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Type 60 ATM: Death on a Wire

The Type 60 ATM is to become a Japanese carrier of guided anti-tank missiles. This APC, armed with some of the slowest ammunition in the game, is to appear in update 1.67. If you’ve always wanted to “unleash“ a predatory anti-tank missile, this tank is just the ticket!

The Type 60 ATM was a Japanese Type 60 APC personnel carrier equipped with guided anti-tank Type 64 MAT missiles. The Type APC itself was developed by the Mitsubishi company in 1959 and officially put into service in 1960, becoming the first APC developed by Japan after the war. The Type 64 MAT (Anti-tank Missile) first-generation missiles, also known as KAM-3, were developed by the Kawasaki company and put into service in 1964.

The Type 64 MAT was an ordinary guided, wired HEAT missile, very reminiscent in its design of the German anti-tank Cobra and the Soviet 9M14 Malyutka, put into service several years before. The firing crew consisted of three people, and the vehicle aimed by sending a signal from the control unit along a wire connected to the rear of the missile. The wired aiming system limited the maximum cruising speed and flight range of the missile, but was extremely reliable and cheap to produce.

Containers of these missiles were used as portable weapons, and were also installed on jeeps and APCs. In total, roughly 430 standard models of the Type 60 APC were produced, and around 220 Type 64 MAT missile systems, but the precise number of APCs equipped with the missiles is unknown.

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In the game, the Type 60 ATM will be a top-range Japanese ATGM carrier and will take a position at rank 5 of the ground vehicle tech tree. With its low profile, good mobility, bulletproof armor and anti-tank missiles in addition to its high-caliber Browning machine gun, the Type 60 ATM will be very similar to the British FV438 in its characteristics.

Missile’s flight speed feels strangely low for many people. It is just 85 meters per second, or 306 kilometers per hour, a record-low speed among all the ammunition in the game! The slow speed of the missile’s flight gives the target a chance to exit the hit zone. However, correcting the missile’s flight also becomes far easier, which can be quite important in Realistic Battles, where first-generation ATGMs are aimed manually.

The ammunition complement of the Type 60 ATM amounts to only 6 missiles, including those that are already loaded into the containers, so you’re best off aiming as carefully as you can. Thankfully, the high-caliber Browning machine gun allows you to ‘feel out’ any target before firing your main volley.

This Japanese modern tank hunter is already warming up its engine and checking its aiming system for its death-dealing homing missiles. All fans of Japan’s armored vehicles will soon have a new and powerful weapon at their disposal.

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