South Korea's strategic shift: Domestic upgrade for K2 tanks

On Monday, 28th October, at the 164th meeting of the South Korean Defence Acquisition Programme Promotion Committee (DAPPC), the DAPA agency announced a decision regarding the "fourth plan for applying the transmission to an engine with a power of 1500 HP in the fourth series of K2 tanks".

Interestingly, the production approval was granted conditionally. The SNT Dynamics product did not meet the requirements set by DAPA. The agency required 320 hours of failure-free operation, establishing this value as the threshold for acceptable efficiency of a component so crucial to the tank, one of whose most important features is mobility.

Meanwhile, the best result achieved during testing was 306 hours. However, this is not a disappointing outcome, considering that the transmission, which has been in development for quite some time, used to cause serious problems: in 2016, it failed after just seven hours of operation, and in 2020, after 237 hours.

So where did the DAPA approval originate? The manufacturer and DAPA reached an agreement by identifying the source of the issues. It is known that some unspecified elements of insufficient quality are responsible for the unreliability, so the manufacturer had to commit to implementing more rigorous quality control and other corrective measures.

Interestingly, the K2 is not the first tank equipped with a Korean power pack. That honour goes to the Turkish Altay AMT, unveiled in March 2023 and shortly afterwards delivered to the Turkish army. For this tank, the use of a Korean solution is expected to save the programme, as initially, the tank was to be powered by the so-called EuroPowerPack. However, due to political reasons, Turkey parted ways with Germany, leading to several years of delay in the programme.

The production plan was saved by Korean companies (which also provided technology and engineering support during the Altay programme), allowing for the start of serial production of Altay tanks in Turkey in 2025, provided that test vehicles pass successfully. Initially, they will use the power pack from Korea and later transition to the domestic BMC BATU engine with the same (potentially higher, even 1800 HP) power, and eventually, a completely Turkish BATO Power Group drivetrain. The delay benefited the Turks, as they improved many details in their conservatively designed tank.

The K2 Black Panther tank was developed between 1995 and 2008. Among the ambitious goals from the research, development, and production side was the desire to achieve significantly greater "Koreanisation" of the product than in the older K1 ROKIT. To achieve this, it was deemed necessary to develop and introduce a domestic drivetrain.

According to the plan, the first production series (100 units) was to be equipped with the EuroPowerPack (locally assembled by STX Engine MTU MT883 Ka-501 engine with 1500 HP and RENK HSWL 295 TM automatic transmission), the second series (106 units) was to receive an interim system (the engine was replaced by the Korean HD Hyundai Infracore DV27K with the same power, which succeeded), and the third series (54 units) and subsequent ones were to receive the domestic drivetrain. Technical problems with the new automatic transmission led to delays significant enough that the third series also received the interim solution.

The new transmission is 110 lb heavier than the old one (weighing exactly 2,500 kg), but this does not pose a significant issue. It can work with engines with power from 1500-1700 HP in vehicles weighing up to 65,000 kg. The EST15K provides six forward gears and three reverse gears. The integrated hydrostatic steering mechanism allows for smooth changes in turning radius or tank rotation around its axis.

Furthermore, the power pack also integrates a hydrodynamic retarder and a disc brake system. The complete drivetrain assembly, including auxiliaries (such as the cooling system), weighs slightly over 5,000 kg. According to DAPA, replacing the imported automatic transmission with a domestic one is expected to enhance the safety of the K2 programme and simplify logistics. As seen in Turkey, it is also available for export.