BSCh-10

The BSCh-10 is a type of eight-wheeled armoured fighting vehicle developed in Menghe by the state-owned Menggang Defense Industries Corporation (MDIC). It is also known by the manufacturer's designation, which is MG-153 for the basic APC variant. The BSCh-10 designation and its sub-letters are only applied to vehicles authorized for purchase by the General-Directorate for Procurement at the Menghean Ministry of National Defense, and many export models and prototypes not purchased by the Menghean Armed Forces lack a BSCh-derived designation.

It has both armored personnel carrier and infantry fighting vehicle configurations, with the latter sporting a manned turret with a 30mm or 35mm gun. Other major variants include a 120mm mortar carrier, a 120mm gun-mortar, a 107mm gun carrier, a 150mm self-propelled howitzer, a 23mm rotary anti-air gun, a 55mm anti-air gun, and various command and signal vehicles. Most variants are fully amphibious and have a high road speed, giving the BSCh-10 good mobility, though in terms of profile and protection it is still inferior to the BSCh-8.

Development

MDIC began work on a modular wheeled APC concept in 2001, at a time when Menghe was pivoting toward expeditionary warfare. The Menghean Army initially expressed only limited interest in the concept, regarding the new BSCh-7 as an adequate solution. MDIC nevertheless persisted with the design, hoping to win export customers in the large market for wheeled APCs and perhaps win domestic orders in the long run. Engineers at MDIC produced a series of design concepts in 2003, most of them focused around a family of semi-modular vehicles on a common 8×8 chassis.

This long-run strategy quickly paid off. During the 2005 Menghean military reforms, the Menghean Army identified a number of shortcomings with the BSCh-7. Its unorthodox separation of the crew and passenger compartments, while rational on the BSCh-7G, turned into a liability on the BSCh-7N, which seated the gunner in the rear compartment and the 11th passenger in the forward compartment. The BSCh-7's armor was also thoroughly inadequate: it was designed to withstand 12.7mm fire, but many Maverican APCs and recon vehicles carried the 14.5mm KPV heavy machine gun, and the BSCh-7's windscreen cover design did not permit the installation of applique armor. Now backed by more generous funding from the Menghean Ministry of National Defense, MDIC produced its first prototype in 2011 and conducted trials the following year.

Apart from requiring protection against 14.5mm fire, a 12.7mm main armament, a single crew and passenger compartment, and mobility no worse than that of the BSCh-7, the MoND did not impose many specific restrictions on the design of the new APC. To balance its options, MDIC developed three initial armament configurations, which bore the Menggang internal designations MG-151, MG-152, and MG-153. The MG-151 is the cheapest of the three, with a manually aimed 12.7mm HMG on a pintle mount attached to a rotating cupola without periscopes. The MG-151G, an improved model, adds an armor shield with three bulletproof glass plates around the gunner's cupola. While this cupola offers some additional protection, it can only withstand small-arms fire and shrapnel, not 14.5mm fire, against which the rest of the vehicle is armored. It also has poor visibility: without opening the hatch, the gunner has no way of looking outside the vehicle, and the commander has a 90-degree blind spot to his left.

The MG-152 is nearly identical in layout to the MG-151, except that it seats the gunner under a rotating cupola similar to the type used on late-model JCh-5 and early-model JCh-6 main battle tanks. The main difference in the MG-152 is that the gunner's seat was suspended from the rotating cupola, allowing the gunner to rotate easily through 360 degrees without having to turn his torso. This has the disadvantage of leaving less internal storage space in the hull, as there must be space for the gunner's feet to move freely with the turning seat. As on the JCh-5 and JCh-6, the gunner can traverse, elevate, aim, and fire from below armor by using a periscope and thumb stick, or stand on the seat and control the machine gun using two hand cranks and the iron sights or anti-aircraft sight. The gunner also has very good visibility from below armor, with six auxiliary periscopes around the cupola, which is raised to see over the commander's periscopes to the right.

