Well, it is a new vehicle. The chassis afaik is completely new, and the turret is just a placeholder (I hope) until they make a new one for it.
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brother just snuck on a japanese factory and took that pic
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I think the major change is that the new chassis has the Type 16 engine (I think), and removed the firing ports. Other than that, it looks identical.
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I mean… they’re both IFVs designed by the Japanese. They’re gonna look pretty similar to eachother. Not like they really need to change much anyway. I’d be more surprised if it looked noticeably different.
The biggest concern for me would be to improve its protection. If you look closely the new chassis seems to have an additional plate on its upper nose plate, which is good. The sides may have composite plates, but I am not sure. I’m hoping they continue to add more armor.
So yeah, they are gonna look similar. However, if there was any substantial changes internally, or to the armor, I feel like you’d be able to easily spot it. I suspect the image above is just preliminary and not at all final. Maybe we’ll see a Type 89 with ERA/NERA soon!
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Hopefully. But the JGSDF is the lowest priority of the three branches, and upgrading their equipment is the lowest of the GSDFs concerns. To be totally honest I wouldn’t be shocked if they end up cancelling the new IFV in favor of just stringing the unmodified Type 89 along another decade.
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Hard to tell until we dig up some blueprints, or photos if we’re lucky
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There are quite big differences between the Type 89 and the new common tracked hull.
The first thing i noticed was the new hull side armor is no longer sloped, lacking of a second hatch behind the driver, three air intake grills like Type 16, equipped with a driver’s night vision camera.
Looking at it from the back, there are no longer any doors like the Type 89, and the passengers seem to get in and get out through a ramp. The rear top doors no longer exist aswell. Note a rear camera.
Unlike the Type 89 with its turret mounted towards the rear, the new chassis has the turret mounted in the center which i really appreciated (i hate rear-mounted turrets).
Interestingly in this diagram, the word add-on armor has been censored.
It also seems like there is a front facing camera next to the headlight.
Overall i like this hull design much better than the Type 89, it looks sleek and compact. And as mentioned, big fan of the turret ring in the center, this thing would look sick with a Type 24 turret but it would be better with a Type 89 turret given the presence of ATGMs and not having to deal with terrible turret ammo racks (from a gameplay perspective).
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Japanese engineers:
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I wonder what kind of armor it is? On the nose UFP.
Also it does look sleeker, but now it kinda just looks like a CV90 chassis 🥲
Now that looks really interesting!
Has much information been found for it?
I had a brief look but couldn’t find much, only 4 potato photos.
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Absolute legend thank you!
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The Type 56 SY and Type 74 aren’t limited to US ammo. They can both fire the indigenous Type 74 HE round with more filler and velocity, and the ability to use a proximity fuse. This makes them a bit more standout.
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Interesting, I’d imagine the Type 56 was too old to use either of these shells though, despite their compatibility with the 105mm M2A1.
I am also interested in this proximity fuzed variant, most particularly the trigger radius.
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The turret is still manned, hence the crewmates poking out of the top. This specific Type 16 is prototype No.5, a practical test vehicle intended to act as a testbed for various modifications and upgrades. This is also why it’s the only Type 16 to mount the RWS you can see in the photo.
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I’m pretty sure this might actually be legitimate. There are other older photos of Chi-Ha kai’s with the Chi-He’s applique armor. Iirc, the turret ring diameters is one of the few things that changed between the turrets of the two, so its not a turret swap. This could work as a modification for the Chi-Ha Kai.
It does kinda need it. Its pretty annoying having the gunner killed by 20mm autocannons.
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Is the RWS just a .50 cal?