The is a

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension sys ...

(MBT) of the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

(JGSDF). It was built by

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi ...

as a supplement to the earlier Type 61. It was based on the best features of a number of contemporary designs, placing it in the same class as the US M60 Patton or German

Leopard 1 The Leopard 1 (also styled Leopard I, before the Leopard 2 simply known as Leopard) is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were though ...

. Like these designs, it mounts the M68 rifled 105 mm gun. The design did not enter widespread use until 1980, by which point other Western forces had introduced more capable designs. It was followed by the heavier Type 90. Both the Type 74 and Type 90 are supplemented and will be eventually replaced by the new-generation Type 10 tank.

History

The JGSDF began studies on new tank designs with Mitsubishi in 1962, after the Type 61 had been shown to be outmatched by new Soviet tanks such as the

T-62 The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced in 1961. As a further development of the T-55 series, the T-62 retained many similar design elements of its predecessor including low profile and thick turret armour. In contras ...

. Features from several designs were incorporated, including the controllable suspension of the US-German

MBT-70 The MBT-70 (German: ''KPz 70 or KpfPz 70'') was an American– West German joint project to develop a new main battle tank during the 1960s. The MBT-70 was developed by the United States and West Germany in the context of the Cold War, intende ...

project, the hull of the Leopard 1, and a similar 105mm gun. The design included a rotating cupola for the commander, and a new

autoloader An autoloader or auto-loader is a mechanical aid or replacement for the personnel that load ordnance into crew-served weapons without being an integrated part of the gun itself. The term is generally only applied to larger weapons, such as nava ...

for the main gun. Prior to the 1965 decision to design an entirely new tank, some technologies which would later be used in the STB-1 (first prototype) were already in development independently in Japan. The design was finalized in 1964 and various test rigs were built between 1964 and 1967.

Design

Armament

The first vessels had been designed to bear the 90mm M3 cannon, present in the Type 61, and ST-A1, revealing itself underpowered. Later in the development stage engineers opted to license the NATO standard M68 105mm cannon. Japan only produced the barrel under license, developing an indigenous

mantlet A mantlet was a portable wall or shelter used for stopping projectiles in medieval warfare. It could be mounted on a wheeled carriage, and protected one or several soldiers. In the First World War a mantlet type of device was used by the French ...

, breech and recoil system. The full length of the cannon was 5,592 mm, for a total weight of 2,800 kg. Initially, the main gun only used APDS (

Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot Armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) is a type of spin-stabilized kinetic energy projectile for anti-armour warfare. Each projectile consists of a sub-calibre round fitted with a sabot. The combination of a lighter sub-calibre projectile wi ...

) and HEP (

High Explosive Plastic High explosive squash head (HESH) in British terminology, or high explosive plastic/plasticized (HEP) in American terminology, is a type of explosive projectile which uses a plastic explosive that conforms to the surface of a target before detonat ...

) as its primary ammunition. Later it was modified to fire APFSDS (

Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds ...

) and HEAT-MP ( High-Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose) shells as well. The secondary armament consisted of a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun (with 660 rounds) and a 7.62 co-axial machine gun (4500 rounds).

Mobility

The Type 74 tank is powered by the Mitsubishi 10ZF Model 21 10-cylinder two-stroke cycle diesel engine providing 750 hp (560 kW). At 19 hp/tonne, its

power-to-weight ratio Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measuremen ...

is similar to the French

AMX-30 The AMX-30 is a main battle tank designed by Ateliers de construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux (AMX, then GIAT) and first delivered to the French Army in August 1966. The first five tanks were issued to the 501st ''Régiment de Chars de Combat'' ...

. The maximum quoted road speed of the Type 74 is 53 km/h; however, speeds of at least 60 km/h have been achieved.

Armor

Instead of composite armour (as used on the later Type 90 main battle tank), the Type 74 adopted welded steel plates for hull construction, with sloped armour extensively used to defeat armour-piercing shells and other kinetic energy penetrators. It has frontal hull armor of 80 mm with an effective armor thickness of up to 189 mm for the upper glacis and 139 mm for lower glacis. Side armor is 35 mm, while rear armor is 25 mm thick. The cast steel turret has an estimated 195 mm of armor. When compared to other second-generation MBTs, the Type 74 has more armour than a Leopard 1 (122mm and 140mm), but less than comparable Soviet vehicles such as the T-62 (174mm and 204mm).

