MAV (Mitsubishi Armored Vehicle)
WAPC is an abbreviation for Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier, which means a wheeled armored vehicle, and APC refers to an armored personnel carrier. These vehicles are vehicles that move from the base to the target area / front line (operational maneuver), or act in areas under the threat of the enemy or on the front line (battlefield maneuver) while protecting the soldiers with their armored bodies. An armed infantry member disembarks from the large rear door and moves on to battle with rifles. This is a disembarkation battle. The vehicle rushes into the front line, and the personnel get off, quickly spread out, shoot, and project firepower.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2014 June, at the Eurosatory land battle weapons security-related trade fair in France, announced the eight-wheeled armored vehicle MAV (Mitsubishi Armored Vehicle). The MAV is based on the technology of the Type 16 mobile combat vehicle, which is under the initiative of Mitsubishi's independent development, not led by the Ministry of Defense. Prototype vehicles have already been developed and tested in-house. The size of MAV's APC (armored personnel transport) is 8m in length, 2.98m in width, 2.2m in height, and 18 tons empty weight. These figures do not include slat armor or reactive armor. The maximum battle weight is 28 tons. The exhibited models were equipped with slat armor. As a countermeasure against landmines and IEDs, a floating seat is used in the car, and V-shaped additional armor can be installed at the bottom of the car. There are 11 crew members including the commander and driver.
Derived types of MAV are also being studied, and armored field ambulances and command communication vehicles with a higher cabin roof than APC types have been proposed. In addition, 30 mm cannon mounted with the infantry fighting vehicle type, 120mm self-propelled mortar has been studied also developed for the type.
MAV can be further strengthened by installing additional armor on the car body and the bottom of the car body as needed. In addition, the seats in the space where the members board are equipped with "floating seats" that have the effect of mitigating the impact transmitted from the bottom of the vehicle body due to the explosion of land mines, etc.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the developer and manufacturer of the "Type 16 Mobile Combat Vehicle" being introduced by the Ground Self-Defense Force, and MAV is being developed by applying that technology. If MAV is adopted by the Ground Self-Defense Force, mass-produced vehicles will have more than 80% of the parts in common with Type 16 mobile combat vehicles, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said. It can be expected to improve the efficiency of replenishment.
One of the reasons why MAV once lost in the selection of wheeled armored vehicle (revised) is that the width of the car body reached 2.98 m, which exceeds the vehicle width limit (2.5 m) of the Road Traffic Act, but with MAV The Type 16 mobile combat vehicle of the same width is self-propelled on public roads after notifying the road administrator, and there are no problems due to self-propelling. For this reason, the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency announced on September 10, 2019 that it will introduce a MAV-based "mobile armored vehicle" as a test vehicle for the next wheeled armored vehicle.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' mobile armored vehicle, which the Ministry of Defense is not inferior in performance to wheeled armored vehicles in Western countries, and is expected to reduce operating costs and improve replenishment efficiency due to commonality with Type 16 mobile combat vehicles. One of the reasons for selecting the next wheeled armored vehicle after conducting comparative tests with foreign-made armored vehicles is that the domestic defense industry is at a major turning point.
Komatsu Ltd., which developed the wheeled armored car (revised), will not develop a new armored car for the Ground Self-Defense Force in the future. Until now, the Ground Self-Defense Force's armored vehicles have been developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Komatsu Ltd., with some exceptions such as the "96 type self-propelled 120 mm slamming gun" manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd. If Komatsu withdraws from the development of armored vehicles, only Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will be able to manufacture a large number of armored vehicles.
There are also deep-rooted concerns within the Ministry of Defense and the Ground Self-Defense Force that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will be the only company that can manufacture this large number of armored vehicles. For this reason, the Ministry of Defense and the Ground Self-Defense Force have a desire to maintain the domestic manufacturing base of armored vehicles by having Komatsu Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. manufacture foreign-made wheeled armored vehicles, which is used as a test vehicle. It is believed to be one of the reasons for the introduction of foreign-made armored vehicles.
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