There are two versions. The one recently posted by お兄軍曹 on X features a turret fully covered with unknown armor, resembling that of an M60 Sabra. The other version has partial armor coverage on both sides of the turret and the upper part of the mantlet, resembling the Leopard 1A5.
Now that I take a closer look at the tank, I’m surprised by how well it was built. It even includes a hole for the coaxial MG, suggesting it was designed with the ability to fire in mind. Similar to the other version, this one also features additional spare tracks covering the upper plate, with a few hanging beneath the extended turret basket. You can clearly see some inspiration taken from Israeli tanks here.
The older photo he posted shows that the side skirts are apparently made of real steel and not just plywood, as they have actually rusted.
The second image is definitely a Type 99 hull, but that turret is completely different from the it. I’m guessing the gun is a placeholder with weights and sensors, but the turret shape and various features are not the same as the Type 99’s.
Purportedly by someone who speaks Japanese:
“Engine test by Mitsubishi Hvmtr , not allowed weapons test in private property in Japan ! turlet and gun by JSW ltd . dummy barrel for balanced weight and counter weight behind.”
I will do a bit of digging when I get home. It does appear to be for testing purposes, perhaps for a midlife upgrade of the Type 99 or a new vehicle entirely.
Kinda. Part of the new tracked IFV program is unifying all their tracked light AFVs on a common automotive system (so Type 99, Type 89 replacement, and Type 73 replacement), the chassis Mitsubishi have come up with is based on the Type 99 hull sans the extra roadwheel, so they’re planning to roll back some of the upgrades from that back on to the Type 99 (maybe make new hulls, I don’t know exactly).
As far as I’m aware that programme is stalled whilst the JSDF shifts to a more tactically mobile force for a possible island hopping campaign. (Hence new RCVs etc)
That’s true, but the above example is an actual Type 99 chassis, given the number of roadwheels, access hatches, even the anti-slip patches are 1:1 similar to production Type 99s.
With regards to the Ho-Ri implementation and MaiWaffentrager / Eunaesun’s supposed side of their story. Found in a slop YT short from a few days ago, of all things.
We reported ammo racks of several Japanese late war tanks. Unfortunately the American documents for Chi-Nu and Chi-To prototype were considered too vague, which I somewhat agree with. It’s a solid document, but not a design drawing. Still it makes me wonder if they have anything more reliable about the total ammo count. I’d imagine several Japanese historians and tank model builders must have been inside the sole surviving Chi-Nu, so how come there aren’t anything specific about it in Japanese books or are we just missing the good ones?
Years ago this photo was on some site among other interior and exterior photos of Chi-Nu.
For Chi-To production the change should be rather meager. It might be somewhat helpful or annoying depending on the rack fill order.
And for Chi-Ri the change should only bring even more ammo down into the floor rack, unless they will consider also changing the bustle rack into any kind of first stage rack, automated or none. Fingers crossed.
Chi-Nu, Chi-To prototype, Chi-To production and Chi-Ri reports in that order.
Some years ago I talked with a guy who had helped with gear ratios of some in game tanks. He told some tanks with auxiliary gearbox have reduced amount of gears in game to prevent unnecessarily gear switching. Of course only gears with too similar ratios are dropped off. Rather realistic approach in fact.
Type 61 is a good example. IRL it has 10 forward gears thanks to the auxiliary gearbox, while in game 3 of those have been dropped off. In the below picture the blue numbers are the used gears and red those which were dropped off.
@skultew1234 could this be done with Chi-Has as well? Drop it from 8 to 5 like Ka-Chi’s gearbox was supposed to be used?
Spoiler
However first we should figure out what’s going on with Chi-Ha’s 4th Speed. The auxiliary gearbox should cause much higher difference between the high and low ratios than 1.05 to 0.95. I don’t think that’s even physically possible. If 1.05 is correct, then with a rough calculation we get about 0.6. Otherwise 4th speed would be nearly identical to 3rd speed.
