In 1976, Mitsubishi began work on the creation of a new main battle tank, which was to replace the existing Type 61 and 74 machines. In addition to Japanese engineers, specialists from the German companies MaK and Krauss-Maffei took part in the development of the tank., who took part in the creation of the German main battle tank "Leopard". The influence of German designers was reflected in the appearance of the Japanese tank. In 1989, after a series of tests and refinements, the tank was adopted by the Japanese Self-Defense Army under the designation "90". An initial batch of tanks was produced in 1990, and serial production began in 1992. As of 2010, the Japanese Self-Defense Army was armed with 341 Type 90 tanks. The initial requirement of the Japanese armored forces for new tanks was estimated at 600 units.
According to a number of experts, the Type 90 tank is rightfully considered one of the best tanks of our time. Also, this tank is one of the most expensive, 1 vehicle costs the Japanese government $ 8-9 million, only Leclerc is more expensive - $ 10 million per tank.
MBT Type 90 is designed according to the classic scheme with a rear-mounted MTS - the engine-transmission compartment. In the front part of the tank there is a control compartment, which is shifted to the left side, on the starboard side in front there is a part of the gun ammunition. The fighting compartment is located in the central part of the tank. In the armored turret, on both sides of the gun, there are places for the gunner and commander, the gunner on the left, and the commander on the right. The use of an automatic loader on the tank made it possible to exclude one person from the crew. In this, the Japanese tank repeats the Soviet T-64, T-72 and T-80 vehicles, as well as the French Leclerc.
The tank hull and turret are welded. The armor of the tank is multi-layered, spaced, with a wide use of ceramic elements, which are produced by the Kyoto Ceramic Company. The upper frontal hull plate is set at a very large angle to the vertical, while the frontal and side parts of the tank turret are located almost at right angles. The sides of the hull and the undercarriage of the tank are equipped with additional protection in the form of steel anti-cumulative screens. The combat weight of the tank reaches 50, 2 tons.
The main weapon of the tank is the Rh-M-120 120mm smoothbore gun of the German company Rheinmetall, produced in Japan under license. The gun is stabilized in two planes. The aiming angles in the vertical plane are in the range from -12 to +15 degrees. The gun can be fired with all 120 ammunition designed for the German Leopard-2 tank and the American M1A1 Abrams. The Mitsubishi company developed a special machine gun for loading the gun, using a mechanized ammunition rack, placed in the turret recess and holding 20 rounds. The necessary conditions for the implementation of automatic loading is the return of the gun barrel after the shot to zero elevation angle. After charging, the gun automatically returns to the specified firing angle.
The ammunition rack is separated from the rest of the turret space by an armored partition, and to reduce the destructive effect of ammunition detonation, special knockout panels are mounted in the turret niche roof. In addition to 20 shots, which are in the mechanized ammunition rack, 20 more shots are stored in the tank hull. With the exception of the 120-mm smoothbore gun, which is manufactured in Japan under the license of the German company Rheinmetall, all units and assemblies of the Type 90 tank are of Japanese origin.
The fire control system (FCS) created by Mitsubishi is considered one of the best in the world. The OMS includes panoramic observation and guidance devices for the tank commander, stabilized in two planes, observation and guidance devices for the gunner stabilized in one plane, a laser rangefinder, a 32-bit electronic digital ballistic computer, an automatic target tracking system, and a sensor system, responsible for transmitting information to the ballistic computer for calculating corrections when firing.
The gunner's sight is equipped with a daytime optical channel, a thermal imaging channel, and a laser rangefinder. The gunner's scope is manufactured by Nikon Corporation, the commander's sights are manufactured by Fuji. The fire control system provides such an opportunity as auto-tracking of targets based on the operation of a thermal imager. Thanks to the FCS, the tank is able to fire on the move and from a place at any time of the day, both at moving and at stationary targets. Without the use of automatic target tracking, the commander and gunner can guide targets in manual mode. To use the automatic target tracking, the tank commander or gunner must press the "Capture" button as soon as the target is detected and falls within the "Capture" alignment in the sight. In the event that an object disappears for some time, for example, behind a cover, the sight continues to track the target at the same speed, so that if a target appears from behind cover, the gunner can again quickly set it “to capture”.
The commander's sight stabilized in 2 planes, having only a day optical channel, allows not only to detect and engage targets directly, but also has such a function as a "tank killer". By pressing a button on his control panel, the commander has the ability to "transfer" the object he found to the gunner, while he himself can continue to search for new targets, at which time the gunner hits the first detected target.
The signal from the thermal imaging channel of the tank gunner's sight is displayed on 2 monitors. One of them was mounted at the gunner's place, the second at the commander's workplace. The heart of the LMS is a 32-bit digital ballistic computer. When both stationary and moving targets are hit, it makes corrections for range, wind, ambient temperature (data comes from sensors located on the turret of the tank), bending of the gun barrel and the angle of inclination of the axis of its trunnions.
Auxiliary armament of the tank includes a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on the commander's cupola. Smoke grenade launchers are mounted on the sides of the tower closer to the stern. In addition to smoke grenades, special thermal smoke equipment, also installed on the tank, can deliver a smoke screen.
The engine compartment houses a V-type 10-cylinder diesel engine 10 ZG from Mitsubishi. The engine is equipped with a turbocharging system, is liquid-cooled and at 2400 rpm is able to develop a maximum power of 1500 hp. In one block with the engine, a hydromechanical transmission with an automatic planetary gearbox, a lockable torque converter and a special hydrostatic transmission in the swing drive is made. The automatic transmission has 4 forward gears and 2 reverse gears. The maximum speed of the tank on the highway reaches 70 km / h, the maximum reverse speed is 42 km / h.
The power of the ten-cylinder engine allows the tank to cover 200 meters from a standstill in 20 seconds. When traveling over rough terrain, the MBT is able to overcome a ditch 2, 7 m wide, a vertical wall 1 m high, and a ford up to 2 m deep. The tank's power reserve is 350 km, with tanks completely filled (1100 liters).
In the undercarriage of the tank, on each side there are 6 double rubberized support rollers and 3 support rollers. The drive wheels are at the back. The suspension of the tank is combined. On two front and two rear road wheels, hydropneumatic servomotors are installed on each side, and torsion shafts are on all the others. This suspension scheme allows the tank to tilt the hull in the longitudinal plane, as well as change the clearance in the range from 200 to 600 mm. The tracks of the tank are steel with a rubber-metal hinge, equipped with removable rubber pads.
A laser radiation sensor is mounted on the front of the tower roof, which gives an audible signal and also indicates the direction of radiation to the tank commander's workplace. This system can be used in conjunction with automatic firing of smoke grenades to counter missiles with an IR guidance system. In addition, the tank's equipment includes a system of protection against weapons of mass destruction, a high-speed fire extinguishing system, a tank intercom and a radio station.
On the basis of the Type 90 MBT, an armored recovery vehicle BREM 90 was created. The BREM received a new hull superstructure with a crane mounted on the front right, a bulldozer mounted in front of the hull and a hydraulic winch. Also, work is underway to create a Type 91 bridge-laying tank, which is capable of overlapping obstacles up to 20 meters wide with a bridge with a carrying capacity of 60 tons.
