Commanders!
The Rough Riders Battle Path is in its second half and it’s time to take a look at what’s coming after it’s over. The new Battle Path will feature a number of changes based on your feedback, but, before we talk about them in detail, we’d like to show you its first vehicle – the Bulsae-6 Tank Destroyer.
You might be familiar with the name already from the Cheonma-2 Main Battle Tank we introduced in the game earlier. Indeed, it refers to the Bulsae (“phoenix”) family of North Korean missiles that mostly seem to be various versions of existing Soviet (but also western) designs, covering pretty much their entire history. The versions are (as most things North Korean) not well documented but they very roughly go like this:
- Bulsae-1 missile for example is a version of the ancient Soviet Shmel missile from the very early 1960s (NATO codename AT-1 Snapper)
- Bulsae-2 refers to a copy of the Malyutka missile (NATO codename AT-2 Sagger)
- Bulsae-3 refers to a copy of the Fagot missile (NATO codename AT-4 Spigot)
- Bulsae-4 is an evolution of the same missile with some elements of the Russian Kornet
- Bulsae-5 is apparently a version of the Kornet as well
The above is, of course, mostly a speculation (as are other such version lists). Information about North Korean vehicles and weapons is notoriously hard to come by and usually comes from North Korean parades, propaganda reels and “open source intelligence” (which usually means someone somewhere pulled something out of their behind).
However, as speculative as this all is, some things can be agreed upon, such as that in 2018, North Korea unveiled a new long-range missile launcher on a six-wheeled chassis. The launcher doesn’t have an official designation (or at least none that is known) but is likely armed with a new version of the Bulsae missile with NLOS capabilities, which we decided to call Bulsae-6.
If rumors are to be believed, Bulsae-6 is basically a non-line of sight long range missile that works roughly the same way as Spike NLOS. It has a camera channel allowing the operator to hit targets well beyond the range of standard guided missiles (the estimated range is around 30 kilometers).
Compared to standard guided missiles it’s larger and considerably more expensive, but it basically serves as a bridge between guided missiles and artillery. The Spike NLOS missile can work in fire and forget mode, but can also be manually guided by the operator via a fiber optic link.
The wheeled chassis carries 8 missiles in a fully traversable launcher and is based on the M2010 APC.
Unlike the missiles, the origins of the M2010 are not that mysterious. In 2001, North Korea acquired around 30 Russian BTR-80A IFVs and the M2010 (western designation based on the year of their public appearance) is a heavily modified version thereof. Most notably the turret is completely different – it’s manually operated and only armed with a heavy machinegun.
The missile launcher uses a shortened chassis (only has six wheels) of the M2010. Western sources refer to it either by its year of appearance (M2018) or its missile designation (Bulsae). We decided to go with the latter.
The amount of produced vehicles is unknown (likely no more than a dozen), as is their use. One such vehicle was allegedly used during the war in Ukraine (and claimed destroyed) but the footage is of low quality so it’s unclear whether this even was the same type, let alone how effective it was in combat.
In Armored Warfare, Bulsae-6 will be a Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer.
There isn’t much to say about its protection and mobility, which are both analogical to the BTR-82A, perhaps a bit slower. This isn’t a super-fast or agile vehicle, nor is it well-protected, featuring only smoke grenades and an unlockable soft-kill APS for its defense. But it doesn’t have to be because of its weapon system.
As you can probably guess already from our previous article, the main new feature of this vehicle will be first-person missile control.
The vehicle will have two missiles. The classic Bulsae-6 missiles will be pretty monstrous tandem HEAT missiles with 1200mm of penetration and 1300 damage. These will use the usual ATGM mechanics. But the same missiles will also be available with first-person missile control. These will be considerably slower but more agile (so that they are easier to control mid-flight).
Please note that you can only have one missile of this type in the air at any given moment so the fast rate of fire of the missile launcher (roughly 3 seconds between missile launches) can only be fully exploited when firing the classic missiles. Additionally, these missiles are still vulnerable to all sorts of APS mechanics.
This vehicle of the Battle Path will be well within the theme of sniping. You’ll be able to hunt your opponents at extreme distances or use your skill as an Armored Warfare veteran to guide your missiles over and through obstacles to make some of the coolest hits that can be made in the game.
We’re all looking forward to your exploits and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!
