This article is about the real world Type 61 Tank, for the fictional weapon mentioned in the Gundam Universe, please see Type 61 Tank, for the British Frigate, please see Type 61 frigate

The Type 61 (Japanese: ろくいちしきせんしゃ Kanji: 61式戦車) was a main battle tank(MBT) developed and used by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Development started on 1955 and first deployed on April, 1961. The type number follows the year of deployment. A total of 560 type 61 was manufactured between 1961 to 1975 when the production ceased.

After World war II, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers(A.K.A. GHQ in Japan) ceased all military manufacturing and development plants in Japan, making Japan loses the technology to build and manufacture tanks and armoured vehicles (even though the technology is not well developed.) However, because the start of Korean War, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers ordered Japan to re-militarize, forming armed police forces and provided M4A3E8 Sherman and M24 Chaffee. However, the body build of Japanese is smaller than the design target of the M4 Sherman and making it very hard to control and the M24 cannot provide enough fire power, following the critics of M4 is already insufficient late in World war II and M24 is no match of the Soviet T34/85 and the development of new modern battle tanks of all the world super powers, the JGSDF was provided the option of purchasing the new American built M46 and M47 or develop their own self built MBT on 1954. Due to the high cost of purhcasing, the JGSDF decided on developing their own main battle tank, resulting in the development of Type 61.

The original development targets are:

1. In order to effectively use a small number of tanks to cover up a large area, the size and weight of the tank has to be light enough for trains to carry.
2. Due to the above target, the weight of the armour has to be limited around 25 tons yet as heavily armoured as possible.
3. Main cannon has to be 90mm.

The weight is one of the main concern since if the first contraint was met, the tank could also be transported by a specially modified truck thgough most major highways and tunnels. The second contraint cannot be met due to the mock up development team found out the armour will be too thin to protect the said vehicle, the armour weight contraint was lifted up to 35 tons for a while, however, due to the delay of the planned diesel engine did not provide enough power, the type 61 have to conpensate for the power loss with lighter armour. The last contraint was due to the body built of the Japanese people at that time, after examining the M36 Jackson, 90mm is the upper limit of what a Japanese at that time can handle effectively. Also, due to the complicated landscape of Japan, it was understood that long range combats will be very difficult and 90mm is sufficient within Japan.

The first test vehicles, ST-A1 and ST-A2 was built and tested, results were used to develope ST-A3 and ST-A4 in 1960. More improvement was made in 1961 and the deployment of the Type 61 started in the same year.

The main weapon is a 90mm rifle cannon, attached with a 7.62mm and a 12.7mm machine gun.

All type 61s were decommisioned 39 years after the deployment, which is 2000. During this period, the type 61 was not improved even once.

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