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Kimchi armoured vehicles: K1, K2, K21 and other AFVs from Worse Korea


Zadlo

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It is also possible, or perhaps even likely, that .50+ RCWS will be a major part of anti-drone, anti-loitering munition point defenses in the coming years. Having the ability to host one provides substantial self protection ability against said threat which is oh so fashionable to talk about nowadays. 

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I would suggest the RWS integration will be partly responsible for the command, control, communications, and computing (C4) capability,  basically (Kongsberg) an integral part of the K9's digital architecture and fire-control system.  Otherwise they would just chosen Australia's EOS RWS for the australian market.

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A bit of an unfortunate accident with a K1.

This happened back in 2003 where this K1 was driving along a road in the early morning towards a training center near Sanjeong Lake when on a narrow strip of road they were on a collision course with a bus. The commander of the tank ordered the driver to try and avoid a collision with said bus but broke the guard rail and fell 4.5 meters into the dry river bed. The commander and loader both died while the gunner suffered a fractured knee and the driver suffered minor scrapes.

 

Itbha3g.jpg

Spoiler

S0NEH63.jpg

XLjH6S3.jpg

N89HitB.jpg

 

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Is the NERA specifically placed in order to fortify the crew compartment in the turret? The line of NERA on top, between the patches for the crew hatches (?), is also placed interesting. Image suggest, that NERA placement on top, is to protect the area's where the blue stuff is not possible?

 

 

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The side turret armor of the K2 has always thrown me for a loop. Maybe there's more than meets the eye but it's hard to say. 

 

Regardless here's a picture from one of the discussions on the Korean side of the internet on the protection of the side turret wall1YLzpaF.jpg

 

And the unwatermarked slides that SH_MM posted

Spoiler

aBL1uUY.png

mh1hu1x.png

 

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On 2/16/2021 at 3:38 PM, Cleb said:

The side turret armor of the K2 has always thrown me for a loop. Maybe there's more than meets the eye but it's hard to say.

I don't really see it as much of an issue. The K2 seems to be protected against the most common CE threats it would see in combat. As for KE threats, pretty much any actual cannon will punch through every MBTs side armor. Based on the frontal estimates of the armor, KSAP CERMET seems to be pretty effective and with what looks to be around 80mm of it on the side, the K2 should be protected against autocannons at combat ranges. Composite side armor on most MBTs is usually relegated to increased protection at a 60 degree arc, but for shots at those angles the LWS will probably get the turret facing the threat in between the laser and actual shot fired.

 

Pretty much every new MBT development has had the same idea that side turret composites tend to be a waste of weight and it's better to shave it off for strategic mobility or used that saved weight to mount better information/electronic warfare systems which are a much better defense on the modern battlefield. There is some trend that the people designing these tanks see that the general population can't, and this is probably the new route that AFV development is headed. Until recently a majority of people saw autoloaders as pieces of junk that broke down after every 2 shots and eviscerated crew members weekly, but Russia, France, and Japan still continued to field them. Fast forward to now and they seem like a requirement for most new MBTs going forward and everyone else is just playing catch up.

 

TLDR: The people designing these tanks for a living and have mountains of combat research data deemed it unnecessary, so it's probably unnecessary.

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9 hours ago, Scolopax said:

To confirm, this is still just intend to be an export vehicle, yes?

Yes this is just part of a cooperation program between the ROKA and the defense companies from South Korea. The bits of equipment being tested aren't intended to be adopted by the ROK.

 

 

(Machine Translated) 

"The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (Director Wang Jung-hong) announced on the 7th that the Army and three defense export companies have signed a military pilot operation agreement for export weapons systems and will start pilot operations this month.

 

The pilot operation system of the export weapons system is a defense export support system that the South Korean military provides operating performance after piloting the weapons system developed for export purposes for a certain period of time." (https://news.v.daum.net/v/20201007091528180)

 

5ONbqOK.jpg

 

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A new K2 variant has made it's debut at IDEX 2021, the K2M.

 

From what I all can see it's an offshoot of the K2PL though with minor changes, the hard-kill APS has been replaced with the soft-kill APS system (similar to that of the normal K2, you have the soft-kill radar and the rotatable smoke grenade launcher). You also have additional cage armor applied to the turret bustle. 

 

Hopefully more and better images pop up.

 

YmvHj0X.jpg

catrjp4.jpg

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3 hours ago, Cleb said:

A new K2 variant has made it's debut at IDEX 2021, the K2M.

 

From what I all can see it's an offshoot of the K2PL though with minor changes, the hard-kill APS has been replaced with the soft-kill APS system (similar to that of the normal K2, you have the soft-kill radar and the rotatable smoke grenade launcher). You also have additional cage armor applied to the turret bustle. 

 

Hopefully more and better images pop up.

 

YmvHj0X.jpg

catrjp4.jpg

that's one hella THICC BOI, with all that passive armor it must be goes beyond 60 ton

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10 minutes ago, alanch90 said:

Driver has been relocated into the center of the chassis. I wonder where they put the ammo that is on the right currently.

 

This was done already for Altay and if I am not mistaken the ammo is on both sides of the driver in Altay.  

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