Type 96

     Notes:  The latest Japanese armored vehicle, the Type 96 APC was first produced in 1995 in LRIP and type-standardized in 1996. It is a basic armored vehicle with medium armor for an APC.  It has not been exported, like most Japanese weapons, but has seen combat service in Afghanistan during Japan’s short-lived participation in ISAF. The Japanese currently have 72 of them on their rolls, but they intend to eventually have 217.

     There is a hatch on the front right deck for the driver, a cupola behind the driver's hatch for the commander with a weapon mount, four large hatches on the rear deck, and a rear ramp with a door for troop entry.  The driver can replace his forward vision block with a night vision block, and the commander can do the same on his cupola; the commander also has an additional vision device. Four hatches are on the troop compartment deck. Two firing ports are on each side of the passenger compartment, and two are in the rear of the hull, one in the door and one to the side of it.  The commander’s cupola-mounted weapon can be aimed and fired when the vehicle is buttoned up, and the roof is a device that detects laser targeting beams and automatically launches smoke grenades in the direction of the beam.  The smoke grenades, four per side, are found on each side of the forward side of the vehicle. Two versions exist; the Type 96A is armed with an automatic grenade launcher, and the Type 96B is armed with an M-2HB.

     Armor is of all-welded steel spaced armor.  There are no special provisions for floor or roof armor. For service in Afghanistan, a bullet-resistant windshield was fitted to the driver’s position that covered the front and sides of the driver’s position, allowing him to drive with his head out of the vehicle in relative safety. (This windshield has AV 4.  The vehicle uses a Komatsu 6D40 turbocharged diesel developing 640 horsepower coupled to an automatic transmission.  The suspension is 8x8 and of the off-road-type, and steers with the front set and rear set of wheels steering independently to tighten the turning radius.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: About 50 of them had been produced by 2000 in the Twilight 2000 timeline, but the factory manufacturing them had not been destroyed by late 2000 and it was one of the few large armored vehicles of any type being produced in the world at that time.