As there were no fighter with the range of the G4M, Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal proposed the adoption of the G4M for this task. The resulting proposal was called a 'Wingtip Convoy Fighter' (a transliteration of the Japanese term, which in fact was just an escort bomber). Bomb bays were replaced by a ventral gondola equipped with forward and rearward firing 20 mm Type 99 cannons. Beam guns were replaced as well by a Type 99 one and both nose and tail positions retained their 7.7 mm Type 92 and Type 99 guns respectively. Dorsal gun was removed and the aircraft were loaded with additional ammo for every gun, however, in order to compensate for the increased take off weight, the fuel capacity was reduced to 3.640 liters (961.58 gallons). It was powered by two Mistubishi MK4A Kasei 11 radial engines which delivered 1.509 hp at take off and drove three-bladed propellers.
Flight tests couldn't keep up with the expectatives and it showed to be too heavy to keep up the pace with the G3M and G4M bombers, specially after having released the bombs, which made the bombers lighter and faster than the still heavy loaded G6M. Only 30 machines were converted from existing G4M1 at Mitsubishi's factory in Nagoya from August to December 1940.
After the operational failure, the remaining machines were used for crew training purposes, for which purposes they were labelled as G6M1-K or as paratroop aircraft, G6M1-L2. On this variant they were used in the Battle of Menado, the first airborne assault conducted by Japan, in early January 1942. For the rest of the war they served as general-purpose transports.
Sources:
1. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-G6M1-Betty-t29092
2. http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fww2/g6m.html (translated)
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