K2 Black Panther is a new generation South Korean main battle tank (MBT) designed by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development.

Manufactured by South Korean company Hyundai Rotem, K2 Black Panther is currently one of the most advanced main battle tanks in the world.

With a cost per unit for production batch 1 of 7.8 billion South Korean wons (US$8.5 million - constant 2009 USD), K2 Black Panther is one of the most expensive tanks ever produced.

The works on the design of the K2 Black Panther were started in 1995 by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development.

The design phase was completed in 2008 and the same year, Hyundai Rotem started the manufacturing of the K2 main battle tanks.

Currently, 260 K2 tanks are planned for production in three (3) lots.

A total of 100 Lot 1 K2 MBTs were already produced, and the second lot (Lot 2) of 106 K2 tanks is currently in production. For the third lot (Lot 3) another 54 K2 Black Panther tanks are planned for production.

K2 Black Panther has a mass of 55 t (54 long tons; 61 short tons) the chassis having a length of 7.5 meters (24 ft 7 in) while the overall length is 10.8 m (35 ft 5 in).

It has a width of 3.6 meters (11 ft 10 in) and a height of 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in)

The crew of the K2 Black Panther consists of three (3) persons including the commander, the gunner, and the driver.

K2 Black Panther is protected by a classified type of composite armour with ERA and NERA add-on modules.

As a higher level of protection, K2 MBT also benefits of soft-kill and hard-kill anti-missile defense systems.

The main armament of the K2 is a 120 mm Hyundai WIA 55-caliber smoothbore gun with 40 rounds.

As secondary armament, K2 tanks are equipped with one 12.7×99 mm (.50 BMG) K6 heavy machine gun with 3,200 rounds and one 7.62×51 mm NATO coaxial machine gun with 12,000 rounds.

Depending on the variant the K2 Black Panther tanks are equipped with two types of engines and transmission systems.

The first 100 K2 Black Panther Batch-I tanks manufactured in 2014~2015 are powered by a 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) MTU MT-883 Ka501 4-cycle, 12-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine coupled to a RENK HSWL 295 TM with eight (8) gears (five forward and three reverse).

The K2 Batch-II tanks produced in 2019~2020 use a combination of the domestic 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) Doosan DV27K 4-cycle, 12-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine coupled to the German RENK HSWL 295 TM transmission, the same used in K2 Batch-I variants.

The 54 K2 Batch-III main battle tanks that are to be manufactured starting with 2020 uses the same locally-produced Doosan DV27K engine coupled to an S&T Dynamics EST15K transmission with 9 gears (six forward and three reverse)

The EST15K transmission is developed by the South Korean company S&T Dynamics.

The K2 Black Panther South Korean main battle tank (MBT) has a power-to-weight ratio of 27.2 hp/tonne.

Using an in-arm suspension unit, the K2 has an operational range of 450 kilometers (280 mi) and can reach a maximum speed of 70 km/h (43 mph) on paved roads and 50 km/h (31 mph) off-road

K2 Black Panther can accelerate from 0 to 32 km/h (0 to 20 mph) in 7 seconds.