The T-54 and T-55 main battle tanks were the Soviet Union's replacements for the World War II era T-34 tank. The T-54/55 tank series is the most numerous in the world, and very widely employed, especially by former client states of the Soviet Union.

The T-54 and T-55 tanks are very similar and difficult to distinguish visually. Many T-54s were updated to T-55 standards. Soviet tanks were factory-overhauled every 7,000 km, and often given minor technology updates. Many states have added or modified tank equipment (India affixed fake fume extractors to its T-54s and T-55s, so that Indian gunners wouldn't confuse them with Pakistani Type 59s).

The T-54 can be distinguished by a dome-shaped ventilator on the turret front-right, and has a SGMT 7.62 mm machine gun in a fixed mount in the front of the hull, operated by the driver. Early T-54s lacked a gun fume extractor, had an undercut at the turret rear, and a distinctive "pig-snout" gun mantlet. The T-55's new turret has large D-shaped roof panels, visible from above.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale Russian-built T-55A main battle tank employed by the North Korean Army during the 1970s. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 4-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches

Release Date: December 2010

Historical Account: "Inmin Gun" - The Korean People's Army (KPA), also known as the Inmin Gun, comprises the military forces of North Korea. Kim Jong-il is the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the National Defence Commission. The KPA has five branches: the (i) Army Ground Force, (ii) the Navy, (iii) the Air Force, (iv) the Artillery Guidance Bureau, and (v) the Special Operation Force.

The KPA's annual budget is US$6 billion. The US research organization ISIS reports that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) might possess fissile material for some 2 to 9 nuclear weapons. North Korea's Songun 'Military First' policy elevates the KPA to the primary position in the Government and society.

In 1978, Kim Il-sung directed that "Military Foundation Day" be changed from February 8th to April 25th, the nominal day of establishment of his anti-Japanese guerrilla army in 1932, to recognize the supposedly indigenous Korean origins of the KPA and obscure its Soviet origin. An active arms industry had been developed to produce long-range missiles such as the Nodong-1.

North Korea is the most militarized country in the world today, having the fourth largest army in the world, at about 1,106,000 armed personnel, with about 20% of men ages 17-54 in the regular armed forces. It also has a reserve force comprising 8,200,000 personnel. It operates an enormous network of military facilities scattered around the country, a large weapons production basis, a dense air defense system, the third largest chemical weapons stockpile in the world, and includes the largest Special Forces contingent (numbering 180,000 men).

The KPA faces the Military of South Korea and United States Forces Korea across the Korean Demilitarized Zone, as it has since the Armistice Agreement of 1953.