The new main battle tank Type 10 was developed and built by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after 12 years of research and development, and was officially put into service with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in 2000.
As soon as this main battle tank debuted, it set a new world record with an astonishing unit price of about 10 million US dollars, and the ** of China's 99A main battle tank is only 25 million yuan.
The ** of this Type 10 tank is several times that of the 99A, which is amazing.
Will the combat power of this tank surpass that of the 99A by several times? As for the performance of the Type 10 tank, some people think that "you get what you pay for", but this does not seem to fully apply to the Type 10 tank.
Although the Type 10 improved some of the problems of the Type 90, such as increased mobility and reduced body weight, it took an unusual path.
The Type 10 tank was directly reduced in size and used five pairs of load wheels, a design that is unique among today's advanced main battle tanks.
Compared with the Type 90, the Type 10 tank reduces its weight to 44 tons while effectively reducing fuel consumption. Despite this, the weight of 44 tons was still considered a bit heavy for Japan, so during transportation, the Japanese Ministry of Transport required that the tank body and turret be transported separately to avoid damage to the road surface.
Although Japan was unable to run heavier tanks due to geographical factors and relatively soft geology, this did not prevent the Type 10 tank from showing its strong mobility. It is said that it can run at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour even when it is driven backwards, which is truly impressive.
At the same time, the Type 10's hydraulic suspension design gives it excellent mountain combat capabilities, and its accuracy is also quite high, even putting a bottle of water on the barrel of a running tank, and the water bottle will still not spill.
Type 10 Tank: A Symbol of a New Generation of Battle Tanks The Japanese Type 10 main battle tank is known for its unique hydraulic suspension system and "flexibility + informatization" selling point.
By using a large number of electronic components, each Type 10 tank can act as a signal relay station on the battlefield, further improving its flexibility and informatization level on the battlefield.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense described it as a completely new way of thinking about warfare, emphasizing the abandonment of bulky armor in favor of information development. This innovative concept is also what many people hail the Type 10 tank as the 3Reasons for 5 generations of battle tanks.
Type 10 Tank: An icon that pushes military technology forward**.
A significant advantage of the Type 10 tank is its network design, which can be interconnected not only with other Type 10 tanks, but also with satellites, ships, fighter jets, and other military forces.
The goal of the Japanese Ministry of Defense is to achieve information sharing, coordinated action and automatic synchronization, which is very much in line with the design concept of the *** tank.
The Type 10 tank is hailed as a new generation of combat weapons, but it still lacks in key performance. Despite its industry-leading mobility and informatization capabilities, the performance of the Type 10 tank in terms of firepower, protection and reliability was unsatisfactory.
Compared with the third and fourth generation tanks, the degree of automation and intelligence of the combat command of the Type 10 tank still needs to be improved. In general, the Type 10 tank, despite its advantages, needs to be further improved in terms of performance.
The main battle tank was armed with a powerful 120mm smoothbore gun and an automatic loader, but due to its small hull, the reload was relatively small, only 35 rounds. In comparison, the M1A1 and 99A tanks, both of which are third-generation tanks, have 42 rounds of ammunition, the T90A has 43 rounds of ammunition, and the Japanese tanks have about 20% less ammunition.
Although the Japanese boasted about this 44 times diameter 120mm smoothbore gun, it was disappointing that at a distance of 2,000 meters, its actual power could only penetrate less than 600mm of armor.
The penetration of the Type 10 tank can easily cope with the second-generation tank, but when facing other tanks of the same third generation, the firepower is somewhat insufficient. The excessive pursuit of lightweight has led to a serious shortage of armor, which is also a problem that the Japanese Defense Agency often emphasized.
Although the lightweight reduced the weight of the tank to a certain extent, the designers had to sacrifice the thickness of the armor in order to achieve this goal, which somewhat weakened the defense capability of the Type 10 tank.
The armor in your eyes is just decoration? In fact, it's a hollow locker! For example, modular armor was installed on the front and sides of the tank, and ceramic armor was also attached, which was 30% lighter than homogeneous armor.
However, despite this, the protection of the Type 10 tank is still comparable to the Type 90, which is clearly not enough for a third-generation tank. But Japan does not seem to care about this, instead considering it a merit that deserves special praise.
Although the configuration of ** and lockers is similar to that of the AMX-56 Leclerc, which reminds me of Japanese cars, although steel is used very little, but it can be easily deformed in the event of a car accident, the Japanese insist that it is a special design, which is to achieve it"Fuel efficient"with"Energy absorption"。
The unique style of the Japanese Type 10 tank is not only reflected in its Japanese appearance, but also in its advanced electronic components. However, such characteristics can also lead to problems with the reliability of the tank.
The Japanese people are almost obsessed with the pursuit of technology, and in order to build more advanced tanks, they use sophisticated components, which require extremely high temperature and humidity, and even place them in the experimental environment of a constant temperature room for precise control.
The war environment is often full of difficulties and challenges, which is why the Type 10 tank often needs to be repaired and maintained. During the exercises, we often saw problems such as jamming shells, damaged suspensions, and falling off tracks of Japanese Type 10 tanks.
Despite this, our soldiers persevered and fought for victory.
Sometimes, the vehicle breaks down suddenly, and even a thorough inspection fails to find the problem, so the vehicle can only be towed back to the repair station for repairs.
It should be noted that the Type 90 tank shells are prone to jamming, and they need to be cleaned and reloaded every 20 rounds or so, which is still a technical problem that Japan cannot solve.
The Type 10 is reloaded differently from the Type 90 in that it is positioned inside the tank so that the tank is not exposed to the enemy's line of sight during the reload process.
However, despite the fact that the tank looked advanced, it was actually not practical and extremely expensive, so much so that Japan itself was reluctant to buy it. By Chinese standards, this tank just looks gorgeous, but in fact it is flashy.
Despite its shortcomings, Japan still insists on publicizing the superiority of its tanks, emphasizing its lightweight, information-based and intelligent characteristics. However, when it comes to key indicators, they are vague and say only that they are "very advanced".
Although Japan does not have the ability to independently develop advanced tank artillery barrels and steel, it has the ability to purchase and imitate them. By importing steel from the German company Rheinland Iron and Steel and under the guidance of German experts, Japan finally succeeded in copying the gun of the Type 10 tank.
The Japanese Type 10 tank, although it used German technology in artillery, engines, armor and armor-piercing shells, etc., was relatively high. The main reason for this is that Japan has relatively limited core technologies in these fields, and it needs to purchase a large number of materials, technologies, and components from abroad.
This undoubtedly increased the cost of the tank, which led to its high cost.
Therefore, high costs in the process of creating tanks are unavoidable.
The secret of the low cost of Chinese tanks lies in the mastery of core technologies. As the world's top product, the 99A tank is priced at only 25 million yuan. This is not only because it is purely domestic, but also because China can achieve mass production.
China insists on a path of self-reliance because other countries are reluctant to provide advanced technology, and China looks down on their backward technology.