K2 Black Panther

The K2 Black Panther is a South Korean fourth-generation main battle tank, developed from 1995 by the Agency for Defense Development and other South Korean firms and manufactured by Hyundai Rotem, with the first tanks entering service with the Republic of Korea Army in June 2014 as the country's first entirely domestically designed main battle tank. Armed with a 120mm smoothbore gun and built around network-centric combat systems including GPS and inertial navigation and an automated battlefield management system, the K2 also carries an advanced hydropneumatic suspension that lets the tank raise, lower or tilt its hull for tactical advantage and ford rivers up to about four meters deep using a snorkel. Poland has ordered more than 180 K2s as part of a major rearmament program, and the design has influenced other tanks including Turkey's Altay, extending South Korea's tank into a significant defense export alongside its home service.