Type 5 Chi-Ri
In service Never entered service
Based onType 4 Chi-To (successor to)
Japan's most ambitious wartime tank: a long-hulled medium of Panther-class weight with an autoloading 75 mm gun. One unfinished hull was built before the surrender.
Built byMitsubishi Heavy Industries
Development history
The Chi-Ri was intended to be the tank that let Japan fight American armour on even terms. The design was unusually large for Japanese practice, with seven roadwheels a side, a crew of six and a hull machine-gun position mounting a 37 mm gun in the early layout. Its 75 mm Type 5 gun was to be fed by a mechanical autoloader, a genuinely advanced feature. Engine development was the undoing of the project: the intended 550 hp petrol unit was not ready, and the single prototype was completed only as a hull with a temporary powerplant. American forces found it at the Sagami arsenal in 1945 and scrapped it after evaluation. It should be read as a design study, not a service vehicle.