Tankopedia
Late Cold WarMBTMain Battle TankSouth Korea

K1 (Type 88)

In service 1987 - In service

South Korea's first domestically produced main battle tank, designed with American help and fitted with hybrid suspension for firing positions in Korea's hills.

Built byHyundai Precision, with design support from Chrysler Defense

K1 (Type 88)
K1 in a Republic of Korea Army field training exercise, 2013 — Republic of Korea Armed Forces, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Development history

South Korea needed a tank suited to its own steep, compartmented terrain and to its own industrial base. Chrysler Defense, fresh from the M1 Abrams, supported the design, and the K1 shares Abrams styling and composite armour philosophy while being smaller, lighter and diesel-powered. Its hybrid suspension - hydropneumatic units on the outer road wheels, torsion bars in the middle - lets the hull kneel and tilt for hull-down positions and steep-angle fire, much like the Japanese Type 74. Hyundai built roughly 1,000 from 1987. The K1A1 from 1999 upgraded to a 120 mm smoothbore and improved fire control, and the design led on to the much heavier K2 Black Panther.

Variants

One canonical record, 3 recorded variants.

  1. K1

    1987

    Base version with 105 mm rifled gun and hybrid suspension.

  2. K1A1

    1999

    German-designed 120 mm smoothbore, new ballistic computer and gunner sight.

  3. K1 ARV / AVLB

    1990s

    Recovery and bridge-laying versions on the K1 chassis.

Notable actions

  • Cold War service (Republic of Korea Army)