Doosan Infracore (www.doosaninfracore.com) announced on October 30 that it had signed a contract worth KRW 457.8 billion with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration to supply the first batch of its K21 armored vehicles for infantry, which boast the world’s best combat capability. Under the deal, the Company is set to produce the vehicles with homegrown technology and start deploying them from 2009.

The K21 military armored vehicles, which will be mass produced to reinforce the combat capability of Korea’s armed forces, are designed to accommodate three crew members plus the members of an entire platoon of armored infantry. Weighing in at 26 tons, the K21 can travel at speeds of up to 70 km h on land and 7 km h on water.

Notably, the K21 comes with a 40-mm automatic cannon and a 7.62 mm machine gun. It will also be equipped with a third generation Korean-made tank-to-tank missile in the future, which will allow it to attack tanks and helicopters, giving it an attack capability comparable that of a tank. As such, the vehicle is regarded as perhaps the very best armored combat vehicle of its kind for the 21st century in the world.

The vehicle also comes with precision leveling equipment and a shooting controller that allow for day and nighttime surveillance as well as for high-precision target shooting on the move. It also features an alarm and a system designed to recognize and distinguish between friendly and hostile forces, and detect and warn against enemy threats, thereby enhancing the protection of its operators. The vehicle also boasts the capacity to conduct Network Centric Warfare (NCW), as it is equipped with digital command and communication systems that allow it to share battleground information with friendly forces’ attack vehicles when operated in conjunction with the C41 system for land-based tactics.

Currently, the M2A3 of the United States and the BMP-3 of Russia are considered the world’s strongest armored vehicles. The K21, however, has been assessed as capable of outperforming its rivals in terms of attack capacity, the probability of its crew’s survival, and its capacity in battleground management and mobility.

Um Hang-seok, head of Doosan Infracore’s Defense BG, said, “The K21 is far superior in performance to other equipment of its kind produced in advanced countries, and is competitive in terms of price. As such, we plan to actively seek its export to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.”

Doosan Infracore has secured a stable demand base for its production, as it has acquired a backlog of orders for its defense equipment since securing the KRW 1.7 trillion supply contract for the K21, on top of a supply contract for a second batch of 30-mm, mobile surface-to-air cannons secured in late 2006.

Meanwhile, in order to develop the K21, eleven defense equipment suppliers in Korea, including the Agency for Defense Development and Doosan Infracore, participated in efforts to develop the K21, produced three model products in early 2005, and conducted a technological and operational evaluation, before winning approval for their capacity as a major item of defense equipment and making their public debut.



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[Specifications of the K21 armored military vehicle for infantry forces]
- Crew: 12 (three crewmen, nine members of an infantry platoon)
- Engine performance: 750hp
- Top speed: 70km/h
- Cruising range: 450km
- Ammunition: 40mm automatic cannon, 7.62mm machine gun