S&T Daewoo XK8, also known as DAR-21 (Daewoo Assault Rifle-21st Century),
is a
5.56×45mm NATO
The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, but often pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, and ...
bullpup
A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...
assault rifle developed and manufactured by
S&T Daewoo
SNT Motiv Co., Ltd (formerly S&T Motiv and previously Daewoo Precision Industries/S&T Daewoo) is a South Korean firearms and auto parts manufacturer founded in 1981. Its firearms equip most frontline units of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.
H ...
intended to replace
Daewoo Precision Industries K2
Daewoo Precision Industries K2 assault rifle is the standard service rifle of the South Korean military. It was developed by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development and manufactured by S&T Motiv (formerly Daewoo Precision Industries) and ...
assault rifle for the
Republic of Korea Armed Forces
The Republic of Korea Armed Forces (), also known as the ROK Armed Forces, are the armed forces of South Korea. The ROK Armed Forces is one of the largest and most powerful standing armed forces in the world with a reported personnel strength of ...
.
XK8 was the first firearm developed solely by the Korean defense company without the request from the military. However, after the field tests by
Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command
The Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command (ROK-SWC; ko, 대한민국 육군 특수전사령부 or 특전사; Hanja: 大韓民國陸軍 特殊戰司令部), also known as the Republic of Korea Army Special Forces "Black Berets" (R.O.K. ...
, it was rejected and was not mass-produced.
History
S&T Motiv started to develop a prototype in 2003 with technical support from the
ADD
Addition (usually signified by the plus symbol ) is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and division. The addition of two whole numbers results in the total amount or '' sum'' of ...
.
Maintenance costs and reliability of the
K1 were deteriorating after 20 years of mass production, and S&T Motiv aimed to replace the
K2 rifle as the next generation rifle and mass produce it.
The prototype finished development before the end of the year and was publicly revealed.
S&T Motiv asked the
Korean Ministry of National Defense to hold field test. However, after the test the MND favored the
K11.
After the XK8 was rejected by the
Korean Armed Forces, the XK8 did not see mass-production nor did it receive export orders.
Development
The XK8 was made out of high-strength plastic and polymer materials with the ejection port on the right side and the cocking lever on the left side.
The fire selector consists of semi-auto, three round burst and full auto.
See also
*
Daewoo Precision Industries K2
Daewoo Precision Industries K2 assault rifle is the standard service rifle of the South Korean military. It was developed by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development and manufactured by S&T Motiv (formerly Daewoo Precision Industries) and ...
*
Daewoo Precision Industries K1
The Daewoo Precision Industries K1/K1A is a South Korean selective-fire assault rifle developed by Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and manufactured by Daewoo Precision Industries (now S&T Motiv) and Dasan Machineries (since 2016). It enter ...
*
S&T Daewoo K11
The S&T Daewoo K11 DAW (Dual-barrel Air-burst Weapon) is a multi-weapon resembling the earlier US Objective Individual Combat Weapon in concept, design and operation. It consists of two separate weapons combined into a single unit: a lower assaul ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daewoo Xk8
5.56 mm assault rifles
Assault rifles of South Korea
Bullpup rifles
Daewoo assault rifles
Post–Cold War weapons of South Korea