Type 1993 "Kusunoki Shigeharu"
PRICE (Unit): N$D 5 500 000
TYPE 1993 MAIN BATTLE TANK
- Dimensions: 6,8 m (length w/o gun), 9,7 m (length + gun), 3,75 m (width), 2,2 m (height)
- Weight: 53 tons full combat load.
- Engine: Kojima K-71 diesel engine with 1500 HP.
- Speed: 70 km/h.
- Armour: Composite armour, explosive reactive armour, cage armour.
- Armaments: 1x 121/L53 gun, 1x 13.2 x 96 mm machine gun (coaxial), 1x 5.8 mm machine gun.
- Crew: 3 (commander, driver, gunner)
Medium Tank Type 1993 is a successor tank to Type 1977 "Date Sorin". While "Sorin" was an successful design, it suffered from a number of drawbacks. Most crucial of was the fact that "Type 121/63" 121/L50 rifled gun used on it used a two piece ammunition, which coupled with Sorin frontal oriented armour and ammunition stored in the turret made it a vunerable target for Wenchuanis using asymmetric tactics to cope with superior Nifonese armoured forces. Development of a new tank started already in the ending days of the Red Moonsoon, but due to war's end and subsequent depression it was only in 1993 when solution to those problems became materialized.
The tank is named after genral of Kenshin Murakami from Sonjo Monogatari. Shigeharu was a General of Lord Murakami and a famed warrior known for his spear techniques and rivalry with Date Sorin. He represented many virtues of Bushido and was extremely loyal, but at the same time arrogant and unable to reason or empathize with common people.
Overview:'
- Dimensions: 6,8 m (length w/o gun), 9,7 m (length + gun), 3,75 m (withdth), 2,2 m (height)
- Weight of 53 tons.
- The tank features classical layout, divided into driver, fighting and engine compartments.
- The crew consists of 3 people (driver, gunner, commander)
- Driver sits in the middle at the front, between two fuel tanks providing additional protection. The driver's seat has been designed to accommodate him in a semi laying position, allowing for decrease in tank's height.
- Commander and gunner sit in the turret, with the gunner at the right, and commander to the left. Behind them, separated, is the ammunition compartment.
- The engine is located at the rear.
Propulsion & Mobility:
- Type 1993 is propelled by Kojima K-71 diesel engine, providing practical output of 1500 Horsepower. Fully controlled by a computer, the engine allows "Shigeharu" to reach up to 500 kilometers in range. The choice of diesel engine over a gas turbine rapidly decreases costs of operation and allows the MBT to operate at greater ranges. The engine is connected to a 12 speed electronically controlled mechanical gearbox joined with 14 road wheels spinning rubber band tracks. The gearbox and the engine form a single unit that can be disconnected for service in a very short time.
- Six road wheels + rubber band tracks.
- Excellent mass to horsepower ratio allows Type 1993 top speed of 70 kilometers per hour and ability to easily cross any obstacles that find themselves in the tank's path. This MBT can cross rivers as deep as 4 meters using a snorkel tower.
- In addition to that, the crew from Kojima added an "active damping system" which actively measures terrain to come, then pressurizes the suspension at independent points to lift the chassis and keep the vehicle level steady, resulting in great increase in speed as well as maneuverability and decrease of fuel use.
- Final feature of the mobility system has been added due to rugged terrain present on the Nifonese islands. Knowing this fact and aiming at creating best system to be used in such an environment, the Nifonese engineers incorporated a feature called In-arm Suspension Unit (ISU). ISU provides direct control over every bogie of the tracks, allowing "Shigeharu" to actively change hull elevation and suspension both upwards and downwards, or to the sides. The tank can thus lower itself for lower profile and superior performance on roads (a feature very useful in gun-down positions behind terrain obstacle) while moving upwards allows the MBT to clear higher obstacles, fire while moving downhill or argument gun elevation. ISU provides as well a protection for the chassis from vibrations while travelling on rugged terrain.
Protection:
- Shigearu follows the armor scheme known from M1 Abrams, with special armor and ERA covering the turret front and sides, and 30* at the front of the hull. The rest of the hull is made of high quality steel. However, the Nifonese design features smaller dimensions compared to the American tank, which translates to lower weight.
- The armor of this tank features multiple layers. The first layer is made of high quality composite armour, the second features explosive reactive armour, third in places not . Both are mounted on a steel skeleton, allowing for easy replacement of damaged armour.
- The first layer is composed of two RHA plates and 5 non-explsive reactive armor layers.
