Type 61 Main Battle Tank |
| Written by Marcia Malory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Type 61 main battle tank was the first tank produced by Japan after Word War II. After the Second World War ended, Japan was only allowed to use its armed forces for self defense, so the Japan Self Defense Force (JSDF) was established.
However, these tanks were designed for Americans and were too large for smaller Japanese soldiers, so in 1954, the Japanese started designing their own tank. The first prototypes for this new tank were completed in 1957. Four series of prototype tanks - the ST-A1, ST-A2, ST-A3 and ST-A4 - were built. The ST-A4 was chosen for service and was designated the Type 61 main battle tank. In 1962, the first production vehicles were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the type 61 MBT entered service that year. The Type 61 main battle tank has an all-welded hull with a removable glacis plate and a cast turret. There is a torsion-bar suspension with six road wheels and three track return rollers. The idler is in the back and the drive sprocket is at the front. The Type 61 uses an air-cooled turbocharged diesel engine. A four man crew, consisting of driver, commander, gunner and loader, operates the Type 61 MBT. The driver sits at the front of the hull on the right side. The commander and gunner sit in the right side of the turret and the loader sits in the left side of the turret. The engine and transmission are in the back. A 3.54 inch (90mm) rifled gun is the Type 61 main battle tank's main weapon. The type 61 also has a 0.3 inch (7.62mm) Browning M1919A4 coaxial machine gun and a 0.5 inch (12.7mm) Browning M2 anti-aircraft gun. The Type 61 has neither gun stabilization nor NBC protection. Variants of the Type 61 main battle tank include an armored recovery vehicle and a bridgelayer. In 1975, production of the Type 61 MBT ended. By that time, 560 tanks had been built. The Type 61 main battle tank remained in service until 2000. It has been replaced by the Type 74 main battle tank.
|
At first, the JSDF used American military equipment, including M24 Chaffee light tanks, M47 Patton medium tanks and M48 Patton medium tanks.