North Korea OOB

[Marcello]

In light of the recent Korean tensions I have taken a look again at the north Korean OOB and drawn a list of possible changes. Here are the first ones.

Formations 111-112 SP-Rocket Bty and SP-Rocket Pl
Initial availability date should changed to 1/1953 or 1/1954 (more likely). The BM-13s were not in north korean inventory at the beginning of the war.

Unit 286 Strela-10M from the russian oob could be imported with related formations. SA-13s have been paraded by North Korea in 2012.



Unit 108 VTT 323 w/ MRL
1)Icon could be changed to n. 398
2)Twin 14.5 in slot 4 should be replaced with weapon n. 47 14.5 ZPU-1 AAMG
3)Armor should be uniformed to the basic of the VTT-323.
4)Speed should be reduced to 21 or less.
The MRL variants of the VTT-323 lacks a turret. Speed is usually listed as 60 or 65 kph






Unit 271 M1993 SPM
Armor should be reduced to the same values of the standard VTT-323.
It appears to be VTT-323 fitted with a turret mounted breech loaded mortar.

[DRG]

The first photos not showing

[AMX]

Does this work?

[DRG]

That works...

BTW there are two different rocket systems shown in the photos in the first post about the VTT 323 w/ MRL


Don

[Marcello]

I included the latter because it seems it is actually closer to icon n. 398 and thus a possible alternative if it is deemed worthwhile.

[Marcello]

Units 42-43 VTT SPAAGs
1)Vision should be reduced to zero.
2)Unit 43 could have its speed increased, say 20 land and 2 water.
They do not appear to be fitted with night vision equipment. Besides comparable vehicles such as ZSU-57 etc don’t have it either as tank style IR searchlights/sights would be of no use against aircrafts. I would suspect that at least the version with the quad 14.5mm should be amphibious.




Unit 5 Type 82 and unit 589 M-1985
1)Armor reduced to 3 front, 2 side and rear and 1 top, both hull and turret.
2) Unit 589 should be given a water speed of 3
3)HE ammunition increased with AP/HEAT reduced.
They are the same vehicle, or variants of the same at any rate, which is variously referred to as PT-85, Type 82 and M-1985 in the literature. Some suggest suggest it may be related to the Type 11 APC and if a dedicated icon is deemed worthwhile it could be based on its hull. High turret armor seems a carryover from the Chinese type 63 (which too might be a bit too high, but this would be for a separate discussion) light amphibious tank but the north korean design is home grown, with a welded turret.


A light tank company should be added. Availability date could be 1/1966-12/2020.
Structure would be a command tank and three formations 141 Light Tank Pl

Formation 243 Heavy Wpns Co
Mortar platoon in slot 4 should be replaced by formation n. 114 Hvy Mortar Pl

[Marcello]

I have to add in regards to the SA-13 is that while they have appeared only recently I would suspect they were purchased in the late 80’s together with the various Mig-29s, SU-25s etc.

Unit 60 BTR-80
1)Name changed to BTR-80A
2)Armament in slot 1 changed to weapon n. 76 30mm 2A42 A/C. Ammo load changed to 20 HE 10 sabot.
3) FC might have to be increased. BTR-80A in the Russian OOB uses 15, I don’t know if that much is warranted though, 1PZ series sights seem relatively plain affairs.
The BTR-80s purchased were A models with the 30mm gun, as listed by SIPRI and confirmed by visual evidence.



Unit 984 UAZ Faktoriat from OOB 11 Russia should be added
1)Availability date 1/1988-12/2020
2)Armament weapon n. 151 9M111 Fagot



Unit 54 VTT 323 25mm
It could be given an X3 radio code. It seems to be a chinese variant and not listed or shown among the ones in north korean inventory. The KPA seems satisfied with the twin 14.5mm for even the newer designs.

Units 52-53-106-107-108-272-273 VTT-323
Land speed might be reduced to 21. Speed is usually listed as 60-65 km/h. Even if the north koreans squeezed in a few extra hp over the original YW531 they stretched the chassis and added a turret, as the chinese did with the B-531, so it is unlikely to be faster.

Unit 9 T-55 from the Russian OOB could be imported
Availability date 1/1967-12/2020
The north Koreans seem to have still in service the baseline T-55 model.

