- Yes
- No
History: Type 62 Spaa/IFV is a bangladeshi modification of chinese Type 62 Light tank. Bangladesh had ordered type 62 tanks in 1980s, these tanks saw limited service compared to other chinese tanks in service of Bangladesh army. Original Type 62s were retired between 2000-1995. Later Bangladesh army took some modernization programs to upgrade their retired type 62s. These were first revealed to the public on Bangladesh army’s magazine called ‘Shena Barta(1999 publication)’. Probably due to crew dissatisfaction and some other reasons the modernized version saw a very short service life.They were probably retired between 2009-2010. All of these tanks were upgraded locally. (There is a slight confusion whether if it was a ifv or spaa). Later they were converted to apc, currently they are used as monuments.
Armor: Hull armor and turret armor is same as before except the turret front. Armor around the gun might have been reduced severely.
Main Gun: I couldnt find accurate sources so i have done some personal research. The gun is Most likely Type 74 anti air craft gun(Based on visual resemblance and i have also measured the tank’s gun length its same as Type 74. Just before the muzzle break you can see a part slightly wider that wider part is also present in type 74/65 AA guns. Also at that time Bangladesh only had two types of 37mm guns which were type 74 and type 65 AA gun). The gun was modified to be a single barrel gun.
Secondary weapon:1 12.7mm machine gun. Probably Dshk.
Main gun elevation and depression angles:+85 to -10
Rate of fire: 160 rounds per minute. 5 rounds per clip.
Muzzle velocity:
- 880 m/s for AP,HE, HE FRAG-T
- 960 m/s for HVAP round.
Firing Range: 8500m and effective range 3700-4700m.
Note: This was a very rare tank/spaa and because of that reason very few information is available. Type 62 SPAA name isn’t the official name of this tank. Official name is unknown and it’s probably going to be unknown for ever because all the modified type 62 were either scrapped or modified further to make APCs. One of the SPH is currently on display at Bangabandhu Military Museum.
Sources:
ODIN - OE Data Integration Network
Bangladesh Army - Modernization
I would recommend the devs to use this taller turret in game. As it’s the final turret of this tank or they can add it as a separate variant. Picture:
Special thanks to kleinerPanzer for sharing a very rare picture of this tank
