The war between Russia and Ukraine offers new opportunities for the North Korean tank industry – The Diplomat

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea on June 19, there has been much speculation about the possible future of relations between the two neighboring countries, particularly the possibility of North Korean labor and arms exports to Russia and the supply of Russian nuclear, space and defense technologies and goods in return.

While White House sources reported that Russia Operation Since North Korea has ballistic missile and rocket artillery systems and has received significant quantities of artillery ammunition, an often overlooked possibility is that Russia could seek to acquire North Korean main battle tanks to equip its front-line troops.

Russian tank procurement was very conservative before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and while over 500 Soviet T-72 tanks and a smaller number of T-80 deeply modernized In the 2010s, only 10 newly built tanks, T-90M, were purchased – an average of one tank per year.

Russia faced a significant shortage of main battle tanks from mid- to late 2022 as the country expanded its ground forces, while its tanks suffered significant losses, especially in the early months of the war. acquired T-72 tanks from Belarusian stocks for refurbishment for front-line use, and the subsequent confirmation that she brought long-decommissioned T-62 and then T-55, from memory for use in combat operations, provided further evidence of significant bottlenecks.

While Russia’s loss rates have declined significantly, with the summer of 2023 in particular marking a turning point in the ground campaign in its favour, there have also been signs that efforts to increase tank production have not exactly been successful. While the Soviet Union managed to produce around 4,000 T-72 and T-80 tanks annually in peacetime, with a significant increase in capacity possible in wartime, Russia is believed to battle Due to the severe decline of the post-Soviet industry, the number of tanks increased to around 200.

Russia’s tank shortage could potentially offer North Korea a great opportunity to become a tank supplier to Russia. North Korea has in the past exported domestically produced tanks to Ethiopia and Iran and supplied modernization packages, including laser rangefinders, to expand Soviet-designed tanks were more frequently used abroad.

Available information about North Korea’s newest battle tank, the Chonma 2, suggests that it is more powerful than most tanks in Russian service, with a modern battle management system, thermal imaging sights, a hard-kill active protection system, and access to armor-piercing wing-stabilized sabot projectiles (APFSDS) with an excellent length-to-diameter ratio that suggests very high penetration power. (Unveiled in 2020, the tank was previously referred to as the “M2020” in the West before its actual designation was confirmed in May.)

While the integration of an entirely new foreign tank class could create complications for the Russian ground forces and, perhaps most importantly, would mean a major loss of face for the Russian tank industry, the possibility of Russia acquiring older classes of North Korean tanks based on Soviet designs is even more significant.

Although North Korea currently produces the Chonma 2 main battle tank for domestic use and has been producing the Chonma-215/216 since the late 1990s, the country still relies heavily on derivatives of the Soviet T-62 produced locally under license as the Chonma’s base tank. The Chonma is the first of three generations of indigenously produced North Korean tanks and closely resembles the original T-62. Since North Korea is estimated to own over 1,200 examples, exporting it could allow Russia to significantly increase its fleet of T-62 tanks.

These vehicles could be refurbished and modernised in North Korea, with technological advances in the Chonma-2 programme demonstrating that local industry is capable of equipping tanks with thermal imaging and other modern fire control systems, explosive reactive armour and active protection systems, and highly effective ammunition. A modernisation package could be tailored to Russia’s requirements depending on the required delivery speed and cost, and would be implemented in parallel with the Overhaul of T-62 from storage in Russia with subsystems such as thermal imaging devices to prepare them for use at the front. As the role of the T-62 in the Russian army has continued to grow, new generations of upgrades continuing appearthis possibility seems all the more significant.

With Russia having scrapped its T-62 tanks on a large scale following the collapse of the Soviet Union – as well as the T-64 tanks, T-55 tanks and other tank classes built before the T-72 – the continued widespread use of this class of tank in North Korea provides a valuable opportunity for further acquisitions. Funds from the sale of used T-62 tanks could help cover the cost of acquiring the Chonma 2, although the new tank will likely be several times more expensive to produce due to its highly advanced features. Such exports could also provide Russia with an incentive to make technology transfers in tank warfare to North Korea, as this could directly improve the capabilities of its own army’s front-line units.

The return of the T-62 to the front lines of the Russian army also raises the possibility that North Korea could be relied upon as a supplier of 115mm smoothbore shells, which are not used by any other Russian tank class and therefore may not remain in stock in significant numbers after most of the T-62 fleet is scrapped.

While it was previously expected that the Chonma and Chonma-215/216 would offset their significant performance advantages over state-of-the-art enemy armor with their greater suitability for mountain warfare, the Chonma 2 represents the first North Korean tank class that appears to be truly internationally competitive at a high level. This reflects broader trends aimed at the North Korean defense sector reaching a level of excellence not otherwise seen in areas such as Hypersonic glide missile long-term Surface-to-air missile systems.

Western sources have already widely warned that North Korea’s arms exports to Russia could seriously undermine the sanctions regime and set a precedent for other countries to more openly import weapons from the country. detour of the T-90 tanks produced for export to the armed forces opens the possibility for major North Korean tank exports to the Third World, particularly Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps more significantly, however, North Korea’s position as the only major tank producer outside the Western sphere of influence, other than China and Russia, puts its industry in a strong position to exploit Russian shortages and potentially make the largest tank exports in the country’s history.