ARL-99 Helldiver (Movie version)

Model number: ARL-99
Code name: Helldiver
Unit type: airborne operations military labor
Manufacturer: Shinohara Heavy Industries
Operator: Japan Self-Defense Forces
Rollout: April 1999 AD
Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions: overall height 7.95 meters; overall width 4.55 meters
Weight: standard 5.75 metric tons; full 6.81 metric tons
Armor materials: fiber reinforced plastic; carbon fiber reinforced material (aluminum steel)
Powerplant: unknown
Maximum weight lifting capacity: 3.10 metric tons
Minimum revolving radius: 3.90 meters
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; parachute sack; LLLTV night vision equipment; dive brake, mounted on legs
Fixed armaments: none
Optional hand armaments: 8 x smoke discharger; TOW anti-tank missile launcher; 40mm rapid-firing machine gun, mounted on right forearm

By the late 1990s, manufacturers were producing labors for both civilian and military use. Based on the prototype ALX-99 Helldiver Prototype, Shinohara Heavy Industries’ production model ARL-99 Helldiver was designed for airborne drop operations. The Helldiver used the same chassis as the AV-98 Ingram, but was lightly armored due to its role as a paratrooper unit. The Helldiver could equip a variety of weapons for combat, including an arm-mounted 40mm machine gun, an anti-tank missile launcher and smoke dischargers. In 1999, a JSDF Helldiver unit was deployed to a remote forest to eliminate a prototype HAL X-10 military labor that went berserk during testing. The berserk labor was found to be unmanned, and its rampage was the first in a series of incidents where Shinohara’s new hyper operating system caused labors to go berserk under certain conditions.

First appearance: Patlabor the Movie
Original mechanical designer: Yutaka Izubuchi

Rear view