The Japanese army would plans to acquire 12 more Type 10 main battle tanks. Currently, the Japanese Ground Self Defence forces use three types of main battle tanks including 76 Type 10, 200 Type 74 and 341 Type 90.
Type 10 is considered as a fourth-generation Main Battle Tank (MBT) manufactured locally by the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The development of the Type 10 was launched in 2002 and the first prototype was completed in 2006. The production was launched in 2010 and it entered into service with the Japanese army in 2010.
The main armament of the Type 10 MBT consists of a 120mm 44 caliber smooth-bore gun, which is licensed-built by Japan Steel Works and ATLA. The 120mm smooth-bore gun is fitted with a thermal sleeve, fume extractor and a muzzle reference system. The 120mm gun is fed by an automatic load located in the turret bustle. It can shoot modern 120mm ammunition and also the new third-generation APFSDS-T (Armor Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot – Tracer) round.