A rare Japanese interceptor will be making its way to the research tree in the next major update! Featuring a powerful 57 mm cannon, the Ki-93 will bring some serious firepower to the battlefield!
Ki-93-I Ko: An Attacker for Japan at Rank III
At a glance:
Powerful 57 mm cannon with HE and APHE!
Two 250 kg bombs
Effective protection
High weight
This heavy attacker was one of the last aircraft built by Japan during the Second World War. It’s a fairly unique one, so let’s have a look!
For air-to-air combat, the Ki-93 is heavily armed and heavily armored, it’s hardly a dogfighter, and is much more suited to climbing to engage mid-altitude bombers or dive on lower flying fighters. Pilots should plan their climb carefully, avoiding the competitive climbing paths and sticking with the team initially for safety. The high velocity cannon lets the Ki-93 engage enemy bombers out of range from their defensive weaponry, so these should be priority targets. Landing a big cannon round on a maneuvering fighter can be tricky, so to help out are a pair of 20 mm Ho-5 cannons with 300 rounds per gun in the wing roots. If an enemy is getting behind you, try to slow them down as much as you can and line up your rear 12.7 mm Ho-103 machine gun, one good burst is all you need.
The Ki-93 is also well suited as a ground attacker thanks to its speed and armor. These attributes allow you to fly fast over the battlefield, take a few shots, and quickly zoom away for another approach. The aircraft is not immune from ground fire, but it will be able to shrug off some light bursts from lower caliber machineguns. Depending on your angle of attack, try to land your shells into the roof or side of enemy vehicles, the APHE is powerful and will only need one or two shots to take out an enemy vehicle.
The 57 mm Ho-402 cannon was specially made for the Ki-93. Overall it is more powerful than the Ho-401, which some of you will be familiar with from the Ki-102. With a barrel 2.5 meters long, it can fire shells at a velocity of 700 m/s at a rate of 80 RPM. The cannon was intended to cripple any bomber with a single shot, and while this was never tested in practice, it is safe to say any aircraft unlucky enough to be hit by it will be in for a very rough time regardless!
The real star though is the APHE, with high velocity and high penetration it is more than capable of punching through the roof and sides of almost anything on the ground with relative ease.
Developer Comment: Japan has been needing a tech tree attacker for the lower ranks for quite some time, so we’re very happy to finally introduce the Ki-93. It was a difficult aircraft to find precise details on (especially regarding the cannon and its ammo) so it took some time to create for the game, but it’s finally ready and we hope you’ll love it. We’re planning the Ki-93 for Rank III after the B7A2 where it’ll fit perfectly into lineups for combined battles. Functionally the Ki-93 is a big improvement on the Ki-102, with a much more effective cannon and superior flight performance.
The project which would ultimately culminate in the Ki-93 was initiated in the summer of 1941. Several months before the start of the war in the Pacific, research into the creation of a heavy twin-engine fighter began at the Army Aeronautical Research Institute (Rikugun Kokugijutsu Kenkyujo).
A team of specialists initially worked on the design until July 1942, when the desired role of the aircraft shifted and the original team was disbanded. The new directive envisioned the aircraft as a heavy multi-role fighter/attack aircraft, intended for low and medium altitudes with the capability of engaging armored ground and surface targets. A special 57 mm cannon was developed for the aircraft as its primary armament, which heavily influenced its overall design. The final development shift occurred in the late stages of the war, when the situation for Japan turned dire. With the threat of an Allied invasion force and persistent B-29 raids, development of the Ki-93 split into two final designs. The Ki-93-I Ko was planned as a heavy interceptor, while the Ki-93-I Otsu was designed for the anti-shipping role.
On this final stretch of development more problems arose; the desired weight could not be achieved, which resulted in the ammunition capacity of the 57 mm cannon being reduced from 30 to 20 rounds, while the unfinished Ha-214 engines failed to deliver on their rated power. On the 8th of April 1945, the Ki-93-I Ko took off from Tachikawa airfield for what would prove to be its only flight, with Lt. Moriya in the pilot’s seat.
It carried no armament during the test, and demonstrated good performance and controllability. When it came in to land however, Moriya undershot the runway and the left gear strut collapsed, resulting in serious damage to the aircraft. Repairs took a month to complete, and a night before the Ki-93 was ready for another test flight, an American raid on Tachikawa resulted in the complete destruction of the aircraft. Japan’s final heavy fighter never saw the sun, with only a single flight report and a handful of photos surviving today.
That’s all for today! The Ki-93 will be waiting for you in the research tree as part of the next major update. Thanks for having a read, keep checking in for more blogs on vehicles and features and we’ll see you soon!
Please note that this vehicle’s characteristics may be changed before it is added to the game.