IMCh-J Koppulso

IMCh-J Koppulso
Type	Tracked utility vehicle
Place of origin	Menghe
Service history
In service	1997-present
Used by	Menghe
Production history
Designer	Samsan Defense Industries Group
Designed	1995-1999
Produced	1999-present
Variants	numerous (see text)
Specifications (IMCh-J base chassis)
Weight	25.5 tonnes
Length	7.73 m
Width	3.41 m
Height	1.87 m
Crew	1
Armor	welded steel plate
Engine	Samsan KS-773 8-cylinder diesel 656 kW (880 hp)
Power/weight	34.5 hp/t
Suspension	torsion-bar
Ground clearance	36 cm
Operational range	600 km
Speed	65 km/h (road)

The IMCh-J (formal designation: 일반적 무한궤도 차 (중) / 一般的無限軌道車(重), Ilbanjŏk Muhangwedo Cha (Jung), "Universal Tracked Chassis (Heavy)"), better known by its short designation Koppulso (코뿔소, "Rhinoceros"), is a multi-purpose tracked utility chassis designed and manufactured in Menghe. It is used as the basis for a number of rear-area support and indirect-fire vehicles.

Development

The IMCh-J chassis was designed in the 1990s as a competitor for the dedicated chassis planned for the JJP-152/48 self-propelled gun. During evaluations, the Procurement Board of the Ministry of National Defense decided to mount the new turret on the modular chassis, resulting in today's SPG design. The flexible chassis was then re-used for a number of other heavy rear-area vehicles.

Design

The "Koppulso" chassis uses a front-transmission layout, with the driver seated in the front left of the chassis and the engine located to his right. This leaves a roughly 2 × 4.2 meter empty space in the rear hull, and a smaller empty space behind the driver but beside the engine. This layout was originally chosen to support the needs of a self-propelled gun, but it has also proven useful for other utility vehicles with rear-mounted equipment or armament.

The hull is made from welded steel plates, and is armored to withstand 12.7mm armor-piercing ammunition, 155mm shell fragments, light land mines, and small-arms fire. As the chassis is not intended for front-line roles, there are no supplementary armor kits available. Owing to its heavy base armor, and the weight of the additional systems usually installed on top of it, the "Koppulso" is not amphibious, though it can ford a 1.7 meter water obstacle with minimal preparation. Likewise, its power-to-weight ratio declines as additional weapons and systems are added: the base chassis weighs 25.5 tonnes, but the official production brochure claims that final configurations weighing as much as 50 tonnes are supported.

Although some sources describe the IMCh-J as a "modular" vehicle, this term is somewhat misleading. It is better described as a family of vehicles sharing the same basic chassis. The powerplant, transmission, driver's position, and lower hull are shared, but during factory production, each hull is completed to the needs of its finished vehicle. Thus the upper-rear hull, left shaded out on the 3-view diagram above, contains side hatches and a turret ring on some production variants but not others. These upper-rear sections, however, are permanently welded to the rest of the chassis and cannot be removed or switched out in the field. The main benefit of shared construction is the accomplishment of economies of scale in production and the introduction of a common logistics chain for powerplants and suspension parts.

IMCh-J-8

The IMCh-J-8 is a stretched variant used for certain special roles where the base chassis is not long enough. Its hull is extended by 81 centimeters, and an eighth pair of roadwheels is added, hence the "8" in the designation. The powerplant and driver's station remain the same, and the tread segments and wheels are identical.