Chinese armored vehicle inspired engineers from the DPRK to create an armored personnel carrier

development from china helped designers from north korea to create their own tracked armored personnel carrier, which received a large number of modifications.

It is known that in the 70-80 years, many samples of weapons that entered the army of the People's Republic of China were copies of foreign, mainly Soviet military equipment.

For example, in the Middle Kingdom, local clones of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, the Malyutka anti-tank guided missile, the D-30 122-mm howitzer, the Strela-2 portable anti-aircraft missile system, the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle and other samples were created.

At the same time, weapons manufacturers from third world countries have already taken as a basis products developed in China itself.

The most famous is the 107-mm MLRS Type 63. its versions are currently being released in south africa, sudan, turkey, egypt, iran and north korea.

in the latter, by the way, the production of an upgraded version of the wz-531 armored personnel carrier, fully designed in the early 60s in china, was mastered.

the car from the dprk differs from the original model with a modified chassis, an elongated body, a more powerful engine and an enhanced armament consisting of two 14.5-mm kpvt machine guns and a 9k11 atgm.

these apcs are known by several names: m1973, vtt-323 and type 73. For many years, they were indispensable participants in military parades held in Pyongyang.

In addition to the modification intended for infantry units, rocket launchers, a 122-mm self-propelled howitzer, flamethrower vehicles and guided anti-tank weapons were created.

Currently, the DPRK has more modern wheeled and tracked vehicles, but it is assumed that the VTT-323 will serve in the land forces of this country for a long time.

Alexey moiseev