Type 75 SPH
Contents
Description
The Type 75 SPH is a rank IV Japanese tank destroyer
with a battle rating of 6.7 (AB) and 6.3 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".
General info
Survivability and armour
The armour of Type 75 SPH resists 7.62 MG from any side and can sustain 12.7 mm machinegun when angled from any side, however, the hull is made out of aluminium, so it's actual effective armour is around 15 mm. Because of that, the tank can be hull broken by chemical explosives of 105 mm+ calibre.
For that reason, it is not recommended to drive to hostile tanks closer than 300m and slightly angle to avoid being shot with MG from the side and about 700m to avoid unnecessary damage. Slightly angle the tank towards passageways to have a chance of making a reply shot. Do not angle too much, to avoid exposing your sides or triggering fuses on V rank APHE, which mostly has 19 mm trigger with exception of German and some US tanks which have 14 mm sensitive fuse.
Front of the hull can take the most of the MG punishment due to various modules taking damage for the crew, with high chance of just being set on fire instead, however, if enemy aims for the turret they will eventually hit weaker flat parts and hit the non-critical crew with a chance of taking out the gunner. Keep your opponents on your left to prevent that from happening.
The right front side of the hull houses the driver. They are sealed away from turret compartment by the engine and fuel tanks. The turret houses the rest of the crew. Quite often, explosive damage to one section does nothing to the other, however, pure AP shells can potentially penetrate modules and destroy crew in both of the sections, or hit the charges on the floor of the turret.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 52 | 21 | 25.3 | 639 | 992 | 25.26 | 39.21 |
| Realistic | 48 | 19 | 398 | 520 | 15.73 | 20.55 | |
The Type 75 SPH can move surprisingly fast and can challenge T-54 (1947) when driving on flat terrain.
The problems start when the terrain is less than perfectly flat, as Type 75 SPH's suspension is very stiff. Something as mundane as trenches will not just slow down stock Type 75 SPH, but stop it entirely and leave it struggling to drive over it. Upgrades to chassis make this problem less jarring but it still exists.
Armaments
Main armament
155 mm cannon of this tank destroyer is capable of launching Heavy Explosive shells at the enemy. It does not carry any other offensive ammunition, however, it carries three different types of HE. What separates its gun from most of other "Demolition tanks" is the autoloader, which allows it to reload at least three times faster than any other tank like this, which is insane. As a side effect, the reload speed is not affected by the crew skills and status and will always remain the same.
The gun is surprisingly accurate even when stock at up to ~700 m ranges and can still hit even past 1 kilometre away. While it does not hit the exact mark, it is usually good enough.
Ammunition
M107: Your stock shell. Has a muzzle velocity of 580 m/s and 61 mm of penetration power. Can essentially destroy almost any tank that doesn't have ERA shielding in one hit. As with other HE tanks, like Ho-Ro, it can't penetrate armour directly on many tanks, so one has to aim for cupolas, machineguns, chassis and other weak spots. For example M103 have great frontal armour, but it can be simply shot at the turret base, and the shockwave will breach hull roof armour and hit the ammo rack located just below the turret in the hull, resulting in instant tank destruction.
M107 (PF): Same shell as stock one, but with a twist. It has a 3 meters proximity fuse, so it does not explode upon impact but earlier instead, when the radio fuse (inside the shell) detects an obstacle nearby.
This shell is able to blast low flying aircraft down from the sky if necessary, although a lot of practice or reliance on arcade mode 'shot prediction' will be necessary.
It also gives Type 75 an actually scary ability to annihilate tanks that are hiding behind cover completely, which is usually something only an ATGM tank can do. It also allows HE to exploit openings in armour of some assault tanks, which are normally unhittable by contact explosives, although it's more up to luck if this works (point mouse at a picture to get a slightly more detailed explanation):
Proximity fuse of type 75 explodes mid-air before hitting Ho-Ri armour and penetrates ventilation to hit ammo rack. Ho-Ri explodes. Normally, the HE shell would hit the gun mantlet and set the engine on fire and nothing else, or just ricochet off the hull and away.
Type 75 SPH uses proximity fuse on type 60 ATM that is completely hidden behind a hill. It exploded above the vertical ATGM tank, surprising and destroying it. Normally the shot would be impossible to land and type 60 ATM would just continue destroying any passing by tank - like nothing happened.
Be aware, that for proximity fuse to activate, it must fly at least 300 meters away from your tank, so it will not work at close range.
It will also react to the ground surface, so try to overshoot your opponent so that the shell remains higher than 3 meters from the ground before it reaches your target. In many cases, the proximity fuse shell will detonate before reaching the enemy, due to nearby obstacles accidentally triggering the fuse.
Not every tank should be attacked with a proximity shell, as it's not always beneficial. For example, Soviet medium and heavy tanks do not have any glaring weakspots, which can be potentially hit by an airburst shockwave, so they should only be attacked by normal HE ammo. On contrary, their SPAA and light tanks are as vulnerable as they are dangerous, and so it is reasonable to try and spend some proximity shells to weed them out, instead of leaving your cover and risking being annihilated by suppressing fire.
Type 75: This shell doesn't have a proximity fuse, but its muzzle velocity is 720 m/s, which make it more reliable at over 1 km range and allow for significantly easier and faster aim in RB. It was achieved by reducing its power - it can only penetrate up to 54 mm of RHA.
