ARL-99 Helldiver (TV 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. 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 1998, a JSDF Helldiver unit commanded by Capt. Fuwa was deployed to Tokyo Teleport to track the movements of the mysterious Type-R13EX Phantom labor produced by Schaft. With the help of the Tokyo police’s SV2 labor unit, the Phantom was defeated. In 1999, Fuwa’s Helldiver unit again clashed with the Phantom when it attacked JSDF labors at a labor testing ground in Oshima.

Pilot(s): Fuwa, Noa Izumi
First appearance: Mobile Police Patlabor
Original mechanical designer: Yutaka Izubuchi

Rear view