The MG-153 was designed as a higher-end option. Instead of a manually aimed machine gun, it has a mounting point for a remote weapon station centered on the hull. The gunner and commander sit in fixed seats under a revised set of periscopes, and also have thicker overhead hatches. Visibility is slightly inferior compared to the MG-152, with the gunner and commander each having a 135-degree blind spot to the right rear and left rear, respectively, but this is still much better than visibility on the BSCh-4 and BSCh-7. RWS turrets with infrared imaging optics also give the MG-153 the best long-range night vision, and allow the commander to take control of the RWS and its optic with a redundant multifunction display.

After ruling out the MG-151, the Menghean Army conducted a lengthy evaluation of the MG-152 and MG-153. More conservative officers favored the MG-152, which was slightly cheaper and used proven technology, while reformers favored the growth potential of the MG-153's modular RWS pedestal. Conservative Menghean Army officers had long been skeptical of remote weapon stations, most of which offer no way to manually aim the weapon or clear a jam if the optics or motors are damaged. In response, MDIC developed an in-house RWS with manual backup controls and adjusted its position so that it could be fired from the rear hatches. The Innominadan Crisis created further delays, as the Menghean Army launched an analysis of the fighting in 2014-2015 and compiled preliminary lessons on vehicle design, among other things. With a firm promise of large orders for either type, MDIC began work on a new production line at Hwasŏng in 2013 to build the common 8×8 chassis serving both types, leaving the roof plate manufacturing equipment for last.

In early 2016, the Menghean Ministry of National Defense finally selected a slightly modified version of the MG-153 for mass production, giving it the standard Army designation BSCh-10G. There are a few minor differences between the BSCh-10G and the MG-153, including the installation of a reversible center periscope which can give either the gunner or the commander a view to the direct left or right. With factory tooling already nearly complete, the first production vehicles were delivered at the end of the year. MDIC subsequently began retooling the other two production lines at Hwasŏng to put the BSCh-10G into wider production.

Description (BSCh-10G)

Layout

All vehicles in the MG-150 family share the same general layout, with a single fighting compartment for all crew and passengers rather than the separate forward and rear compartments on the BSCh-7. The driver sits in the front left corner of the hull, with the powerplant to his front and right, separated from the rest of the vehicle by a steel bulkhead. The driver's hatch has three periscopes which collectively offer a 90-degree field of view forward, and the driver can also open the hatch partway to get a wider field of view while shielding himself from the sun or rain.

Behind the driver, in the full-width compartment, are fixed side-by-side seats for the gunner and vehicle commander. In the Menghean Army, the vehicle commander seat is typically occupied by the squad leader while the squad is mounted. When the squad dismounts, the platoon LT takes the squad leader's place in the lead vehicle. The vehicle commander has six periscopes covering all directions except a 120-degree arc to the left and left-rear, while the gunner has five periscopes with a 180-degree blind spot to the right rear. There is also a raised reversible periscope in the center which allows either the gunner or the commander to look directly to the left or right. Collectively, the two seats' periscopes offer full 360-degree coverage. In addition, both seats have armored overhead hatches which allow the gunner and vehicle commander to survey the terrain or quickly bail out.

The passenger compartment is located just behind these two seats. It has ten inward-facing seats, all of them mounted to the sides of the vehicle instead of the floor, which offers a limited degree of protection against mines and IEDs. The seats also have padded wraparound headrests for further jolt protection. The space behind the seats in the hull sponsons can be used to store backpacks, rations, heavy weapons, or other equipment.