[Marcello]

Unit 65 Type 11 APC
1)It should have some basic night vision capabilities, say 15 or 20.
2)Weapon n. 63 7.62mm PKT CMG could be added in slot 2
IR projector is fitted and it appears also that a coax MG is present.


(the close up is actually of the locally produced BTR lookalike but the turret is basically the same mounted on the type 11)

Unit 460 SU-76
Ammunition could be changed to something like 48 HE and 12 AP

Unit 402-412-422 DShK HMG
Unit 90-171-650 76mm Zis-3
Unit 91-170 122mm M30 FG
Unit 637 37mm AA-Gun
Unit 3 PT-76B
Unit 42 VTT 37mm SPAAG
Final availability date extended to 12/2020
It is quite apparent from the footage of parades and exercises I have seen recently that the KPA seldom retires anything.
Zis-3 guns have been paraded around together with the M30s and have also reportedly been used during the bombardment of Yeonpyeong.



Weapon n. 155 Susang Po ATGM
HEAT penetration increased to 52 or at least 46
It is reported to be a local Sagger copy, thus penetration could be increased to at least the basic level.

Unit 293 Susang Po Team
A RPG-7 could be added in slot 4 for good measure, given the significant minimum range.

To be added
A formation with four trucks
It would make things more handy with the four gun batteries

[Marcello]

Self propelled artillery
Sorting out north korean self propelled tube artillery is a difficult task. Broadly speaking it seems that north Korean self propelled artillery development has taken such forms.
1)Towed guns of various types mounted on the rear of the standard ATS-59 tractor


Source: Jedsite

2) Assorted guns mounted on an armored chassis based on ATS-59 in open topped mounts without full traverse.


3) Assorted guns (but on the lighter side, such as D-30s and antitank pieces) mounted on a VTT-323 APC derived chassis, in open topped mounts without full traverse.


4) Assorted guns mounted in a fully enclosed, turret equipped SPA.


5)In addition to this some miscellaneous types, such as the 170mm Koksan, the 120mm turret mortar etc.

The last three categories are decently represented as it is. The first two might require some changes. It is not easy as the designations are generally given for year and caliber but often they are not clear about which model of gun is fitted to which chassis. On the basis of Bermudez and other sources I would suggest the following changes.

Unit 281 M1974, unit 283 M1991 and unit 466 M1985 would be deleted

Unit 465 M1975 SPG
1)Icon changed to n. 2346 or a dedicated icon
2)Speed reduced to 13
3)Ammunition could be reduced, say by half or more.
This would be the basic non armored ATS-59 based version. Being apparently an ad hoc installation probably not much space for on board ammo is available.

A clone of the above unit 465 added with the following changes
Name changed to M1974
Rearmed with weapon n. 111 152mm D-20 FH. ROF and ammo load changed as needed

A dedicated icon for the armored version of the ATS-59 based chassis might be worthwhile.
Armament would be in three variants
M1981 with a D-74 122mm gun
M1981 with a 130mm gun
M1985 with a D-20 152mm gun

The closest to a top view I could get.


I would suggest low armor values, maybe 2 for the hull front, 0 on top and 1 elsewhere. Speed could be set to 15. Availability dates could be set at about the nominal year or so. Ammunition load same or slightly higher than the non armored variant, still less than the fully enclosed Chuch'e-Po

Formation 75 SP-Mortar Bty
Number of units increased to 9

A SP-Mortar Pl could be added with three vehicles

A clone of formation 245 Mech Bn Spt could be added with the following changes
1)Mot Mortar Pl in slot 5 replaced by formation n.75 SP-Mortar Bty
2)Wheeled ATGM Pl in slot 6 replaced by formation 60 Tracked ATGM Pl.
3)Availability date 1/1985-12/2020
To account for the availability of VTT-323 based variants.

[sabresandy]

Relatively minor addition: add in a MD-500 variant armed with Susang Po missiles. They were publicly displayed on parade a few months ago. Doesn't seem to have showed up in the other threads regarding helicopters and the like yet.

Also, strangely enough, the current NK orbat doesn't seem to include MiG-29s, even though NK is confirmed to have them.