Type SU 60 APC

History

The Japanese Type 60 was the first APC developed by Mitsubishi and Komatsu after World War II, the system appeared sometime in the late 1950s. Like Hitler's Germany, Imperial Japan lost all military capabilities after World War II and was therefore limited to a defensive component in the form of "self-defense" forces.

The newly formed Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) tested and tuned the Model 60 vehicle, and production began in 1960. A total of about 775 Model 60 vehicles will be produced by 1972.

A distinguishing feature of the Japanese SU-60 and its contemporaries is the location of the defensive weapons. 7.62mm anti-infantry machine gun mounted on a WW2 style ball mount along the front left side of the forward sloping panel, secondary armament is a 12.7mm heavy anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on a trainable pylon ring Full 360 degree traverse on the APC roof . The 12.7mm gun emplacements are lightly protected by a rather small personal armor shield. The commander sits behind the driver, who himself is on the right front of the forward fuselage. With a crew of four, including two machine gunners, the rear compartment can accommodate up to eight combat-ready passengers. As with other armored personnel carriers, large access ramps are located in the rear doors.

The design was equipped with five wheels on one track side, with the drive sprockets on the sides of the fuselage at the front and the return pulleys at the rear. The chain function improves off-road performance compared to similar wheel systems. Her design was such that she received a sloping front glacis board and lower fuselage with relatively featureless board sides, a flat rear wall and a square upper fuselage.

The flat upper hull makes it easy to carry extra supplies and even extra personnel if the situation calls for it. The front and rear of the upper hull plate are circular access hatches.

The SU-60 is capable of passing 0.6 m (1.96 ft) vertical obstacles and traversing 1.82 m wide (5.97 ft) ditches while submerging water to a depth of 1 m (3 .28 ft). The track is 35 cm wide, enabling it to pass gradients of up to 60%.

She is powered by a Mitsubishi HA-21 WT 8-cylinder turbo diesel engine producing 230 hp at 2400 rpm. The reported top road speed is 27.9 mph (45 km/h).

In practice, the SU-60 proved to have some obvious inherent limitations. Her anti-tank defenses are poor and can only protect her crew from small arms. Their design did not provide any NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protection or night vision to aid the driver, commander and gunner.

It also cannot put down its own smokescreen, nor is it a true amphibious system. All of these qualities limited their scope and put them well behind their contemporaries.

Still, the SU-60 is just a ticket to a recovering army - at least for now.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

1,000 x 7.62mm Ammo

500 x 12.7mm ammo

Changes