The RIA Novosti news agency reported that PJSC Kurganmashzavod (part of the holding of JSC NPO High-Precision Complexes of Rostec State Corporation) is working on the modernization of the self-propelled howitzer 2S18 "Pat-S" 152 mm caliber on the modified chassis of the infantry fighting vehicle BMP-3. This was reported to RIA Novosti in the holding.
The only manufactured prototype of the 152-mm self-propelled howitzer 2S18 "Pat-S" on the basis of the BMP-3 in the courtyard of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. St. Petersburg, April 2017 (from) ru-artillery.livejournal.com"Self-propelled artillery installations are being modernized on the basis of a modified BMP-3 chassis.
These vehicles, equipped with a 120-mm gun (experimental design work "Vienna") and a 152-mm gun, are able to significantly increase the efficiency of motorized rifle units," the company said.
From the bmpd side, we recall that the experimental 152-mm floating self-propelled artillery 2C18 "Pat-S" was developed in the mid-1980s by the Special Design Bureau of the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant (SKBM) based on the BMP-3 chassis for the regimental level of the Soviet Army.
The 2S18 self-propelled gun was equipped with a 2A63 howitzer swing part, developed by OKB-9 of Artillery Plant No. 9, unified with the light 152-mm towed howitzer 2A61 "Pat-B". The 2A61/2A63 gun can use all types of ammunition from 152 mm guns D-1, ML-20 and D-20. The ballistics approximately corresponds to the ML-20 gun when firing with a reduced variable charge No. 3, and, depending on the type of projectile, provides a maximum firing range from 13.7 to 15.2 km. Loading is separate-sleeve, the gun was equipped with a sending mechanism (which showed low reliability on tests). The ammunition of the 2C18 was 35 rounds. The ACS had a design full combat weight of 18.7 tons (according to some sources, the actual one is slightly more), a crew of five people and was floating.
Due to the obvious insufficiency of the gun's ballistics for the level of the 1980s, both "Pats" were not adopted, although the "Pat-B" was formally recommended for this in 1991 (as it is believed, for lobbying and political reasons). Only one prototype of the ACS 2S18 was manufactured, which, after the termination of the test program, was then stored at the Rzhevsky test site for about 30 years until the beginning of 2017, after which it was transferred to the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg.
Apparently, a howitzer with a firing range of 15 km (less than that of the D-20) is exactly what the Russian Army urgently needs now. Especially to combat the modern long-range Western artillery systems of 155-mm/52 caliber supplied to Ukraine. In general, the news about the attempt to reincarnate 2C18 testifies to the already well-known and increasingly accelerating trends in the domestic defense industry towards the obvious archaization and primitivization of many solutions in many areas under the "mobilization" sauce. Given the fact that the BMP-3 chassis is not cheap, however, the revival of the 2C18 still looks unlikely. Rather, apparently, it will soon come to the manufacture of all kinds of semi-improvised "self-propelled carriages" in the German style of the end of World War II.
The only manufactured prototype of the 152-mm self-propelled howitzer 2S18 "Pat-S" on the basis of the BMP-3 in the courtyard of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. St. Petersburg, April 2017 (from) ru-artillery.livejournal.com
