Mitsubishi Type 87

     Notes: This is a Japanese self-propelled antiaircraft gun based on the chassis of the Type 74 tank.  The turret design is similar to the German Gepard gun, and the autocannons used are the same as that vehicle.  The Type 89 has the nickname of “Guntank” among Japanese troops due its similar appearance to the mecha of that name in the Mobile Suit Gundam anime series. It is also known as the “Japanese Gepard” due it’s resemblance to the German gun. The Type 87 was manufactured until 2002, but in the fifteen years that it was manufactured, only 52 examples were produced.  It was, of course, not exported, in keeping with Japan’s Constitution.

The engine is a Mitsubishi 10ZF Type 22 WT 750-horsepower diesel engine, but the transmission is still manual. The Type 87 is a variable hydropneumatic suspension, able to kneel, elevate, and lean in four directions; this is not really necessary for the Type 89’s mission, but was a holdover from the Type 74 tank’s design, kept to simplify maintenance procedures and allow the hulls to be made on the Type-74’s assembly lines.  The guns are the same as those on the Gepard, being Oerlikon KDAs, down to the large flash suppressors on the muzzles. The gun radar is similar to Dutch Cheetah variants of the Gepard, a search radar which is T-shaped and a large circular dish K-band tracking radar, though the radar units are Japanese-made. The search radar has a maximum range of 20 kilometers and the tracking radar 15 kilometers. (The radar dishes have a different configuration on the turret to skirt copyright laws.) Each radar has the equivalent of ECCM 1 to help fight enemy jamming. The Type 89 also incorporates a 10-kilometer-range laser rangefinder and a computer (housed in the prominent “nose” on the turret) to tie together the sensor information. The optical sights may be slaved to the radar to allow visual identification of targets being tracked by radar. The gunner and commander each have their own optical sights. Normal loadout for each gun is 300 rounds of HE per gun; the guns are capable of dual-feed and of firing APDS rounds, but APDS rounds are rarely carried on the Type 87 operationally. Each gun may fire on fully automatic (running out of HE in 35 seconds), but it is more standard for each gun to fire in 24-round bursts or 48-round bursts. (AP rounds are normally fired on semiautomatic.) The guns may elevate to +92 degrees and depress to -5 degrees.

     The driver is on the front left side; the gunner is on the left side of the gun while the commander is on the right.  Both have single-piece hatches over their positions; the commander has all-around vision blocks, while the gunner’s hatch has vision blocks to the front and sides. There are two clusters of three smoke grenade launchers, one on either side of the turret. The rear of the turret has a large storage basket, and there are numerous tie-down loops on the hull and turret.  The track skirts and hull sides are equipped with NERA.