- Yes
- No
- Chonma-Ho 1A
- Chonma-Ho 1B
- Chonma-Ho 1 MANPAD
- All of the Above
- I voted no for the first question
Brief Summary:
The Chonma-Ho translated to mean ‘Sky Horse’ or ‘Pegasus’ is a mysterious tank that appears during military parades and military exercise videos, although originally based from the T-62 it has seen various changes in it’s decades of service.
History:
North Korea had been mostly using T-34’s during the Korean war in the early 1950’s and afterwards built up a stockpile of various other tanks from Soviet T-54/55’s, BMP-1’s and PT-76 to Chinese Type 59’s and Type 62’s the North Korean army had bolstered their forces. Although bolstered the North Koreans needed something more powerful to showcase in their parades as their prime MBT and to try and make themselves look powerful to the outside world.
The T-62 would make for the basis of what the Chonma-Ho family would be built upon however the origins are unknown but are suspected to have been based upon receiving T-62’s of the M-1967 variety and later Syrian T-62’s in the 1970’s on which to work and reverse engineer from. the Chonma-Ho can be split into two initial variants the Chonma-Ho 1A and the 1B their differences mainly comes down to when they are built in the timeframe of the North Korean’s knowledge with reverse engineering which would later being aided by Iran further down the series of tanks.
The Chonma-Ho 1A although being basically a cheap and poorly armoured T-62 down to the limitations of the North Korean industry and reverse engineering led this tank to have an identical interior to a regular T-62 however with a North Korean reverse engineered variant of the 115mm gun from the T-62 which made it a less capable two plane stabiliser compared to it’s Russian counterpart. The commanders cupola is slightly raised however cannot rotate unlike the T-62 it is based from, a Chinese DShK is used in the place of a Russian one and four vision blocks at the front of the vehicle with two more facing different directions on the turret hatch sides. The engine remains basically the same as a T-62’s V-55A generating 581 horsepower but the transmission is much bulkier.
The tank’s armour is much weaker than the T-62’s armour due to the quality of the reverse engineered North Korean than a Soviet produced piece of armour, the ammunition remains that of the T-62 with 4 ready rounds and the turret took 21 seconds to rotate a full 360°. due to the poor replications in many of the models the automatic case ejection systems tended to be unaligned and casings would regularly bounce around inside the vehicle instead of being ejected, this among other problems that plagued the tank such as needing to aim the gun 3.5° up to reload the gun and not being able to traverse the turret during reloading would not be traversable. The Chonma-Ho 1B alleviates the armour issue of the 1A to make the tank on par with a T-62 and usually also includes T-62’s into the variant.
The Chonma-Ho 1 would appear alongside the 2 and 3 in parades during the 1990’s in North Korea with a couple appearing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the 1980’s however these may of also just been regular T-62’s however they would eventually engage in the civil war after it sparked up in intensity at the end of the 1980’s and into the beginning of the 1990’s. The first few model would have 470 in total of the batch produced and would mainly be seen in military propaganda videos as additional tanks to showcase the propaganda might of the Hermit Kingdom.
Whilst This tank may be impressive to a nation like North Korea it was very outmatched even at the beginning of it’s production with the development of the K1 88 underway with it’s service starting in 1987 whilst it’s northern neighbour China would be in the midst of their Type 80 tank program eventually leading to the Type 96 whilst North Korea was left in the dark hoping for support it would not receive from the collapsing Soviet Union. Regardless of all that for a country like North Korea that has no access to much of the technology it’s neighbours would recieve the Chonma-Ho’s create an interesting line of desperation filled vehicles aimed to try and make North Korea look like it’s still got a powerful military when in reality it doesn’t.
Later variants of the Chonma-1A resolve to updating the 12.7mm AA machinegun to a 14.5mm KPM machinegun and some are equipped with MANPADS which are Iglas however those are operated by hand and are situated at the back of the turret most likely to be fired from an additional crew member situated on the engine deck.
MANPAD Chonma-1
Specification:
Based on the Chonma-Ho 1B’s (T-62’s)
Dimensions (L-W-H): 6.63m x 3.52m x 2.4m (21’8’’ x 11’5’’ x 7’9’’ ft)
Total Weight: 40 tons (39.2 tons in the Chonma-Ho 1A)
Crew: 4
Propulsion: V-55 12 cylinder diesel engine, 581hp 2000rpm engine.
Transmission: 5 forward 1 reverse
clearance: 0.425
Power to Weight Ratio: 14.53hp/ton (14.82hp/ton for the 1A)
Suspension: Torsion Bar
Top Speed: 50km/h (31 mph)
Main Armament: 115mm U5TS (40 rounds)
Vertical Guidance: -6°/16°
Secondary Armament: 1x 7.62mm PKT (turret coaxial) (2500 rounds)
1x 12.7mm DShK (AA position) (500 rounds) (later the 14.5mm KPM)
optional 1x Igla MANPAD in later a later Chonma-Ho 1 variant
Stabiliser: Two Plane
Night Vision: Active IR, IR Searchlights
Armour: 102mm frontally at 60°, 79mm upper sides, 15mm lower sides, 46mm rear (hull)
214mm frontally, turret, 153mm sides 97mm rear, 40mm roof (Turret)
20mm bottom, 31mm hull roof
For the Chonma-Ho 1A reduce the armour to between 70-90% the thickness of a normal T-62 to replicate the North Korean quality of steel as there is no exact armour evaluation for this model yet due to the secretive nature of North Korean tanks.
Production: roughly 470
Additional Images
Tank Encyclopaedia impliction of the Chonma-Ho 1
Sources:
