KIFV

The exact designation for the so-called Korean IFV, or KIFV, is the K-200. It was manufactured by Daewoo Heavy Industries and is based on an American FMC private venture design derived from the M113 armored personnel carrier, although a significant number of local innovations have been introduced; FMC were not involved at any stage.

Aluminum armor from the United Kingdom is used for the hull (covered by spaced laminate steel plates) while the power pack, coupled to an American transmission, is German.

The first KIFV examples entered service in 1985, with well over 1 000 units having been manufactured to date. Most have been the IFV version, armed with a pintle-mounted 12.7-mm machine gun protected by a small open turret behind a shield, plus a 7.62-mm MG over the commander's cupola.

The rear hull roof is raised to increase internal head room for the seven personnel carried; they are provided with an NBC collective protection system as standard

A trim vane is stowed on the front glacis as the KIFV is amphibious, being propelled in the water by it's tracks.

The KIFV is only one of a family of vehicles on the same base chassis. The others include an air defence vehicle armed with a single 20-mm Vulcan rotary cannon, a recovery vehicle with a prominent recovery crane, an NBC reconnaissance vehicle (which has appeared only ion prototype form), a command post, an armored ambulance, two types of mortar carriers (81-mm and 107-mm), and a tank destroyer, carrying a special turret to launch two TOW ATGWs. Most of these variants are currently in service with the South Korean armed forces.

More were ordered at the beginning of 1990s by Malaysia for issue to their troops operating with the United Nations forces in the former Yugoslavia.