U.S. Army ARMOR Magazine 1999
—Tank Assessment Survey Ranks—
「The third-place finisher is a surprise, coming from a nation never known for its tank technology. The Japanese Type 90,built by Mitsubishi, visually resembles the Leopard 2, uses the 120mm gun originally developed by Rheinmetall, and adds an automatic loader, permitting a three-man crew. Neither the governmentor the contractor have put out much information on the Type 90, making it a sort of "mystery tank," but the Type 90 is, according to the report, "thoroughly modern and sophisticated, even more advanced in some of the areas of fire control and vehicle electronics than the highly publicized (French) Leclerc, Leopard 2A5, and M1A2. "It is the fire control suite and advanced vehicle electronics that really make the Type 90 a world-class tank. The well known Japanese prowess in electronics has been exploited to the fullest extent in
the Type 90. While some details remain clouded in secrecy, the fire control suite has an automatic target tracking capability and it has long been rumored that some sort of target recognition/queuingand/or threat prioritization capability is incorporated in the suite." The Type 90 is powered by a 1,500 hp Mitsubishi diesel that provides a power-to-weight ratio similar to other world-class tanks. At 50 tons, the Type 90 is less heavily armored than designs intended for combat in Western Europe and the crew compartment is thought to be cramped. "All these things considered, the Type90 is one of the top operational tanks in the world today," the report concludes.」
http://doc.danfahey.com/Tanks-ArmorMag.pdfhttp://www.knox.army.mil/armormag/Forecast International 2004
—Re-evaluates Main Battle Tank Market—
「Japan's Type 90, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, maintains its third-place position on the Forecast International list. Drawing heavily on German Leopard 2 technology, the Type 90 is arguably the most technologically advanced main battle tank in service today. However, the Type 90 suffers from being untried in combat. As such, its performance remains essentially theoretical.」
http://www.forecastinternational.com/press/release.cfm?ar...The Type 90 and all its subsystems have been designed and built in Japan, with the exception of the 120mm smoothbore gun, which is made under licence from Rheinmetall of Germany.
The German Tank technology (Krauss-Maffei) is not included in Japanese Type90 MBT (Exclude Rh120mm gun).
Because there is not information about Type90 MBT, in the west, wrong information based on a supposition spreads out.
This Engligh Website is Comparatively correct information about Type90 MBT.
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product.php?prodID=1008&...
(less info)
