I’ve been working on documenting all KPAAF aircraft, and decided to make my own updated version of this tree just for fun. Still quite similar to yours @SaabGripen, but with a few new additions and changes, mostly on the North Korean side of things.
I’m not 100% happy with it yet — the lack of planes at Rank III is annoying, and I don’t personally like the idea of the ground tree starting at Rank IV instead. Should also be noted BRs are not perfect, particularly regarding South Korean aircraft like the KA-1 and FA-50; I wasn’t too sure where to put them. There are also a few speculative aircraft, like the upgraded MiG-29, the domestic Il-10, and the FA-50 Block 70 (which I don’t believe has AMRAAMs integrated yet).
Interested to see the An-2 modification, the CJ-6 modification, the Il-10 modification. Also I hope some of the obscure domestic NK prop fighters are added to that list as well.
Also did the DPRK use other aircraft of Japanese origin that was left behind after the Surrender and/or inherited from either the PRC or the USSR
Only other domestic option is the bomber trainer, but that would for sure also be at around 1.0. There’s also the modified MiG-15UTI, but I’m not sure whether it was one of the armed versions.
Yes and no. They inherited Ki-9s and Ki-55s, but both are unarmed trainers. They also repaired a Ki-43-II, but it was never made airworthy (I added it as a premium, but it’s likely it won’t get added for that reason). No others that I know of, unfortunately.
They were fitted with two underwing hardpoints for either the Chinese Yu-2 torpedo or the domestic Kŭmsŏng-3 AShM. One some of them, the rear gunner station was also removed. This seems to have also been applied to Il-28s as well.
Any chance you might have another image of the right side CJ-6? Thing is China did modified at least 10 CJ-6 to the model B that was armed and had a slightly better engine(300 HP vs regular 260 HP), that image seems to at least match with the description of the pylons and small bombs(25 kg) and well who knows maybe china could have just gave some of them to NK consdiering their relationship
I don’t, unfortunately. I’ll keep looking. It’s entirely possible, although the Yak-18, Yak-18A, and CJ-5 were all domestically fitted with hardpoints, so makes sense the CJ-6’s were as well.
Tangentially related, the hardpoints added to the Il-10 / H-5 appear very similar to the domestic Chinese modification, and I can’t help but wonder if those were imported directly.
It’s a licensed variant, but there are slight differences. Even if they are technically identical, it’s important to distinguish which country they were acquired from.
Here’s an H-5, for example. You can distinguish it from the Il-28 by the lack of the central bracing on the cockpit canopy. There are also a few shots of the rear of the aircraft, which show the different tail gunner positions.
Edit: Here are some bad quality images from the footage of a modified H-5 (with the underwing hardpoints) taking off. You can just about make out that it’s an H-5 from the tail gunner position. I’ve also attached an image showing the differences between the H-5 and Il-28 in KPAAF service from The Armed Forces of North Korea (2020).
There is a cannon on the right side from the pilot’s perspective. (On the H-5, the right cannon was removed, except for the early models.)
According to Chinese source(魏钢, 陈应明, 张维. (2011). 中国飞机全书 (Vol. 3). 航空工业出版社.), the first export of the H-5 was to Albania in 1971. (Given the timing, it likely wouldn’t have been an early model of the H-5.)
ROK Navy also operated S-2E Trackers though I didn’t posted it here since there’s no images of Korean Trackers with it’s armament loadout and if it did it would be identical to every other Nation’s Tracker that isn’t Canada’s
Don’t worry, Gaijin won’t forget any of the unique vehicles. And so that it’s easier to find them on the screen, they’ll all be in the two rightmost columns of the tree with specially colored tiles
Would have to do some more research but there is some information that North Korea has aircraft dropped nukes so this tree would be great for nuke mode.
Overall the Koreas have lots of options for Air and Ground let alone the future of Infantry mode. There is also the options of sub trees (Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam - North, South & Current). I hope Gaijin does not let this opportunity slide away but I see the strength of a United Korea tree will be in infantry supplemented by ground and air.
Hopefully we get more Korean maps like the DMZ during the small Korean war and or a Pyongyang map.
