The Army Type 97, better known as the Nakajima Ki-27 - or "Nate" under Allied nomenclature - was the first modern fighter to serve with the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF). This all-metal cantilever low-wing monoplane featured classic fuselage lines, an enclosed cockpit and fixed landing gear. It proved its excellent qualities during combat service in China and along the Khalkhin-Gol river area. At the outbreak of the Pacific war, it was the basic IJAAF fighter, seeing service in Indochina, Malaya, the Philippines, and Burma, as well as in defense of the Japanese Islands. On being superceded in first line units by more state-of-the-art successors, it continued in service until the end of the war in training units and pilot schools. Outside Japan, it served with the air forces of Manchukuo and Thailand.