Donghae DG84
| Donghae DG84 | |
|---|---|
 Major variants of the DG84 and DG85. | |
| Type | Infantry mobility vehicle |
| Place of origin | Menghe |
| Service history | |
| In service | 2014-present |
| Used by | See "Operators" |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Donghae Automotive |
| Designed | 2009-2013 |
| Produced | 2014-present |
| Specifications (DG842) | |
| Weight | 2,970 kg |
| Length | 4.79 m |
| Width | 2.30 m |
| Height | 1.85 m (to roof) |
| Crew | 2 |
| Passengers | 7 |
Main armament | 12.7mm GCh-75 HMG |
| Engine | Donghae GiS-108 diesel 200 hp |
| Transmission | 4×4 |
| Ground clearance | 400 mm |
Operational range | 500 km (road) |
| Speed | 120 km/h (road) |
The Donghae DG84 is a family of 4×4 military light utility vehicles designed in Menghe. It was first introduced in 2014. It serves as a unified replacement for the Chŏnsŏ G242, Donghae D1725, Chŏnsŏ G586, and Chŏnsŏ J107, with a wide variety of armored and unarmored variants filling a wide variety of combat and non-combat roles.
Development
Unlike the Donghae D1725, which was an independent venture, the DG84 was developed in response to a special request from the Menghean Ministry of National Defense. After procuring limited numbers of D1725s, Chŏnsŏ G242s, and Chŏnsŏ J107s over the course of the 2000s, the Menghean Armed Forces had acquired a large number of redundant vehicle types, and the MoND hoped to streamline future procurement by adopting a modular 4×4 chassis which would share automotive components across a wide range of light utility roles. The design requirement for the new vehicle was issued in 2009, after a period spent evaluating existing vehicles for the role.
Donghae Motors, the producer of the D1725, responded by launching design work on a new vehicle with the required specifications. Chŏnsŏ Automotive produced a competitor in a slightly lighter weight class. Both designs underwent evaluation in the early 2010s, with the heavier DG84 winning the development competition in 2013. Mass-production of the light utility variant began the following year.
Description
The DG84 has a conventional front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout, and broadly resembles other military light utility vehicles in its weight class, including the Dayashinese Mega Cruiser and the Sylvan URO VAMTAC. It is built with body-on-frame construction, with the sides of the body extending below the frame to lower the vehicle's overall height and center of gravity. This also means that a variety of cab types can be installed on the same basic chassis in construction. There are several extended chassis models which retain near-total parts commonality with the basic DG84 models, and all variants can share the same engine and powertrain.
The baseline DG84G has a 1+4 seating layout, with a single driver in the front left, a single passenger on the front right, and three side-by-side passenger seats in the next row to the rear. The pickup bed to the rear measures 1,250 by 1,850 millimeters, with 1,220mm between the wheel wells. It is possible to install benches on top of the wheel wells, allowing four passengers to ride in the pickup bed. The vehicle can carry 1,000 kilograms of cargo on board, and tow loads of up to 1,500 kilograms. The trailer capacity allows the DG84 to tow a 1,200-liter fuel or water trailer, an SB-120 Type 84 mortar, or a diesel generator of up to 15KW output.
The baseline engine is a Donghae GiS-108 with a 6.7L displacement generating 200 horsepower. With passengers and light cargo only, the DG-84 can reach a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour on a level road. With a full cargo load or heavy trailer, its maximum road speed falls to 90 km/h. In offroad conditions, the vehicle's double-wishbone suspension and portal gear hubs give it good ground clearance and mobility, and a central tire inflation system on offroad "N" variants allows the driver to manage air pressure to optimize performance on different terrain types. Later variants have a raised air intake and exhaust with rubber sealant around the doors, allowing the DG84 to cross water obstacles 1.5 meters deep. While insufficient for large river crossings, this is enough to cross deep streams and transit between a beached landing craft and the shore.
