Ke-Ni

Ke-Ni

Ka-Mi

Ke-Ni

Ka-Mi

Japan

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

Light tank

Research:Free

Purchase:Free

Description

The Type 98 Ke-Ni is a reserve Rank I Japanese light tank with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced along with the entire Japanese Ground Forces tree in Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai". Shooting the same ammo as the Ha-Go from a better cannon and using the same chassis as the Ta-Se, this tank is a fair deal at rank I. It's definitely a good tank for beginners.

Survivability:

With around 12 mm of armour all around, this tank is barely bulletproof. German and British machine guns can even knock you down at point-blank range (13 mm of maximum penetration). Your crew is cramped and not numerous, which makes surviving a shot really unlikely. This is definitely not the tank to expose to any kind of shots. With its small turret, hull-down positions are efficient with this tank.

Mobility

Sharing the Ta-Se's chassis, this tank is quite fast and can achieve surprising feats of mobility. Coupled with a god turret traverse speed, this tank can be reliably used in flanking manoeuvres. With its narrow tracks and good HP ratio, this tank is fast on almost any ground but easily loses speed on rough terrain or steep hills. Another good characteristic from this tank is its reverse speed of -7 km/h that allow it to effectively use peek-a-boo tactics.

Firepower

Sharing the Ha-Go's ammunition but increasing its velocity, this tank offers a good learning curve from its predecessor. Though this cannon does not have the best penetration at rank I, it does have a good amount of HE filler in order to ensure that each penetrating shot deals damage. This gun only has one type of ammo but this is compensated by the presence of a coaxial MG, which can deal with unarmored targets often found at this BR.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	12 + 10 mm (20-27°) Front plate 12 mm (71°) Front glacis 12 mm (2-58°) Lower glacis	12 mm (29-34°) Top 12 mm Bottom	10 mm (52°) Top 10 mm (12-52°) Bottom	10 mm
Turret	12 mm (0-81°) Turret front 16 mm Gun mantlet	12 mm (25°)	12 mm (25°) 10 mm (24-25°) Rear door	9 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels and tracks are both 15 mm thick.

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	56	8	7	141	248	20.14	35.43
Realistic	50	8		115	130	16.43	18.57

Armaments

Main armament

37 mm Type 100
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
110			-15°/+18°	±180°	Vertical
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	16.18	22.40	27.2	30.1	32.00
Realistic	10.12	11.90	14.5	16.0	17.00
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
4.29	3.8	3.5	3.30

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Type 1 APHE	APHE	47	44	32	22	15	10

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
Type 1 APHE	APHE	700	0.72	1.2	9	10.24		47°	60°	65°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Ke-Ni

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
110	105 (+5)	99 (+11)	81 (+29)	41 (+69)	1 (+109)	No

Only left side: 81 (+29)

Machine guns

7.7 mm Type 97
Coaxial mount
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
3,000 (20)				499	N/A	N/A

Usage in the battles

Being a light tank, the Ke-Ni cannot engage enemies head-on. To succeed in an assault, you need to be sneaky. Flanking is your best option, routing the enemy and going behind them. The 37mm gun can penetrate most Rank I tanks if you hit their weak spots, though it may take a few shots. Your first aim should be to take out the engine and then the gunner or cannon and then go from there. Never linger for too long in an open field since anything can kill you with ease. Use your good gun depression to keep a hull-down position behind hills and just pop out to shoot. Hide in bushes or behind buildings or rocks. You are quite small. Use this to your advantage.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		Artillery Support

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Low profile tank.
• Slightly improved 37 mm cannon compared to the Ha-Go, able to penetrate the majority of rank 1.
• Coaxial Type 97 machine gun (Japanese early tanks rarely have this feature).
• Big ammo load.
• Good reload time.
• Small ammo racks.
• Small engine: hard to hit from the front.
• Good turret traverse.
• -15° of depression.
• Has lock, which is a primitive form of the vertical stabiliser.
• Decent reverse speed (-7 km/h)

Cons:

• Relatively little armour, can be penetrated by 12.7mm machine guns
• Only one ammunition choice, can have difficulty dealing with heavily armoured tanks
• Only 3 crew members (little backup if knocked out)
• Crew is cramped
• Hard to angle due to the shape of the armour

History

Development

The Type 98 Ke-Niwas a replacement program started in 1938, for the Type 95 Ha-Go. The tank was supposed to have the same weight but with thicker armor. During development both Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Industries built a prototype being the Chi-Ni* Model A (Ko) and Chi-Ni* Model B (Otsu) respectively. As Hino built a suspension similar as on the Ha-Go, Mitsubishi went for a similar design to the Christie suspension. During trails the Model A performed stunningly better, especially offroad and was adopted as the Type 98 Ke-Ni.

But as the battle results of the Ha-Go came in, the Army realized the poor strength and disorganization of the Chinese army was no issue for the adequate aging Ha-Go and didn't need direct replacement.

* Not to be confused with the Chi-Ni medium tank prototype.

Design

Comparing the Type 98 to the Type 95, featured thicker, welded armor of improved shape, the height of the tank was 50 cm lower in profile, and slightly lighter and shorter.

With the use of a Mitsubishi Type 100 6-Cylinder air-cooled diesel engine with 130 horsepower it allowed the vehicle to travel at 50 km/h (31 mph) even with its thicker armor.

Three pairs of bogies with six road-wheels connected to the chassis using bell cranks, this gave the tank better stability over its predecessor which only had two pairs of bogies with four road-wheels.

The driver was located in a central position of the chassis and received a standard wheel.

In contrast to the one-man turret of Type 95, the Type 98 had a two-man turret, which featured additional room for a loader next to the gunner/commander. The gun was a Type 100 37 mm tank gun with vertical elevations of -15 to +20 degrees in the turret, a muzzle velocity of 760 m/s, and also a coaxial Type 97 (7.7 mm) machine gun instead of in the back of the turret. 

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read 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.

ETC.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Japan light tanks
Type 89	I-Go Ko
Type 95	Ha-Go · Ha-Go Commander
Type 98	Ke-Ni
Other	Ka-Mi
IFV	Type 89
RCV	Type 87 RCV (P) · Type 87 RCV · RCV (P)
MCV	Type 16 (P) · Type 16 (FPS) · Type 16
USA	▅M24 · ▅M41A1