According to the official statement of the German Federal Government dated December 7, 2022, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is allowed to sell 18 RCH 155 wheeled howitzers to Ukraine. As a result, Ukraine will become the first customer of this newly developed weapon system.
The production will be financed from the Federal Government's Assistance Fund for Ukraine. According to previous media reports, the cost of the supplied weapons will be about 216 million euros. Since the systems have not yet been manufactured, weapons experts suggest that the contract may not be fulfilled until several years later. Consequently, Western sources conclude, the systems will not be able to provide short-term support on the current battlefield.
Howitzer RCH 155
The product is a derivative of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery howitzer (PzH 2000). KMW engineers integrated a remote-controlled system with a 155 mm/L52 caliber gun (remote-controlled howitzer, RCH 155) into the combat control module of the Boxer APC.
RCH 155 howitzer based on the Boxer armored personnel carrierThanks to remote control, a fully automatic projectile loading system and modular propellant charges, as well as inductive programming of fuses, the crew is reduced to two people.
The maximum combat load includes 30 shells and 144 modular propellant charges. Shooting is supported by a fire control computer with a built-in ballistic computer and radio communication that provides data exchange with the artillery guidance system. The latter uses a high-precision navigation system with or without GPS.
An electric drive is used to guide the weapon installation. The tower rotates 360°. The elevation angle of the barrel varies from -2.5 ° to 65 °, which allows you to fire both at long distances (for example, up to 40 km with a bottom pyrotechnic nozzle (Base Bleed) and up to 54 km with an active-rocket projectile (V-LAP), and direct fire. The use of high-precision guided projectiles of the Vulcano, Excalibur types is provided. Shooting in all directions is carried out without hydraulic supports, which allows you to quickly change position.
In mid-August 2021, KMW introduced a new (30 cm lower) version of the high-precision product. Its other features are a remote–controlled weapon station with a machine gun and an all-round view system for the crew. In addition, the "hunter-shooter" function is implemented for aiming at the target, which allows you to aim the gun through the weapon station.
Qualification of the RCH 155 howitzer on the company's side was completed in early 2022.
According to the materials of the resource soldat-und-technik.de
