Type 98 Ke-Ni
In service 1942 - 1945
Based onType 95 Ha-Go (successor to)
The intended replacement for the Type 95 Ha-Go: faster, better armoured and with a two-man turret, but built in small numbers and kept in Japan.
Built byHino Motors / Mitsubishi
Development history
Combat against Soviet armour at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 showed the Ha-Go to be thinly armoured and cramped, with a one-man turret that overloaded its commander. The Ke-Ni answered both faults with a larger two-man turret, a more powerful 130 hp diesel and a simplified suspension of four large roadwheels a side. Development dragged from 1938 to 1942, and by the time the vehicle was ready the light tank had lost its place in Japanese planning. Somewhere near a hundred were completed, all retained in the home islands and Manchuria. A separate airborne derivative, the Type 2 Ke-To, took the design a step further with a larger gun.
Related vehicles
Separate records that derive from this vehicle, grouped by how they relate to it.
derived from this vehicle