Utility variants of the DG84 only have a thin aluminium sheet metal body to save weight, and therefore do not offer any protection for the crew. Some fast attack vehicle variants are open-topped as well. Combat variants use a special steel body which protects the driver and passengers against enemy small-arms fire and shrapnel.
Variants
DG841
The DG841 is the standard variant described above. It can most easily be identified by the lack of any armament on the roof. The pickup bed can be covered by a canvas tarp on metal arches to protect the cargo. When moving personnel, a taller frame is used. A hard shell cover with a rear door is also on the market, mainly for police and other paramilitary forces in cold climates. Models with full offroad and fording gear are designated DG841N, and models with only the basic features are designated DG841G.
DG842
This designation is applied to DG84 variants with a 750mm turret ring with pintle mount centered on the roof. The common pintle mount can support a GCh-96 or GCh-114 general-purpose machine gun, a GCh-75 heavy machine gun, a JSB-30 30mm automatic grenade launcher, or an ATGM tube. The turret ring can also be fitted with a metal shield to protect the gunner against small-arms fire and shrapnel, though the body of the vehicle is still unarmored. As with the DG841, the DG842G is the baseline variant, while the DG841N has a larger front bumper, a snorkel, a raised exhaust exit, and central tire inflation controls.
DG85
The DG85 is a cargo-carrying variant of the DG84. It has a stretched chassis with a revised two-door body. The open-topped cab can accommodate a driver and one passenger, while the 2,500×1,850mm rear bed can carry 2,000 kilograms of cargo or ten soldiers on inward-facing benches. This makes the DG85 a slightly less capable replacement for the Chŏnsŏ G586, with slightly less cargo capacity but easier maintenance and more parts commonality. The 1+11 passenger layout allows a single DG85 to move a 10-man infantry squad and one member of the platoon HQ, whereas two DG-84s are required to transport the same number of passengers. The total lack of armor protection and modest offroad mobility prevent the DG-85 from being used as an effective APC, but it is useful for rapidly shuttling light infantry units between different points within friendly territory.
There are also custom hardshell modules for the DG82. These include the following:
- DG85DGP - Carries a DGP-23-2 twin 23mm anti-air gun in the pickup bed. Crew: 4 (driver, commander, two gun crew). Mainly marketed for export, with no domestic orders.
- DG85DM - Battalion-grade signal vehicle with radio equipment. Crew: 4.
- DG85DS - Battalion command vehicle with computer stations. Crew: 5.
- DG85GG - Field ambulance with life support stabilization equipment. Capacity: 1 driver, 2 attendants, 2 stretchers.
- DG85YJ - Mobile maintenance workshop. Similar in capability to the Chŏnsŏ G586YJ, with numbered variants specializing in tanks, APCs, IFVs, lorries, and special equipment. Crew of 4; usually tows a generator on a trailer.
DG88
The DG88, also known as the JSCh-9, is an armored combat variant of the DG84. It retains the DG84's basic chassis and drivetrain, but installs atop it an entirely new armored body. This shell provides all-around protection against rifle-caliber fire, including the 7.5×54mm, 7.62×54mmR, and 7.62×51mm cartridges. The front armor can withstand all of these cartridges in armor-piercing forms at ranges of down to 30 meters, while the side armor can withstand rifle-caliber armor-piercing rounds at ranges beyond 300 meters and intermediate-caliber ball ammunition at ranges of 30 meters. The armored hull also provides some protection against shrapnel and blasts, though the vehicle's low, flat hull does not offer much protection against mines and roadside bombs compared to the V-shaped hull of the Chŏnsŏ J107.
The seating layout of the DG88 is largely identical to the seating layout of the DG842, with a 2+7 crew-and-passenger capacity. The hull contains two rows of front-facing seats, each served by side doors, with the center seat in the second row serving as a footstool for the vehicle's gunner. There are four more seats in the rear, this time facing inward rather than forward, with these passengers exiting through a single rear door. To cut down on height, these seats are sited inboard of the wheel wells rather than atop them, leaving little space in between. With a full load of seven passengers, the four riders in the rear would have to interlock their legs to fit. In practice, the Menghean Army and Menghean Marine Infantry typically seat only five passengers in each car, leaving the two rear seats on one side empty or using them to store weapons and equipment.