- Second layer of protection is composed of "Kusari Gunsoku-1" explosive reactive armour mounted on modern day Nifonese main battle tanks. "Kusari Gunsoku" ERA is compromised of 15cmx3cm plates. This design of ERA contains a very simple, if not to say, primitive construction and as such is availible to wide range of customers - steel plates protect a TNT explosive case, with inner plate being thicker which directs the explosion's force outwards. Under pressure of enemy's attack, the explosion is directed outwards, which permits a reduction of 70% against ATGMs and HE rounds, and 30% against APDSDS rounds. The rear of the turret is covered in "Kusari Gunsoku - 2" - a lighter and less protective version used usually on light vehicles.
- In addition to that the engine area has received additional cover in form of 2Ku77 aluminum based cage bar armor in order to protect it against threat of squad anti - tank weapons.
- Total protection levels:
- * VS APDSDS
- Turret: 850-1050
- Glacis: 680-720
* VS HE
- Turret: 1250-1600
- Glacis: 960-1040
- Optional protection includes "Kitsune" multi spectral camouflage system, which is a revolutionary vehicle camouflage system designed to protect the vehicle against various threats. "Kitsune" comes in form of camouflage net adapted to local terrain that breaks the shape of the vehicle, greatly reduces the IR signature and protects against radar recoanissance and target seeking on band from 1 to 100 GHz. Optional elements include a system designed to reduce vehicle's IR signature in tropical or warm climates. It has to be noted that "Kitsune" may be attached either through tapes or be directly integrated on the modular armor plates (specify with order). All vehicles feature standard IR suppressing paint.
- Ittosai APS is the Nifonese active protection system. The system is composed of a metal box, housing a millimeter-wave radar sensor which continuously emits signals to 2.5m within an arc of 150o-180o in azimuth and -6o to +20o in elevation and two launcher units. Upon successful detection of a target, the system releases a counter munition which then explodes into a shell of splinters. As the system is self-suffcient, it doesn't alter the vehicle's profile and can be installed on wide variety of platforms.
- Total of 12 aerosol spray grenades.
Armaments::
- Originally intended armament was supposed to be a 140 milometer gun being developed by a Nifonese company called Sumite. The development however, was ceased after the imperial Nifonese army realized that not only will the current generation of canons stay sufficient for a while, but also that 140 millimeter gun possesses several drawbacks that can't be easily negated. While the urrent armament of Type 89 is a 121 milimeter L53 smoothbore gun recently developed in the Empire of greater Nifon codenamed "Type 21/53", the turret of Shigeharu has been optimized to house a bigger gun, installing of which is still an option should such a need arise. At the same time, several electrical motors and actuators are responsible for driving the turret.
- "Type 21/53" on it's own weights 2800 kilograms and has an estimated barrel weight of 500 shots. This gun features significant improvement over the past Nifonese tank guns that were employed up to date. This type of gun features a chrome-lined smoothbore barrel and several other implementations that guarantee it great increase in muzzle velocity and kinetic energy. Theoretical rate of fire is between 10 to 12 rounds per minute while theoretical range of fire is 5000 meters for rounds and 8 kilometers for anti - tank guided missiles. Uniquely designed gun stabilization system allows for extremely high gun elevation impossible to achieve for tanks such as M1A2 Abrams.
Following choices of ammunition are accessible at this point:
- A long rod AFPSDS round with an initial speed of 1800 m/s.
- A shaped charge warhead with muzzle velocity of 1200 m/s.
- "Tengu-1" an anti tank guided missile with semi active laser homing guidance, capable of reaching 8000 meters when fired from the main gun.
- Problems with Soviet - style auto loaders were well known to the Imperial Nifonese Army, having previously observed various Riysan T-72s. By it's placement, the ammunition mounted inside such a tank could neither be protected, and high complexity of the auto loading mechanism resulted in wide degree of mechanical failures. To address those issues, a completely new kind of autoloader has been designed for this tank. At first, autoloader has been completely separated from the crew compartments, having an effect on both efficiency of the auto loader and the safety of the crewmen. Blowout panels have been installed inside of the compartment in case should the ammunition fire, allowing for it's quick containment and preventing it from reaching the rest of the tank. Nifonese design is far less complex and far simpler than the Russian "carousel", having been built around the "rifle clip" concept - rather than loading the entire carousel again, the entire depleted module is meant to be removed and replaced by completely new one, which greatly decreases reloading speed (although the crew has optional possibility of exchanging one round at time should such need arise). Rounds are moved through an electric drive, which, once activated, causes movement of the chain that places the proper munition just above the loading through. The round is then placed inside the loading through and rammed through an opening in the autoloader wall until it reaches the gun. Following completion of the loading, the action is repeated. Operating time is 3 to 4 seconds while storing 30 rounds of 121mm ammunition and 15 stored within the hull, total 45 rounds.
