The Daewoo Precision Industries K1/K1A is a South Korean

selective-fire Selective fire is the capability of a weapon to be adjusted to fire in semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode. The modes are chosen by means of a selector switch, which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective-fire we ...

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 entered service in 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 ...

in 1981. Although the K1 uses

.223 Remington The .223 Remington (designated as the 223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command ...

, it is classified as a

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

by the South Korean military and the manufacturer, because the K1 was intended to replace the

M3 submachine gun The M3 is an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted by the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3.Iannamico, Frank, ''The U.S. M3-3A1 Submachine Gun'', Moose Lake Publishing, , (1999), pp. 14, 22� ...

Development

In 1976, the ROKA Special Warfare Command requested a new weapon to replace the old

. In the following year, ADD launched a project derived from the XB rifle, which started in 1972 to replace licensed

M16A1 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

s with indigenous weapons. Under the demands of the ROKASWC, the new submachine gun must acquire greater firepower, light weight, cost effectiveness, and easy access to spare parts. The first prototypes were made in 1980, and entered service in 1981 after series of field test. But due to the design of its flash suppressor, the K1 exhibited serious problems in service with the ROK armed forces. The original version had excessive recoil, noise, flash, and weak stock due to increase in firepower. These problems caused difficulty in aiming especially during night operation. These shortcomings were later fixed by the development and adoption of a new flash suppressor, which has three holes in the top right quadrant to limit muzzle flip under rapid fire and reduces flash to one-third of that of the early K1. This new version of K1 is known as the K1A and its production began in 1982. All K1 submachine guns in service were subsequently modified to the K1A standard. The K1A is often mated with the PVS-4K rail integration System. It is seen as a potential candidate for the "Warrior Platform", a Korean next-generation infantry project. Since 2014, newly produced and repaired K1A received new barrel suited for firing 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition.

Differences

Most of the time, K1 submachine gun is regarded as a shortened or carbine version of

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. However, although the two guns share development history they are very different from each other for the following reasons: * The development of K1 was completed earlier than that of K2. * The K1 uses the

direct impingement Direct impingement is a type of gas operation for a firearm that directs gas from a fired cartridge indirectly (through the barrel, through a gas block, and then through a gas tube) into the bolt carrier or slide assembly to cycle the action. Fir ...

gas system, while the K2 uses

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...

style gas piston system. * The K1 has 1-in-12

rifling In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the pro ...

twist for

, while the K2 has 1-in-7.3

twist for 5.56×45mm NATO. The carbine version of K2 named K2C was developed and shown to the public in 2012 by S&T Motiv.

Variants

* XK1: Experimental prototype. * K1: First mass-produced variant. Every K1 has been modified to K1A standard. * K1A: Second mass-produced enhanced variant. ** MAX-1: Semi-automatic version of K1A for civilian market for .223 Remington. ** K1A1: Civilian version of K1A with longer barrel for 5.56x45mm NATO.

Users

*: Used by Special Forces Command (Cambodia) 137 K1As sold. *: Standard-issued submachine gun of the ROK Armed Forces. Will be replaced by K16 submachine gun. * *: Received 280 K1A rifles in 2003. *: 855 K1As sold to Singapore from a SIPRI small arms report in 2019.

Future replacement

The S&T Motiv K2C, an upgraded carbine version of the K2 rifle, was provided to the

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. ...

for trial. After a series of tests, K2C was rejected. Instead, the

launched a competition for replacing K1A with new rifle. On 13 June 2020, the

announced that the DSAR15PC had been selected as its new service carbine to replace the K1A carbine. The DSAR15P is based on the

CAR 816 The CAR 816, also called Caracal Sultan or simply Sultan, is a 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that is produced by Caracal International in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The rifle is also called Sultan in memory of ...

and other

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporatio ...

platforms, with the carbine version having an barrel and weighing . 1,000 carbines will initially be delivered to gather user feedback, with 15,000 to be delivered by 2023.South Korea Selects DSAR-15PC Carbine for RoKA’s Special Warfare Command
''The Firearm Blog''. 18 June 2020.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Daewoo K1
K1 through K7 images

5.56 mm assault rifles Post–Cold War weapons of South Korea Daewoo assault rifles Military equipment introduced in the 1980s