The Korean Folks’s Army has unveiled a brand new kind of primary battle tank, the Chonma 20, which was first seen in Kim Il Sung Sq. at a navy parade marking the eightieth anniversary of the ruling Korean Employees’ Celebration. The tank represents an additional enchancment on the Chonma 2 design that was first unveiled in October 2020, and follows the disclosing of the earlier iteration of the design, the Tianma 2, in November 2024. Reporting on the capabilities of the brand new automobile, the state run Korean Central News Company reported: “mechanised items demonstrated the trendy primary battle tank Chonma 20, which has highly effective strike functionality and a dependable safety system.” The report highlighted that the tank benefited from improved survivability and firepower, symbolising progress within the defence sector’s armoured automobile design capabilities.
Notable variations between the Chonma 20 and the older Chonma 2 and Tianma 2 embody a redesigned driver’s hatch, the combination of a brand new turret-mounted remotely managed anti-aircraft gun, a modified turret armour structure, and most notably the combination of a brand new energetic safety system offering a defence towards guided missile and probably drone assaults. Some of the vital advances over the unique Chonma 2 achieved by the Tianma 2, and inherited by the brand new design, is the combination of an autoloader to facilitate an elevated fee of fireside and decreased crew necessities from 4 to a few, offering a bonus over American and German tanks which nonetheless depend on guide loading. North Korea’s energetic safety system was first seen in use in footage launched in July 2023, and makes use of radars to constantly monitor their surrounding environments for incoming threats, and when detecting incoming projectiles observe them robotically, calculate their trajectories, and deploy protecting munitions to intercept and destroy them.
In Might 2025 North Korean state media unveiled a big scale new tank manufacturing facility, at which era chairman of the Korean Employees’ Celebration Kim Jong Un confused that changing the Korean Folks’s Army’s armoured autos of the final century with the most recent fashions had change into a main activity of constructing the armed forces. The chairman expressed satisfaction that the brand new tank design and hearth controls had been up to date, bettering the consolation of the tank crew. The trade had additionally demonstrated the excessive efficiency and reliability of its “tremendous excessive energy” engine venture permitting or mass manufacturing, with the chairman highlighting the event of an built-in energy transmission system that may enhance the driving efficiency and varied mobility efficiency. The place earlier than the yr 2020, the Korean Folks’s Army was identified solely to discipline enhanced license produced derivatives of the Soviet T-62 in its elite items, the disclosing of the Chonma 2 represented a significant milestone in North Korean tank design representing the nation’s first that may very well be thought-about doubtlessly absolutely on par with its most succesful abroad rivals.
It stays unsure whether or not full scale manufacturing on the new tank manufacturing facility is targeted on the brand new Chonma 20, or on the Tianma 2, and when the newer tank could also be meant to totally substitute its predecessor in manufacturing. Expanded manufacturing won’t solely permit for a extra fast phasing out of Chilly Warfare period autos, which contemplating their age will present a revolutionary enchancment to the Army’s capabilities, but it surely might additionally permit for fast exports at a time of excessive demand globally for superior primary battle tanks. In August the pinnacle of Ukrainian navy intelligence Lieutenant Common Kyrylo Budanov claimed that preparations had been underway to dispatch Chonma 2 tanks and different superior armour to help the Russian battle effort within the Ukrainian theatre, elevating questions concerning whether or not exports to equip the Russian Army had been anticipated.