The main exit route for all passengers and crew is through a ramp in the rear of the hull. This ramp is powered by hydraulic arms inside the vehicle, and it can either lower all the way to the ground for easy stationary disembarking or lock in place 10 degrees below horizontal so that its end is just above the vehicle's ground clearance. This allows the passengers to easily disembark while the vehicle is slowly moving, an important requirement in the Menghean Army's mobile doctrine. In the event that the ramp is damaged or disabled, the passengers can also exit through a single hinged door in its center. Four large overhead hatches, each large enough to hold two standing soldiers, allow the passengers to fire over the sides while the vehicle is moving, exit if the ramp and door are both unusable, or simply vent fresh air through the passenger compartment.

Armament

The sole armament of the BSCh-10G is a 12.7mm GCh-75 heavy machine gun in a remote mount behind the gunner's cupola. The RWS used on the BSCh-10G was designed by MDIC for the express purpose of servinc the BSCh-10, and it can be fitted with either a 12.7mm GCh-75 or a 7.5mm GCh-96 or GCh-77. It can elevate to +80 degrees or depress to -20 degrees, and is fully stabilized in the horizontal and vertical axes. An optical control unit with an infrared imaging camera, and a small laser rangefinder sits between the supports linking the trunnion to the base, and these supports are expanded and thickened to protect the optical unit against shrapnel and rifle fire from the sides. A box on the left side of the mount holds 200 rounds of 12.7×108mm ammunition, and a small bag on the right side of the receiver catches spent belt links and cartridges. Normally, the gunner controls the RWS through a multifunction display with a thumb joystick, but the vehicle commander has an identical control unit as well, allowing him or her to survey the battlefield through the infrared optic or even fire the weapon.

An unusual feature of the MDIC RWS is that it features two external handles with manual triggers. If the optical unit or motor drive is damaged, the gunner can move to the passenger compartment, open the front left hatch, stand on the seat underneath it, disengage the vertical and horizontal drives, and manually aim and fire the 12.7mm HMG as if it were on a pintle mount. Firing from the rear hatch allows the gunner to traverse the weapon through a roughly 90-degree arc forward, and firing from the gunner's own hatch allows the gunner to traverse the weapon through a roughly 60-degree arc to the rear. It is even possible to cover the other arcs by crouching on the vehicle's roof, though this leaves the gunner totally exposed.

To allow for the mounting of applique armor, the BSCh-10G has no firing ports on either side. To perform a mounted assault, eight passengers would stand on their seats with their torsos through the roof hatches and fire freely over the sides. There is a single firing port and glass vision slot on the rear door, which allows one of the riflemen to check for threats to the rear and clear them if necessary before opening the door or ramp.

Variants

By manufacturer's designation

• MG-150 - Menggang's designation for the 8×8 chassis which forms the basis of all later variants.
• MG-151 - An APC variant with a manually aimed 12.7mm GCh-75 HMG on a pintle mount. The HMG mount can elevate from -20 to +45 degrees, and traverse 15 degrees left or right with the cupola in a given position; it can rotate through 360 degrees by turning the cupola on its bearing race.
  • MG-151G - Adds an armored shell around the machine gun cupola, offering some protection to the gunner. The armored shell is open-topped and open-backed, though the hatch covers most of the open back when open. The manually-aimed gun's elevation and free traverse chracteristics remain unchanged. Some MG-151Gs have been spotted with eight smoke grenade launchers mounted around the armored cupola; it is not known whether this variant has a separate designation.
• MG-152 - Uses a cupola nearly identical to that of early-model JCh-6 main battle tanks, the main difference being that the gunner's seat is suspended from the rotating cupola and can rotate through 360 degrees. The bearing race is strengthened to support the weight of the seat and gunner. As on the JCh-6, the gunner can either operate the 12.7mm HMG manually while standing on his seat, or operate it remotely using one of two periscope sights. The raised bearing race also elevates the gunner's cupola over the commander's, giving the gunner a better view to the right.
• MG-153 - An APC variant with a 12.7mm GCh-75 HMG in a remote weapon station centered on the hull behind the gunner and commander hatches. This version is a slightly more expensive, but slightly more capable, counterpart to the MG-151, and has the same crew and passenger capacity in roughly the same layout.