Service

The first prototype, designated STB-1, was delivered in late 1968 and underwent a number of modifications until 1969. The autoloader proved too complex and expensive, and was removed, as was the remote-controlled anti-aircraft machine gun. The overall design of the turret was also changed, becoming longer. These changes resulted in the STB-3, which was delivered in 1971. The final prototype, designated STB-6, was delivered in 1973. Production finally started as the Type 74 in September 1975, with 225 being delivered by January 1980. Production ended in 1989, with total production running to 893 examples. In service, the tanks were updated with the addition of

infra-red Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

imagers rather than

image intensifier An image intensifier or image intensifier tube is a vacuum tube device for increasing the intensity of available light in an optical system to allow use under low-light conditions, such as at night, to facilitate visual imaging of low-light proce ...

s for the commander and gunner, and a

laser rangefinder A laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by sending a laser pulse in ...

in the commander's cupola. The gunner's position included a digital fire control computer, fed range data from the commander's range finder. Rounds for the main gun were upgraded from HEP to

APFSDS Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...

and HEAT-MP. The Type 74 was considered outdated even before it entered service. The Type 90 was to have replaced it outright, but with the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, these plans were scaled back. In 1993 four Type 74s were improved to the new Type 74 Kai (改) ype 74 mod G (G型)'' standard, adding a passive infrared camera and side skirts. The upgrade proved to be extremely expensive, and the program was abandoned. Starting in April 2019, the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

enacted the Medium-Term Development Defense Plan (31中期防), which involved the retirement of Type 74 main battle tanks in service, to be replaced by the newer

Type 16 Maneuver Combat Vehicle The is a wheeled armored fighting vehicle of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. Overview The ''Type 16'' maneuver combat vehicle (MCV) equips designated combat units. Due to its light weight and small size, it is designed for easy depl ...

. At the same time, official tank units based on the main land of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, and

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

would be disbanded and replaced by new mobility-based combat units, in the form of a Rapid Deployment Regiment or Reconnaissance Combat Battalion, with the Infantry-based Divisions and Brigades to feature one of either. For each of the new units, they are to be equipped with a unit of Type 16 MCVs (1-2 Companies). Despite the plan being official as of 2019, the first tank units were disbanded throughout 2018, including the 4th Tank Battalion ( 4th Division), 8th Tank Battalion (

8th Division 8th Division, 8th Infantry Division or 8th Armored Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 8th Division (Australia) * 8th Canadian Infantry Division * 8th Air Division (People's Republic of China) * 8th Division (1st Formation) (People's Repu ...

), and 14th Tank Troop ( 14th Brigade). After the plan's enactment, 6th Tank Battalion of the 6th Division North Eastern Army was disbanded, and changes were made to existing tank formations, including at JGSDF Fuji School, to phase out numbers of Type 74 tanks in service. As of March 17, 2022, the disbandment of the 1st Division's 1st Tank Battalion of the Eastern Army has been the most recent change to the armored formation of the JGSDF.

Variants

*Type 74 first mod (74式戦車初期生産型) *Type 74 mod B (74式戦車 B型) *Type 74 mod C (74式戦車 C型) *Type 74 mod D (74式戦車 D型) *Type 74 mod E (74式戦車 E型) *Type 74 mod F (74式戦車 F型) *Type 74 mod G/Kai (74式戦車 G型/改) *

Type 87 Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun The is a Japanese air defense weapon built around the Oerlikon 35 mm twin cannon system as used on the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. The system uses a modified Type 74 tank chassis. It is also nicknamed by field officers as "Guntank ...

(87式自走高射機関砲) *Type 78 Armoured recovery vehicle (78式戦車回収車) *Type 91 Armoured vehicle-launched bridge (91式戦車橋)

Operators

* – 893 produced between September 1975 and 1989, with 225 delivered by January 1980. 822 in service in 1990, 870 in service in 1995 and 2000, 700 in service in 2006.Ground Self-Defense Forces
/ref> As of March 17, 2022, from the disbandment of the 1st Division's 1st Tank Battalion of the Eastern Army, approximately 130 Type 74 tanks remain in service today. **

***