It is also possible to fire M110 smoke shell to blind enemy snipers or to hide someone on your team.
Optics and night vision
| Type 75 SPH Optics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of optic | Magnification | Night Vision Devices | ||||
| Image Intensifier | Thermal Imager Resolution |
Notes | ||||
| Resolution | Light Mult | Noise Level | ||||
| Gunner's Sight | X8 - X16 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not Fitted | |
| Commander's View | X6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not Fitted | |
| Driver's View | X1 / 3PV | 800X600 | ? | high | Not Fitted | Only useable with an upgrade |
- Zoom level specified in X-ray. Type 75 SPH has optics similar to ST-A1 and they are much cleaner than German sniper scopes of the rank.
While optics are very powerful on this tank, they may be inconvenient to use in RB until the type 75 shell is researched due to low velocity of the standard shell. In arcade mode, unless you are trying to launch the top shell at a distance over 1,000 m it rarely matters.
Even in the worst cases, the excessive magnification power can still be exploited if the user manually zero-in gun scope to 300-X m distance, so they can directly aim at tanks even with maximum zoom. This helps to target out their weak spots and launch HE exactly where it hurts when the tank is spaded. This comes with a disadvantage of the scope being too high for close combat, so keep the "reset" button or third-person view aim ready.
Use Rangefinder and zero-in the gun distance manually wherever necessary to make operating the tank easier. For example, to use proximity shell against a tank in cover, range-find the object which they hide behind, set scope distance to that exact number and intentionally overshoot it by a few meters.
Machine guns
The roof mounted 12.7 mm M2HB machine gun is used to repel hostile light tanks and low flying aircraft.
Usage in battles
This vehicle is very powerful with its high explosive and fuze shells, however it comes at a cost. The Type 75 is the very definition of glass cannons, this vehicle is incredible at close range engagements, but can not snipe long distances as it is an artillery howitzer. It is recommended that you watch your surroundings as this vehicle has so little armor that machines guns alone can penetrate your armor. Used right, this vehicle can dominate the battlefield as its proximity fuze shell can easily take out an enemy behind cover.
Modules
| Tier | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Tracks | Parts | Horizontal Drive | M110 | ||
| II | Suspension | Brake System | FPE | Adjustment of Fire | M107 (PF) | |
| III | Filters | Crew Replenishment | Elevation Mechanism | Type 75 | ||
| IV | Transmission | Engine | NVD | |||
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Unlike all other heavy demolition tanks, like FV4005 and Centurion Mk.5 AVRE, the Type 75 has an autoloader and can reload about as fast as a medium tank
- The low velocity of the stock shell makes it possible to fire from behind some hills while keeping most of the Type 75 hidden
- Has the unique privilege of the proximity fuse shell, which allows tank destroyers to take out enemies behind cover and exploit their normally untouchable weaknesses
- 8X to 16X zoom can be used to locate and annihilate hostile tanks, however, rangefinding is necessary for comfortable use
- Angled turret can sustain a point-blank fire of 12.7 mm and some damage can be taken without instantly exploding the tank or reducing reload speed down to 1.5 minutes like in the case of FV4005, although an enemy should be kept on the left side to have a chance of survival
Cons:
- Can be hull broken easily by high calibre explosive shells or ATGM hitting the turret or the back of the tank, the operator can't be oblivious of their surroundings
- Most of critical components and crew are located in the turret, in RB it can be destroyed in one good hit of sensitive APHE regardless of the hull break or ammo rack, although 19 mm fuse APHE will just act like normal AP
- Turret is rather slow, though movements are mostly smooth
- 12.7 mm rounds have no problem penetrating the front of the turret
- Noticeably quite bouncy when braking.
History
Development of the Type 75 self-propelled howitzer began in the late 1960s, when Japan sought to procure a mobile self-propelled artillery unit alongside a smaller caliber SPG. This resulted in the creation of the Type 75 and Type 74, respectively.
The Type 75’s design was largely based on that of the existing Type 74 SPG and Type 73 APCs, sharing many components and even assembly lines, all in an effort to reduce costs and save resources. Development was split between two Japanese companies, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries developing the chassis, while Japan Steel Works developed the turret and cannon.
Two prototypes were ready by the early 1970s, differing only in the type of loading mechanism used. Trials of these prototypes were conducted between 1973 - 1974. In October 1975, based on the test results, the prototype with a drum-fed autoloading mechanism was picked for series production.
Production of the Type 75 commenced in 1975 and went on until 1988, when all of the initially ordered 201 units were built. Although the Type 75 is still in active service with the JGSDF since their initial introduction in 1975, the number of units has gradually been decreasing in recent years as the Type 75 is slowly being phased out and replaced by the Type 99 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
The Type 75 has not yet participated in any combat operations during its service life and has been exclusively operated by the JGSDF thus far.
- From Devblog
Media
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Japan tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Ro-Go Derivatives | Ro-Go Exp. |
| Chi-Ha Derivatives | Ho-Ni I · Ho-Ni III · Ho-Ro · Chi-Ha LG |
| Ho-Ri | Ho-Ri Prototype · Ho-Ri Production |
| Other | Na-To |
| JGSDF | |
| SPRG | Type 60 (C) |
| SPH | Type 75 · Type 99 |
| ATGM | Type 60 ATM |
| Rocket | Type 75 MLRS |
| USA | ▅M36 |