DG89
The DG89, also known as the JSCh-9, is the second of two combat variants of the DG84. It was developed expressly for the Menghean Marine Infantry, and more specifically, for the Hwangtaesan-class amphibious transport docks. The ceilings on the Hwangtaesan's upper and lower vehicle decks were too low to accommodate the Chŏnsŏ J109, and they were also slightly too low to accommodate the standard armored car adaptation of the DG84, which became the DG88 or JSCh-4. Early proposals involved detaching the DG88's HMG for storage, but the Marine Infantry concluded that attaching the HMG while loading vehicles into landing craft would slow down the embarking process and by extension the vehicle transfer rate. Instead, Donghae's design team lowered the roof of the armored cab and used a low-profile HMG mount similar to the type used on Menghean main battle tanks. Because the rear half of the chassis has a higher floor than the center, the roof also had to be higher to seat the rear passengers comfortably, resulting in a distinct stepped-roof design.
The internal seating arrangement of the DG89 is identical to that of the DG88, with the difference that the passengers and crew riding up front have less head space. Daerim Solutions was contracted to develop a headspace padding system to partially compensate for this difference.
All models of the DG89 have a snorkel intake, a raised exhaust, and watertight rubber seals around the doors. Though not truly amphibious, the DG89 can ford water obstacles as deep as 1.5 meters, adequate for crossing a water gap between a conventional landing craft and the beach.
In addition to the standard troop transport model, the Marine Infantry requested the development of several supporting vehicles based on the DG89 chassis. Several of these incorporate a fully lowered roof, as the rear hull no longer has to meet a height requirement for passengers.
- Y63B1 - A launch vehicle for the YDG-63 MANPADS. It has four launch tubes in a remote-controlled turret. For storage, the turret folds flat against the roof of the vehicle, narrowly meeting the height requirement. Four reload missiles are stored inside the hull, but these must be manually reloaded by the crew while out of battle, a major tradeoff of the low-profile design. The three-person crew consists of a driver, a gunner, and a commander, who can also remotely point the turret at a target received from another air search platform.
- Y70B4 - A launch vehicle for the YDCh-70 anti-tank guided missile. Like the Y70B2, it has four missile tubes on an exposed platform-like turret, though the design of the platform turret was revised to reduce height. There are eight internal reloads, all loaded manually. It has a crew of 3. Only a small number were produced, as the Y72B1 below rendered it obsolete.
- Y72B1 - The first dedicated launch vehicle for the YDCh-72 ATGM. It has a four-missile launcher derived from the one on the Y70B4, but with greater elevation to fire missiles onto a lofted trajectory. It has a crew of 3 and four internal reload missiles. As with other YDCh-72 systems, the gunner "pilots" the missile in its intermediate flight stage, watching a video feed from the infrared camera and authorizing a target for the automatic terminal homing phase.
- Y72B5 - A replacement for the Y72B1, introduced in 2019. It has eight YDCh-72 missile tubes in a new vertical array, much like the vertical launch assembly on Menghean warships. A single metal plate covers all missile boxes in transit, opening to uncover them before firing, and a duct system vents exhaust from the missile booster stage out the roof. The vertical launch assembly allows a single vehicle to fire all eight of its missiles in a single engagement, without having to exit the combat area to reload, a useful capability for a Marine unit on a narrow beachhead. Once all eight tubes are exhausted, however, reloading them involves exiting the vehicle and lifting missile tubes up to the roof with the help of battalion-level logistics staff. Another disadvantage of the vertical launch layout is an exceptionally high lofted trajectory, which increases the missile's minimum range to 300 meters while also reducing its maximum range to 3,500. The crew consists of a driver, a commander, and a gunner, who also remotely pilots the YDCh-72 missiles.
