HB 12.7mm and a coaxial machine gun with the caliber of 7.62mm, with 6 rounds and 35 rounds respectively. The 12.7mm antiaircraft machine gun is set between the captain's hatch cover and the gunner's hatch cover. The original purpose is to make both the captain and the gunner operate. However, the practical experience shows that this design will seriously hinder the shooting of machine guns on the left and right sides, which has a very obvious impact in urban warfare, and it is not a clever design as a whole. There are four tandem smoke bomb launchers on both sides of the turret of the prototype model 9, but the early production model still uses the same 73-type triple smoke bomb launcher as the tank model 74, and the later model is changed to the same form as the prototype model.