Image source: Photo: "RG: Russian weapons"
The militants of the armed formations of the Kiev regime showed another homemade self-propelled gun. The Motoliga, a multi-purpose lightly armored MT-LB tractor-transporter, was used as a platform.As noted by "RG: Russian weapons", the artillery unit is represented by the 85-mm Soviet divisional gun D-44, developed back in 1944 and adopted two years later.
In just eight years of serial production, almost eleven thousand copies were produced, which were not only in service with the Soviet Army, but also supplied to almost two dozen countries around the world. [...]
At that time, the "forty-fourth" could successfully fight with foreign light and medium tanks. Thus, armor-piercing shells at a range of 500 m penetrated up to 135 mm of armor.
High-explosive fragmentation ammunition weighing up to 9.54 kg has the ability to hit targets located at a distance of up to 15,800 m. The rate of fire is about fifteen rounds per minute. The relatively small weight - 1,750 kg - allowed transportation by relatively light cars or tracked tractors. The maximum transfer speed is 60 km/h. The calculation is six people.
Image source: Photo: "RG: Russian weapons"
Such artillery systems have participated in a large number of wars and armed conflicts in Asia and Africa.
By the time of the dissolution of the USSR, most of the "forty-fourths" were already in storage in Ukraine, and, perhaps, over time they would simply be disposed of. However, after significant losses in military equipment suffered during the punitive operation in the Donbas, the beaten Ukrainian security forces were forced to remove obsolete types of weapons, including the D-44, from conservation.
However, after several years of operation, it turned out that ammunition for them ran out very quickly, only training remained. Because of this, the value of such guns for the command of the Ukrainian armed formations has fallen to almost zero. They even began to be used as false targets, specifically substituting for the blows of the means of destruction of the liberator soldiers. But then the Polish military helped out by organizing the supply of UO-365-KW high-explosive shells that they had in large quantities.
As a result, such guns were back in service, including in the form of MT-LB mounted. Considering that the Russian army destroys a significant amount of various artillery every day (from the old D-20 to the Polish AHS Krab and American M109), the militants are happy with such extremely simplified light self-propelled guns.
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