A Korean Military Weapon with Surprisingly Stubborn Longevity: The K200 APC

Strictly speaking, IFVs and APCs are different, but I’m lazy so I’ll just call them all 'armored vehicles.' Anyway, there’s a weapon developed in the late 70s that's still in service today: the K200 armored vehicle.

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When it first came out, it had 280hp and a manual transmission, but that had some issues, so they upgraded it to 350hp + auto transmission + improved tracks + etc., which became the K200A1. Most of the 'Gaebung-is' (DogDrip users) who served probably rode in this A1 version. Nowadays we have stuff like the AS21 rolling around, but back then, the K200 was a pretty decent vehicle spec-wise. More than anything, it was a product of grinding down engineers in an era when our tech was so backward that making this was a massive struggle... They went through a lot of grief during the IMF crisis too... Oh, and this thing is amphibious, so it can cross water. Anyway, the A1 version came out in the mid-90s, and deliveries to the military finished in the late 2000s, with some variants being modified and delivered as recently as the 2020s. The next thing to come out was the K-21, which started development in the late 90s and hit the field in the mid-2000s...

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Milsim nerds probably think this is ancient and we should swap it out for something sexy like the AS21 we recently supplied to Australia.

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You know, stuff like this... Oh, and there's the wheeled armored vehicle Rotem released recently too.

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Both look pretty sleek lol. Can't we just crank these out and replace everything? Well, it's not that easy. The K200 is actually going to be in service for quite a long time. The 'A2' project was approved a few years ago and is set to proceed. Why? 1) There are over 2,500 units of the K200 series including variants... 2) The K-21 that came after it is so expensive that even with additional production batches, there are only about 450 units—nowhere near enough to replace the K200 series. So the even pricier AS21-class is even more out of the question. 3) And after actually using the modified versions, turns out the K200 is perfectly fine for general use... lol. The A2 upgrade plan scheduled for next year includes: an RCWS (Remote Controlled Weapon Station), positive pressure system (AC + NBC protection), EAAK (add-on armor), thermal periscopes for the driver, auto fire suppression, one-piece rubber tracks, and a digital battlefield management system. We don't know the full scope yet, but the management system and fire suppression are almost certain. The K200 was exported to Malaysia (over 100 units) 30 years ago, and their upgrade project was just approved like two years ago. They're only now debating whether to do the 350hp engine upgrade we finished 20 years ago... Seeing them use it without issues makes me think the K200, despite being old, isn't a bad piece of kit at all. The end... TMI 1) The project name for the K200 was 'Project Toad.' Rumor has it they named it that so it would breed many 'offspring' and survive well. TMI 2) I heard a story that a developer offered to get inside the vehicle and told them to fire a 12.7mm at it to prove its bulletproofing, but that's probably just a legend. If anyone knows the source, let me know in the comments.