- In addition to that a 13.2 x 96 mm HMG is mounted co-axial to the gun, and 5.8mm LMG is integrated with the commander's periscope.
Electronics:
- Shigeharu is equipped with "" fire control system built by Sumida consortium especially for use on Type 1993. "" was designed to lower the costs of maintenance and radically slash complexity while retaining minimum failure rate and high efficiency. It is composed by two independent fire control computers operated by the gunner and the commander. In case one of them experiences mechanical failure or is damaged, operator can access the second one as a backup and display it on his own fire computer. Both fire control computers are fully identical and can be easily replaced. With the aid of recent technologies the size of computers has been scaled down so that all the functions an MBT requires can be required though running a proper software on the processor card. An intelligent power distribution unit watches over the whole system.
- Both the commander and the gunner posses their own LCD mointors connected to the FCS alongside with appropriate control handles. Each of them is capable of displaying data from the following sensors mounted inside the MBT: gun elevation/depression sensor, turret azimuth sensor, meteorological sensor, muzzle reference collimator, inertial measure sensor, ammunition temperature sensor.
- Unique function of "Sanada" is that aside from major fire control components, an inertial navigation sub-unit has been incorporated. It is capable of supporting the FCS with locating the current position, targeting and pointing information. It can be also integrated with all sorts of Global Navitgation Systems, with custom version using SACTO's AXISAT network.
- Washi W-04GW commander's optronic sights system designed to designate targets at any time of the day, in any weather conditions, as well as when the vehicle is on the move. W-04GW features 3rd generation thermal camera, CCTV camera with multiple zoom options and high resolutions as well as integrated laser rangefinder completely safe for users. The sight incorporates a high definition thermal sight unit operating from 8 – 12 μm and a laser integrated day sight unit capable of reaching 10km with 3x to 12x field of view depending on narrow or wide field and employed equipment (direct view or CCD camera). This system is fully integrated with fire control systems and battle management systems, displaying status of the weaponry as well as automatically detecting potential targets via their shape and relying them directly to the gunner's station. Since the turret features a 5.8 HMG linked to the sight as main sensor slaved armament (MSSA), this tanks possesses not just hunter - killer, but a true killer - killer capability, allowing the commander to search for potential threats and engage them at will while the gunner mans main cannon & coaxial MG, increasing survival ability in urban environments. Elevation ranges from -9* do 20* in axis.
- The gunner has at his disposal a Washi W-07G gunner's sight, capable of operating in any weather condition, including a 8 – 12 μm thermal unit, a laser rangefinder capable of measuring up to 10km, and a camera with 3x and 12x magnification. This sight is mounted on the right side next to the gun.
- Turret's FCS incorporates an all around situational awareness system developed by a Nifonese company named Fujita designed to provide 360* situational awareness day and night regardless of conditions on the battlefield on TV/IR video. Several cameras feed it with images of events transpiring around the tank, and each of those camera feeds may be selected to be displayed individually. Motion detection and crew warning is fully provided, and upon an order the system is fully capable of pointing the RWS or fire control system directly into direction of the detected threat.
- In addition to that, Washi IFF-48 has been incorporated just above the gun. This system, operating on frequency of 38 GHz emits a wave in the same direction as the gun is faced. Should the target provide a response, it will be declared friendly. Should the response not be provided, the target is automatically declared hostile.
- In addition to that Shigeharu is fully compatible with a Nifonese C4I/ Battlefield management system responsible for networking units from a single platform up to battalion level. Major components for a single MBT are: C4I computer with proper software, digital tactical radios, navigation systems, intercommunication system, all those linked to LCD display units. Through this network the commander can plan movement, form plans, read military reports and messages, access logistics networks or use tools designed for supporting decision. The entire system runs on a modular, easy to change architecture that can be customized for customer's requirements, alongside full integration with tank's own RWS, FCS and sensors.
- Washi X-14 aids system is designed to increase the tank's survival ability. It contains a laser beam detector, and capability to instantly release the arerosol spray grenades, as well as turn the turret into the direction of the threat.
- A fully modern VHF radio system.