Ch'ŏnma-214

ChieftainWarrior · December 10, 2023, 6:27pm

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North Korean sub-tree in China
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Ch’ŏnma-214

Brief History
North Korea, despite what some may think, has a surprisingly large variety of tanks and other AFVs. In particular, their indigenous variants and developments of the Soviet T-62 are incredibly interesting, and would fit nicely into the game.

North Korea adopted the T-62 as their MBT in the 70s, replacing their antiquated T-34s and T-55s (although over 2000 T-55s are still in service in 2023). They obtained T-62s from 2 sources – directly importing them from the USSR, as well as producing them under license/reverse-engineering them. These were designated Ch’ŏnma (roughly meaning ‘Pegasus’) [note: some sources refer to these tanks as ‘Ch’ŏnma-Ho XYZ’ but the -Ho suffix is something made up by the US DoD].

The Ch’ŏnma went through a variety of different upgrades and modifications, ranging from glorified 1960s-era T-62s to effectively completely new vehicles in some of the later variants. The Ch’ŏnma-214 (erroneously called Ch’ŏnma-Ho V) was first spotted in 2001, and was definitely one of the first variants to be quite radically different from the base T-62.

Characteristics
The Ch’ŏnma-214 was based on the previous Ch’ŏnma-98, which essentially served as a pre-series vehicle. Although perhaps more accurately, as a pre-pre-series vehicle, as the Ch’ŏnma-214 doesn’t seem to have been mass-produced at the same scale as some later variants.

Compared to the Ch’ŏnma-98, Ch’ŏnma-214 received new add-on armour on the front of the turret (similar to the Soviet ‘BDD’ armour), as well as rubber flaps, similar to those of the Soviet T-80U. It could also have a new FCS imported from Iran, complete with thermal gunner sights, as well as a potential autoloader also imported from Iran. This has never been confirmed by North Korea however.

Compared to the base T-62/Ch’ŏnma, the Ch’ŏnma-214 incorporated a lot of the prior upgrades, such as:

A new welded turret, first seen on the Ch’ŏnma-98
- It is elongated, which might suggest a turret bustle/a larger first-stage ammo rack
Side-skirts, smoke launchers and a laser rangefinder, seen on various prior variants
A new engine (750hp), as on Ch’ŏnma-98

It retains the same armour layout and armament of the base T-62, but likely uses some of the better 115mm APFSDS (such as 3BM21 or 3BM28), likely without GL-ATGMs however.

Conclusion
The Ch’ŏnma-214 would be a really cool vehicle for a future North Korean sub-tree. It only adds a few features on top of the Ch’ŏnma-98, but I think a BR of roughly 9.0-9.3 would be great, as it has very similar characteristics to the T-62M-1.

Specifications
Armament

115mm U-5TS
- Stabilised
- 3BM21 APFSDS
- 3BM28 APFSDS
- 3BK15M HEAT-FS
- 3OF27 HE
Laser rangefinder
NVDs/Thermals
- Possible, but not confirmed

Armour

Hull
- Front - 100mm at 59º
- Sides - 80mm at 0º
- Rear - 45mm at 2º
Turret
- Front - 214-240mm + Unknown add-on armour thickness, likely similar to Soviet ‘BDD’ (65-85mm)
- Sides - Unknown, likely similar to regular T-62 (115-196mm)
- Rear - Unknown, likely similar to regular T-62 (65mm)

Mobility