K2 Black Panther – South Korea’s World Leading MBT

K2 Black Panther

The Leopard 2, M1A2 Abrams, Challenger 2 and T-14 Armata are often regarded as the top dogs on today’s lists of current main battle tanks. However, South Korea’s K2 Black Panther certainly deserves a place near the top of these lists.

Designed almost entirely in house by South Korea, the K2 is one of the newest and most advanced main battle tanks (MBT) around today.

An intense development phase saw South Korea investigate and incorporate the best features from foreign designs into a single high performing machine.

The K2 Black Panther outguns even the M1A2 Abrams, but despite its heavyweight punch, it is more than 10 tons lighter than its American counterpart.

Production of the K2 started in 2008 and the tank entered service in 2014. Today, it is South Korea’s most formidable armored vehicle.

History

As with many vehicles, the story of the K2 started long before its development.

After the Korean War the Korean peninsula was split into two; North Korea and South Korea.

The two neighbours signed an armistice in 1953 which brought the fighting to an end, but tensions between the countries remained high. Both North and South Korea heavily invested in their militaries to deal with one another should war break out again.

By the late 1970s North Korea possessed large numbers of powerful Soviet-designed MBTs. Meanwhile, South Korea had smaller numbers of inferior tanks like M47 and M48 Pattons provided by the US.

Constantly fearing a North Korean attack, South Korea attempted to obtain newer foreign designs like the M60 and Leopard 1.

This did not work, so they decided to build a tank themselves.

But they quickly hit a wall: South Korea had never designed an MBT before and lacked the infrastructure and technical knowhow to do so on their own. Therefore, they had to rely on significant foreign help.

They planned to select a foreign design and built it domestically under license. They settled on the XM1 – the M1 Abrams’ prototype – to be the basis for their new tank. After inspecting the design South Korea made many modifications that tuned the tank to their particular needs.

The resulting tank was named the K1 and entered service in 1987. Externally it resembled the Abrams, even being nicknamed the "baby Abrams" by US troops in the country.

We here at TankHistoria love to document, discuss, explain and simply ponder the fascinating history of the tanks and armored fighting vehicles that have clashed on the battlefields and drawing boards over the last 100 years.