MOSCOW, 26 Dec-RIA Novosti, Nikolai Protopopov. The Pentagon decided to replace the outdated M109 Palladin tracked howitzers with wheeled ones, but it turned out that there was nothing. The us military announced a competition for a promising self-propelled gun, however, which happens infrequently, they will have to buy weapons abroad. About how one of the strongest defenses in the world signed in their own helplessness - in the material RIA Novosti.
To Serbia for weapons
The competition of the US Department of defense for a new mobile 155-millimeter howitzer involves weapons companies in Europe, Africa, and Asia. They will provide their products for comparative tests and fire tests at the beginning of the year. Interestingly, the Americans had only asked for a wheeled version of the ACS.
The Pentagon needed a mobile, tenacious and powerful howitzer. One of the main requirements is a high rate of fire. Therefore, all competitive samples must be equipped with semi-automatic or automatic loading systems. The transition time from the marching position to the combat position should be reduced to a minimum. Mobility is also important, allowing you to quickly withdraw from the firing position in order to avoid a retaliatory strike from the enemy.
The Israelis offer the installation of ATMOS: a 155-millimeter gun on a three-or four-axle wheeled chassis. The range of effective fire is 40 kilometers, the speed of Autonomous travel is up to 80 kilometers per hour. However, the gun is loaded manually, which affects the rate of fire: depending on the speed of the crew — from four to nine shots per minute. Nevertheless, the Israelis point out that the installation is used by the Israel defense Forces and has proven itself well in combat operations.
Parade on the occasion of the independence Day of Georgia
Image source: © Photo: Alexander Imedashvili, news-Georgia
British firm BAE Systems wants to sell the Archer wheeled self-propelled gun to the Americans. Its strong point is full automation of shooting. The crew controls the gun from an armored cabin, and all operations can be performed by one person. The developers claim that the self-propelled gun is able to engage in battle within just 30 seconds after receiving the order to open fire. Ammunition-21 shells. Standard ones fly for 40 kilometers, high-precision ones can reach a target at a distance of more than 50 kilometers. However, the British themselves are not in a hurry to buy these self-propelled guns — so far only Sweden has ordered several dozen.
The US has even asked for help in countries such as Serbia, Slovakia, France, South Africa and South Korea. So, the Serbs will present their own development-the NORA B-52 howitzer. In fact, this is a modified Soviet 152-millimeter d-20 gun from the mid-1940s. It was equipped with an automatic loader and placed on a wheeled platform. Transition to the combat position — about a minute. Back to the field — the same amount. The rate of fire is from six to 12 rounds per minute, the range is about 40 kilometers.
152 mm D-20 howitzer
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Nikolai Protopopov
There would be experience
Now the us army is fighting all over the world with M109 Palladin howitzers. These self-propelled guns were adopted in the early 1960s, and they managed to become fairly outdated. Despite numerous improvements, the characteristics of this machine are far behind their foreign counterparts. In particular, the designers managed to release the crew from the automatic loading function only in 2012. But the rate of fire increased slightly: from three rounds per minute to six.
"The Americans now have some kind of competitive fad, "Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, said in an interview with RIA Novosti. — I think they just want to look at the possibilities of the wheel arrangement. Our army, by the way, has such experience — we once bought similar self-propelled guns from the Czechs. They recognized this type of technology as unpromising. But if the Americans also want to follow this path-please, no one interferes."
The expert clarified that the main advantage of wheeled vehicles over tracked vehicles is a solid chassis resource. Another plus is the high speed on the March. However, there are still more disadvantages.
"You can only operate on wheeled vehicles along or near roads," Murakhovsky explained. - On very rough terrain, deployment is limited. And the density of good roads is not as high as it seems, even in Europe. Therefore, it is much easier to monitor traffic on them with the help of drones and satellites than to monitor, say, fields and forests."
Joint Russian-Chinese exercises " Peace mission-2013"
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Vladislav Belogrud
Hopelessly behind
According to the corresponding member of the Academy of military Sciences Sergey Sudakov, the Americans are forced to attract third-party developers in the field of artillery, because they have lost their own technological chains and are no longer able to create something effective on their own.
"There is a certain bias in the US in terms of high-tech and so-called conventional weapons," he says. - There, weapons like cannon are considered a kind of atavism, guns were replaced with missiles. Therefore, the production of many conventional weapons was outsourced to private companies. And now, for example, there is not a single company in the United States that makes the same gun ramrods for cleaning barrels."
Earlier, a similar opinion was expressed by experts of the American research center RAND. Analysts, comparing the state of the us and Russian artillery forces, concluded that the Pentagon's "gods of war" have been critically lagging behind in recent decades. The reason is the lack of attention to this kind of troops after the events of September 2001.
Since then, the United States has repeatedly engaged in major conflicts, but fought mainly against irregular armies — in Iraq and Afghanistan, massively using rocket weapons, aircraft and helicopters as strike weapons and means of fire support for ground operations.
A 155 mm M198 howitzer fires during the assault on Fallujah. November 11, 2004
Image source: © Photo : Lance Corporal Samantha L. Jones, USMC/ United States Marine Corps
Artillery, as well as air defense systems, took a back seat. Degradation affected not only the personnel — high-class gunners were transferred to the ranks of the infantry-but also the weapons themselves. So, the howitzer "Palladin" still shoots only 25 kilometers, and its modernization potential has long been exhausted.
In Russia, artillery was never left without attention, including self-propelled artillery installations. The most modern tracked self-propelled gun 2SV35 "Coalition-SV" confidently sends 152-millimeter shells to 80 kilometers with satellite adjustment. Moreover, the rate of fire of the gun is from 11 to 16 rounds per minute, since loading and firing are fully automated.
SAU " Coalition-SV"
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev
