SEOUL, September 02 (AJP) - South Korea has completed development of an armored ambulance built to reach wounded soldiers in areas its current field ambulances cannot enter.
Hyundai Rotem said Tuesday it had finished system development of the vehicle under a program run by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). Design, prototype construction, and test and evaluation were carried out with domestic technology over about two years beginning in 2024. The program cost 14.5 billion won ($10.6 million).
The vehicle carries wounded soldiers from the front line to hospitals in the rear, and medics can treat them during the drive.
South Korea has been doing that work with the military's standard-issue ambulance and with commercial ambulances. DAPA said both have low mobility and are limited in protection, rough-terrain performance, and cross-country driving, which left them unable to support evacuation close to combat units.
That gap matters most for mechanized formations and amphibious landing forces, which push deep into enemy-held ground on offensive maneuvers. DAPA said casualties in those units need evacuation support that can come to them, and it set the standard at treatment within 60 minutes of injury, the interval known as the golden hour.
The new vehicle is built on the wheeled command post vehicle, a design already in South Korean service with proven protection and mobility. Hyundai Rotem said it chose that platform because its interior is taller than a standard wheeled armored vehicle, giving enough room for medical equipment and for medics to work.
With two medics aboard, the vehicle carries up to six walking wounded or four patients on litters.
The compartment holds a litter loading device that moves a patient in and out lying flat, an oxygen supply, an automated external defibrillator, patient monitoring equipment, and a stock of medicines. High-intensity light-emitting diode (LED) lamps in the ceiling light the space. Medical personnel can treat a patient while the vehicle is moving and can draw on remote medical support during the run.
The vehicle keeps its interior at a pressure above the outside air to block contaminated air from entering, a measure against chemical and biological attack.
DAPA said the vehicle will also be used to evacuate civilian casualties from disaster sites that ordinary vehicles cannot reach.
The armored ambulance adds to Hyundai Rotem's wheeled armored vehicle line, which was designed in modules so variants can be built for different missions. The wheeled command post vehicle came out of the same approach.
Hyundai Rotem said the completed vehicle should let the military move field casualties more safely and quickly, and that the company would "lead innovation in defense technology that can protect the safety and lives of the public as well as military personnel."
DAPA has begun preparing for mass production and said it aims to deliver on schedule.
Ko Hyung-seok, the Army brigadier general who heads the agency's maneuver systems bureau, said the vehicle combines mobility, protection and medical equipment in a way that makes it "a core capability for preserving our military's combat power."
"We will push ahead with mass production and field deployment without setbacks, so that soldiers can carry out their missions under the firm protection of the state," he said.
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