Main battle tank K1 (Type 88) For reference. “Type 88” may refer to: Type 88, K1 - main battle tank of South Korea (K1 - basic version, K1A1 - upgraded version with a 120-mm smoothbore gun); Type 88 - Chinese main battle tank. This article is about about South Korean tanks. The beginning of the development of its own tank dates back to 1980, when the South Korean Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the American company Chrysler, which was transferred to General Dynamics in 1982. In 1983, two prototypes of the XK-1 tank were assembled, which were successfully tested in late 1983 and early 1984. The first tank was assembled on the new production line of the South Korean company Hyundai Precision in November 1985. Two years later, in 1987, the vehicle was adopted by the South Korean army under the designation Type 88. The “88” tank was created on the basis of the design of the American M1 “Abrams” tank, taking into account the requirements of the South Korean army, one of which was the need to withstand the low silhouette of the vehicle. Type 88 is 190 mm lower than the M1 Abrams tank and 230 mm lower than the Leopard-2 tank. Not least, this is due to the small average height of Koreans. The crew of the tank consists of four people. The driver is located in the left front of the hull and, with the hatch closed, is in a reclining position. The commander and gunner are located in the turret to the right of the gun, and the loader is to the left. The commander has a low cylindrical turret. The 88/K1 tank has a low compact turret with a 105 mm M68A1 rifled gun. It has an ejector, a heat shield and a barrel deflection control device. The gun is stabilized in two guidance planes and has electro-hydraulic drives for guidance and turret rotation. The ammunition load, consisting of 47 shots, includes shots with South Korean-made armor-piercing feathered sub-caliber projectiles and cumulative projectiles. As an auxiliary weapon танк equipped with three machine guns: a 7,62-mm M60 machine gun is paired with a cannon, the second machine gun of the same type is mounted on a bracket in front of the loader's hatch; for firing at air and ground targets, a 12,7-mm Browning M2NV machine gun was installed above the commander's hatch. Ammunition for the 12,7 mm machine gun consists of 2000 rounds, for the 7,62 mm twin machine gun - from 7200 rounds and for the 7,62 mm anti-aircraft gun - from 1400 rounds. The modern fire control system was developed by the American company Hughes Aircraft, but includes elements from various companies, for example, a digital ballistic computer was created by the Canadian company Computing Device. On the first 210 vehicles, the gunner has a combined Hughes Aircraft periscope sight with a field of view stabilized in two planes, a thermal imaging night channel and a built-in range finder. The tanks of the subsequent series use the ORTT5 tank gunner's periscope sight, developed by the American company Texas Instrumente based on the serial AML / 5O-2 specifically for the M60A3 and Type 88 tanks. It combines a visual day channel and a night thermal imaging channel with a range of up to 2000 m .Field of view is stabilized. The laser rangefinder, made on carbon dioxide, operates at a wavelength of 10,6 microns. The limit of the measured range is 8000 m. The South Korean company Samsung Aerospace takes part in the production of sights. The gunner also has an 8x auxiliary telescopic sight. The commander has a panoramic sight V5 580-13 of the French company 5NM with independent stabilization of the field of view in two planes. The sight is connected to a digital ballistic computer that receives information from a number of sensors (wind, charge temperature, gun elevation angle, etc.). Both the commander and the gunner can fire to hit the target. The preparation time for the first shot does not exceed 15 seconds. Tank "Type 88" has spaced armor with the use of combined armor of the "chobham" type in critical areas. Increased security contributes to a large slope of the upper frontal hull plate and inclined installation of the tower sheets. It is assumed that the resistance of the frontal projection is equivalent to homogeneous steel armor with a thickness of 370 mm (from kinetic projectiles) and 600 mm from cumulative ones. Additional protection for the tower is provided by the mounting of protective screens on its sides. To install smoke screens on the tower on both sides of the gun mask, two smoke grenade launchers in the form of monolithic six-barrel blocks are fixed. The tank is equipped with a multi-fuel four-stroke 8-cylinder V-shaped liquid-cooled engine MV 871 Ka-501 of the German company MTU, developing a capacity of 1200 liters. with. In a single block with the engine, a two-line hydromechanical transmission is mounted, providing four forward gears and two reverse gears. The performance characteristics of the main battle tank Type 88  Combat weight, т 51 Crew, people 4 Dimensions, mm: length 7470 width 3600 height 2250 clearance 460 Armament:   105-mm rifled gun М68А1; 12,7 mm Browning M2NV machine gun; two 7,62 mm M60 machine guns Ammunition:   ammunition-47 rounds, 2000 rounds of 12,7 mm, 8600 rounds of 7,62 mm Engine MV 871 Ka-501, 8-cylinder, four-stroke, V-shaped, diesel, 1200 hp with. Specific ground pressure, kg / cm 0,87 Highway speed km / h 65 Cruising on the highway km 500 Obstacle obstacles: wall height, м 1,0 ditch width, м 2,7 ship depth, м 1,2 Sources: Green Michael, Brown James, Vallier Christoph “Tanks. Steel armor of the countries of the world”; G. L. Kholyavsky “The Complete Encyclopedia of World Tanks 1915 - 2000”; Christoper Chant “World Encyclopedia of the Tank”; Christopher F. Foss. Jane's Handbooks. Tanks and fighting vehicles”.