Korean Army Thread

[av8rmongo]

Does anyone know if the South Koreans still field the M-48 tanks series?

Paul

[RoughRIder]

Paul,

Here is all that i have found on the web about the M48 Patton.

The M48 has seen and still sees a widespread use in foreign service. The first users being allied NATO countries. Major users were Belgium, Germany, Greece, Norway, Spain and Turkey. Other important foreign users are Israel, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Taiwan and Korea.
The German M48A2/C were upgraded to M48A2GA2 standard by Wegmann. This already included a new 105mm main gun and replacement of the M1 CWS. The german M48 also featured a unique rear turret stowage box and the german made smoke grenade launcher system. All of these have been phased out of service or sold to other NATO partners by the mid 1990’s.
Greece and Turkey have upgraded their fleets into M48A5. The Greek Army has added the EMES-18 FCS to their M48A5, denumerating them as “MOLFâ€￾ for Modular Laser Fire Control System.
The Jordanian M48 and M48A1 saw action against the IDF in the six-day war in 1967 where they were highly regarded by their opponents.
The IDF used and still uses the M48, nowadays heavily upgraded and only a far cry from the original. Israeli M48 were first used in 1967 in the Suez areas, they were M48A2, partly received from german stock but after a political outcry in Germany over this arms sale the IDF received M48 directly from US stock.
The IDF story of the Pattons’ is another story to be discussed separately.
A main modification by the IDF included the L7 105mm gun and new Urdan CWS as first steps on the Mag’ach way.
Pakistan used its M48 against India in 1965 alongside their M47 with similar results.
The spanish M48 and M48A1 were upgraded in the 1980’s to M48E standard including the AVDS-1790 diesel power plant and fire control upgrades.
The taiwanese M48 were upgraded to M48H standard by 1995, this included the mating of M60 hull to M48 turret and subsequent upgunning to 105mm plus other fire control upgrades, this is locally named CM-11. The CM-12 on the other hand is the Taiwanese amalgamation of CM-11 turret and M48A3 hulls.
South Korea was and still is a major user of the M48; it received M48, M48A1, A2C and A3 upgraded to M48A5 standard. The latest version is the M48ROK, this includes as most prominent feature side skirts and new fire controls plus a new CWS similar to the M48A5 Urdan style cuppola.

Doug

[Steel Arrows]

ROK M48s are now reserve status and is being replaced by K-1 or K1A1 series MBTs. Non of the M48s have been upgrade to any new armor packages. Still the engines are Detroit Desiels. Fire control are computer assisted but not up to M1 or K1 standards. US Army presenses in Korea are the heavy hitters on the block. M1A1s to A2s and M3A3s along with M113A3s. The ROKs have their version of the M113s which are AIFVs(YPR765) with .50 cals. The new ROK AIFVs have still yet to enter full production. This is their version of the US M2A3s armed with 30mm ACs and bi-lateral TOW ATGWs mounts.

[SD Smack]

AV8

I can tell you that the ROK Army still uses M48s. Not sure about specifics but what the ones that I have seen have been the 90mm versions.

Hope this helps.

Steve-o

[Gort]

AV8


M48A3K photographed on exercise earlier this year.

At the Prime Portal site are pics of the M48A5K with side skirts and the 105mm gun. About a year ago I saw some pics of last years exercises and some of the pics showed an M48A3K (A3K2?) on which the baffled muzzle brake on the 90mm had been replaced with a pepper pot style. According to the ongoing discussion this enabled the use of sabot ammo.

regards

Steve

[Ben]

Hi Paul,

I just found this old topic via google. You might be interested in the following little "book":

http://www.tankograd.com/cms/website.ph ... A-7009.htm

In my opinion it is a pretty nice overview.

Kind regards,
Ben