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CM21 Armored Vehicle

The CM-21 is a domestic production armored vehicle modified by the Republic of China Tank Development Research Center based on the American M113 armored personnel carrier. From the factory of the first prototype in 1979 to the official service in 1982, the CM-21 has developed a complete vehicle. Department, a total of more than 1,000 vehicles have been produced. At the end of 1967, the U.S. Army and the Republic of China signed a "Third-Country Refurbishment Plan" to begin refurbishing U.S. military equipment in the Vietnam War until the end of the Vietnam War, thus accumulating complete experience in the refurbishment, welding, spare parts manufacturing, full vehicle assembly, and testing of the M113 armored vehicle.

By 1975, Joint Logistics had implemented the "Wancheng Plan" and welded three M113 bodies with aluminum alloy armor plates produced by Taiwan Aluminum Corporation. Wancheng No. 1 was an M106 4.2-inch mortar car imitating the M113 car series, but The mortar was changed to a national-made 63-type 120mm mortar. The concept of this vehicle was inherited from the CM22A1 120mm mortar vehicle. Wancheng No. 2 car transplants the M24 tank turret to the imitation M113 car body, and moves the engine compartment to the rear of the car body. It is an M113-style light tank configuration. Wancheng No. 3 car is a multi-rocket launcher by adding a worker bee-4 multiple rocket launcher to the imitation M113 car body. After that, six other US-made M113s were also transformed into a multiple rocket launcher in the same way. (There is also the Wancheng No. 4 car that has been converted from M48A1 to M48A5. Wancheng plans to have these four vehicles in total.) The Wancheng plan laid a solid foundation for the design, production and development of CM21.

The basic type of the CM-21 is an armored personnel carrier. The whole vehicle is made of fully welded aluminum alloy. It uses the same type of transmission system as the M113A1. It can carry a total of 12 soldiers. The front and rear sides of the vehicle and the sides of the body are double-layered hollow space armor. The interior is filled with polyurethane foaming chemicals to absorb the penetration force of bullets or artillery pieces, and the armor can withstand 5.56 rifle shells. On the whole, the CM-21 has better protection than the M113, but it is also slightly heavier by several hundred kilograms than the M113, and its mobility is slightly lower than that of the M113.

There are two perforations on both sides of the CM-21, and one perforation is directly behind. Therefore, the rear infantry compartment is carried in a back-to-back manner in the center of the vehicle, and the front half of the infantry compartment is seated on the body in a face-to-face manner. CM-21 has the ability to float, and can float 1.5 meters deep without additional reinforcement. Before launching, operators need to start two pumps, open the front flap, and the water is still propelled by the crawler, and there are no extra blades. Like the M113, the CM-21 can be equipped with external fuel tanks on both sides of the rear. The basic firepower of the CM-21 is a 12.7mm Browning M2 heavy machine gun or a 40mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher , and a quadruple smoke grenade launcher on each side. However, double guns have also been used. The CM-21 is equipped with Browning M2 heavy machine gun and 40mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher at the same time.

China received the M113A1 armored personnel transport vehicle from the United States in 1991. The M113A1 armored personnel carrier is an all-aluminum armored, floatable, air transportable and multi-purpose personnel carrier developed by General Dynamics in the Republic of China in 1945. The 75M8V water-cooled gasoline engine originally used by the U.S. military in 1949 It was replaced with a 6V53 water-cooled diesel engine to increase the cruising mileage. It was named M113A1 with a cruising mileage of 483 kilometers. The equipment was widely adopted by countries all over the world. It participated in the Vietnam War and the Israeli-Arab Middle East War. There were many derivative models. After the Clouded Leopard wheeled armored vehicle was replaced in recent years, the first batch of M113A1s received were eliminated one after another.

In the 1990s, there had been cooperation with French GIAT to develop integrated weapons and equipment, equipped with the then advanced 25mm cannon as the main turret, and also used the gun shield to provide personnel safety protection, but the backward thinking of the military did not allow the CM-21 series armored vehicles have been further improved, so that they continue to be "usable" in the Army and Marine Corps. Looking around the world, there are also many armored vehicles that continue to use the American M113 series, but there are also many improvements. Not only the protection is strengthened, but the motorization speed is also increasing. Taiwan does not lack technology but only lacks ideas and determination for even basic military armaments.

When the Mazu Nangan garrison brigade carried out the CM-21 armored personnel carrier driving training 18 March 2021, a CM-21 overturned directly in front of the slope due to mechanical problems of the vehicle. The crew of 5 officers and soldiers rushed to hospital, but with no serious medical problems, returned to the camp to rest. However, the Ministry Defense initially denied that the car overturned, but only after a witness provided photos of the scene did it confess that it was a vehicle overturned, and emphasized that the Ministry of Defense had formed a special team to investigate.

The basic type of the CM21 is an armored personnel carrier, which can carry a total of 14 soldiers and has basic armor capabilities. The entire vehicle is composed of fully welded aluminum alloy armor, with the front and rear sides of the body It is a double-layer hollow armor, filled with polyurethane foaming chemicals to absorb the penetration force of bullets or artillery pieces. On the whole, the protection of CM21 is better than that of M113.

The CM21 service model is CM21A1, an improved version of A1. It has better additional armor and can resist 14.5mm armor-piercing projectiles. Its combat weight has been increased to 12.9 tons. However, it uses a 300-horsepower engine to increase the speed to 65 kilometers per hour. The CM21A1 is still only a basic armored personnel carrier in terms of infantry transportation, and cannot be upgraded to a CM21A2 infantry tank. Since then, after the introduction of the CM32 wheeled armored vehicle, it is even more impossible to modify it.

CM21A2 is an improved version of A1. It has better additional armor and can resist the attack of 14.5mm armor-piercing projectiles. Its combat weight has been increased to 12.9 tons, but the 300- horsepower engine is used to increase the speed to 65 kilometers per hour. CM21A2 presumably want to upgrade directly into infantry fighting vehicle, there was the introduction of the French GIAT DRAGAR type with a single 25 mm gun turret as testing purposes, but does not use, have developed their own simple single captain's gun tower is still only for testing purposes.

• CM22 is the 107mm mortar (120mm mortar) version of CM21, which is the imitation version of the US M106 mortar vehicle. The details of the two are very similar. The CM22 was developed in 1987 and was still in production until around 1999. However, in the later production of the CM22, the internal mortar ammunition compartment was different from the US M106 mortar vehicle, plus detailed parts such as headlights and CM21A vehicle is common. CM22 modified the infantry compartment to be used with mortars, and eliminated rifle perforation and hollow armor. The overall appearance is the same as the M106 mortar vehicle derived from M113.

• The CM23 is an 81mm mortar version derived from the CM22, which is the same as the US M125 mortar vehicle.

• The CM25 is a towed missile (TOW) armored vehicle derived from the CM21 armored vehicle. It is used in anti-armor combat. The CM25 has modified the infantry compartment to carry towed missile ammunition, but the internal space is still quite large. , Moved two 3-pack smoke grenade launchers to the front of the car, canceled rifle perforation and extended the double-layer armor, but the protection of the CM25 is not enhanced. The CM25 is only used by the Marine Corps of Taiwan, China. The Taiwan Army of China still uses the M113A1 towed missile armored vehicle. Under special environmental requirements, the hollow armor of the CM25 is filled with styrofoam to increase buoyancy.

• The CM26 is an armored command vehicle, which is the same as the US M577, is derived from the CM22.