The Type 16 maneuver combat vehicle equips designated combat units. Due to its light weight and small size, it is designed for easy deployment allowing rapid movement on narrow roads and in built-up areas in response to various contingencies. Despite its small size and light armor, it can successfully attack much larger armored fighting vehicles as well as personnel, using its large caliber gun. For FY2016, the MOD has requested funding for 36 examples of the MCV, to enter service with elements of the 8th Division at Kumamoto, and the 14th Brigade at Zentsūji. Both formations are currently planned for conversion to rapid reaction forces. The intention is for the MCV to act as both as a rapid reaction asset against conventional incursions on the outer islands and as a counter-insurgency vehicle against asymmetrical attacks in urban areas of Japan by enemy special forces, intelligence operatives, or their proxies. MCVs are expected to be highly functional, but can also be loaded on Kawasaki C-2 at the same time. JPSDF is dedicated to securing transport vessels for maritime transport independently, and will be carried on these vessels and transported to the Okinawa Islands. Although the vehicle uses modular armor, it has a relatively delicate undercarriage and drive system that may be vulnerable to improvised explosive devices and other underbody blasts. Since the MCV is designed only for defending against enemy invasion of the home islands, it is unlikely to find itself fighting a lengthy counter-insurgency campaign in a foreign nation, or encountering enemy minefields while spearheading an invasion of an enemy power. The main gun is manually loaded as a cost-saving measure. Some critics have expressed doubts about its effectiveness due to this strain on the crew in hot conditions, as the vehicle does not have air conditioning. Concerns have also been expressed by some about what they perceive as a shortfall in the MCV's off-road capability. In 2009 resistance testing of the shielding against HEAT rounds was conducted using the Carl Gustav M2; and against regular kinetic ammunition the frontal shield was developed to resist shots from 20 mm to 30 mm autocannons while the side armor was deemed sufficient to resist 12.7 mm heavy machine gun fire.
History
The Technical Research & Development Institute of Japan's Ministry of Defense had made several prototype vehicles since 2008. They unveiled their fourth of what were initially called "mobile combat vehicle" prototypes on 9 October 2013. JGSDF service Acceptance tests were scheduled to begin in 2014 or 2015, with initial operational deployment by the JGSDF planned for 2016. 99 MCVs were originally planned to be introduced by the end of FY 2018. The name of the vehicle was changed to maneuver combat vehicle during the second half of 2011. The MCV was part of a new armored vehicle strategy that prioritized light air-transportable firepower. Originally the number of main battle tanks was to be reduced from 760 to 390, with most remaining tanks to be concentrated on the main Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Kyushu. Some 200–300 MCVs were to be procured and these would be airlifted to islands when and where they were needed. The idea was that the smaller, lighter, and faster MCV could be redeployed quicker than tanks to better defend the outlying islands. This represented a shift in Japanese armored vehicle structure from one designed to repel a Soviet invasion from the north to a more mobile force aimed at possibly defending against a Chinese invasion of the southern island chain. The MCV was intended to help re-equip existing divisions and brigades reorganised into mobile divisions/brigades, as well as equip new dedicated rapid reaction regiments alongside the Light-weight Combat Vehicle System which was also designed with defense of the outer islands in mind.
