Type 4 70 mm AT rocket launcher
The Type 4 70 mm anti-tank rocket launcher was a Japanese weapon built in 1944 for defending the Japanese mainland in case of invasion during the final year of World War II. About 3,500 were made. It weighed about 8 kg, was 1.5 m long, and fired a 74 mm rocket from a 72x359 mm cartridge at a speed of about 160 m/s.
The launcher was designed to be fired from a prone position and came in two halves joined in the middle, similar to the US 3.5-inch launcher. The gunner lay on the left side at roughly a 45-degree angle to the bore, with the loader on the opposite side. The pistol grip and trigger were at the rear half, connected by a cable to a hammer at the back. Pulling the trigger released the hammer, striking the primer to ignite the rocket.
The 70 mm rocket used a mortar-type fuse. The safety system involved a shear wire in the fuse; when the round fired, the wire would shear and allow the firing pin to detonate the fuse on impact. The design required no initial setback to arm the fuse.
The Type 4 was comparable to the German Panzerschreck and the American Bazooka. After the war, China reverse engineered the data from the Type 4 rocket left in Shenyang to help produce the Type 51 rocket launcher.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:30 (CET).