Japanese Type 96_25mm AT AA gun

The Type 96 25mm AT/AA gun was an automatic cannon utilized extensively by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Based on a 1935 French Hotchkiss design, it served as Japan’s primary light-and-medium anti-aircraft weapon. While multi-barrel variations (twin and triple mounts) were introduced first, the free-swinging single mount configuration was specifically developed later in 1943. This version became the mainstay anti-aircraft defense for naval vessels, submarines, and land installations toward the end of the Pacific War.

Technical Specifications
The single-barrel mount system was significantly lighter and offered different operational mechanics than its multi-barrel counterparts:
Type: Dual-purpose Anti-Aircraft / Anti-Tank Autocannon
Mass (Single Barrel): 785 kg (1,731 lbs) total mount system; gun body alone is ~115 kg
Barrel Length: 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) L/60
Shell Dimensions: 25 × 163 mm
Ammunition Feed: 15-round detachable box magazine
Rate of Fire: 200–260 rpm cyclic (Effective practical rate: 110–120 rpm due to magazine swaps)
Muzzle Velocity: 2,953 feet per second (900 m/s)
Effective Ceiling: 9,843 feet (approx. 3,000 meters)
Crew Complement: 3 personnel for the single mount (compared to 7 or 9 for twin/triple mounts)

Operational Performance & Flaws
Though the Imperial Japanese Navy regarded the Type 96 as a highly reliable piece of machinery, post-war evaluations concluded it was an underwhelming and mediocre weapon compared to Allied alternatives like the 20mm Oerlikon or 40mm Bofors.
• Magazine Restraints: The small 15-round box magazine required constant manual swapping. This dropped its theoretical rate of fire by more than half and interrupted tracking.
• Sluggish Adjustments: The manual hand-cranked traversal and elevation tracking systems were far too slow to effectively lock onto high-speed late-war Allied aircraft.
• Sight Limitations: The optical sights equipped on most mounts were inadequate for dealing with modern dive-bombers and fast torpedo-bombers.
• Low Destructive Power: The 25mm projectile lacked the fragmentation power or explosive payload necessary to reliably down armored aircraft with a single hit. It required a high concentration of sustained hits, which the slow reloading mechanism prevented.

The model was created based on blueprints, photos and historical documentation. It was created with precision in detail and in real units of measurement to be a faithful digital reproduction of the original. The object has been modeled in Lightwave and finished and texturized in 3DCoat.
LIGHTWAVE - The model comes with a simple Lightwave 2018 setup scene to animate pitch and heading rotation. UV mapped and original LW material included
OBJ and FBX - model with UV maps. You may need to reassign textures when open the Obj file with different software.
BLENDER - UV model with uv material assigned.
The object has one UV map with color, normal, roughness, metalness and specular textures