The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation during the military-technical forum "Army-2023" signed a state contract for the supply of the latest self-propelled artillery units (ACS) 2C43 "Malva" on a wheeled chassis to the Russian armed forces. In the same place, in Kubinka near Moscow, the novelty itself was presented at the exposition of promising weapons samples. About the ACS, unique for the Russian army, in the material of TASS.
From tracks to wheels
A large number of self-propelled artillery units are serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and are used in a special military operation. These are light floating "Nona-S" of 120 mm caliber, 122-mm "Carnation", formidable 152-mm guns "Hyacinth-S", "Acacia" and "Msta-S", a high-power self-propelled gun "Peony" with a caliber of 203 mm and its upgraded version "Malka". Finally, this is a 240-mm mortar of special power "Tulip", capable of destroying even a well-fortified object with one shot. But they all move on tracks.
A distinctive feature of the novelty of the Russian defense industry with the flower name traditional for our artillery is an automobile chassis with an 8x8 wheel formula produced by the Bryansk Automobile Plant. This gives Malva an important advantage: high mobility.
He developed a self-propelled gun of the Central Research Institute "Burevestnik", which is part of the Rostec State Corporation. "Our main priority is to save the lives of Russian servicemen, and therefore we pay special attention to improving the mobility of self—propelled artillery systems and protecting their crews," Rostec quoted Bekhan Ozdoev, industrial director of the cluster of armaments, ammunition and special chemicals of the corporation, as saying. "Thanks to the wheeled chassis, the Malva howitzer is able to quickly deploy to a position and leave it, avoiding return fire, which is very important in conditions of counter—battery warfare."
The howitzer has the ability to fire in the "fire raid with one gun" mode: the gun releases several ammunition sequentially along different trajectories, but they reach the target simultaneously, without giving the enemy time to hide.
In an interview with TASS, Ozdoev said that the main operations of preparing for firing at the howitzer are automated, a modern digital fire control system has been installed. In addition, the installations provide high protection of fighters and ammunition, more comfortable working conditions for the crew, which is also very important. The Mallow has an autonomous power unit that feeds the gun with electricity at the position. Another advantage of a wheeled self—propelled gun in comparison with tracked "brothers in arms" is a higher technical resource of the chassis and a lower cost of operation.
Formidable and elusive
The 152 mm Malva cannon was borrowed from the Msta-S tracked self-propelled gun, which has repeatedly confirmed its effectiveness. "Msta-S" is fighting in the special operation zone in Ukraine and uses a wide range of ammunition, including high-precision, laser-guided and hitting the target with the first shot. Paired with artillery reconnaissance complexes, it destroys artillery installations of Ukrainian nationalists.
As with a number of tracked self-propelled guns, the Mallow gun is installed openly. The self-propelled gun crew, sitting in an armored cabin during the march, is not protected by armor during combat work. The editor of the Arsenal of the Fatherland, Alexey Leonkov, in an interview with TASS, shared his opinion that insecurity is a conscious choice of designers who sought to reduce the weight of the car for the sake of mobility. In addition, artillery installations such as "Malva" are not designed for battles on the front line, where they can be hit by fragments of enemy ammunition.
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| Self-propelled gun "Malva". |
| Source: Sofia Sandurskaya/ TASS |
"They always shoot from a range of 5-10 km from the line of combat collision, and their value lies in the fact that such self—propelled guns can be used to build the tactics of "nomadic artillery," the expert explained, noting that such a tactical technique has become widespread during a special military operation.
"The cannon that is installed there allows you to fire up to eight rounds per minute. That is, eight shells left, and the ACS changed its location. The ammunition of such an ACS includes 30 shots. The wheeled chassis allows you to change position quickly, unlike tracked ones, and thus you can conduct disturbing fire on enemy positions while remaining invulnerable," Leonkov said.
According to the information plate at the Army-2023 exposition, the Malva is capable of hitting targets at a distance of 25 km, accelerates on the highway to 85 km/h and has a power reserve of 800 km. The speed of the tracked self-propelled vehicle "Msta-S", which is a quarter heavier than the wheeled "girlfriend", does not exceed 60 km / h, and without refueling it is able to travel 500 km.
According to the expert, the enemy's counter-battery radars, which detect artillery along the flight path of the projectiles fired, significantly reduced the time to determine the coordinates of firing positions. "If earlier this time was about 10-15 minutes, now they are already working in less than 5 minutes," Leonkov said.
Another possible scenario for the use of the novelty is the defeat of objects with high—precision ammunition paired with guidance systems. "That is, he fired, hit the object pointwise — changed his position," the expert suggested.
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| Self-propelled 82 mm mortar "Drok". |
| Source: Viktor Bodrov/ TASS |
By the way, this is not the only example of a wheeled artillery system shown at Army-2023 and designed for the same rapid attacks and changing positions. The self-propelled 82-mm mortar "Drok" based on the armored vehicle-SUV "Typhoon", which was on display near the "Malva", can aim 12 mines at a distance of up to 6 km in a minute. At the same time, the calculation does not need to get out of the car — it remains under the protection of the reservation. This is important, since the "Drok" is forced to conduct combat work on the "front". The maximum speed of the "Gorse" on the frontline highway is 90 km/h.
In battle, it's not the characteristics that decide
It's no secret that wheeled self-propelled artillery units have been produced in the West for a long time. They are also fighting in Ukraine on the side of the Kiev regime. For example, Slovakia handed over Zuzana 2 self—propelled guns to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the Czech Republic - their predecessors Dana—M2, Sweden - Archer ACS, France — Caesar installations. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has repeatedly reported on the destruction of these types of vehicles. In addition, Ukraine has developed its own self—propelled gun - Bogdana. It is not known for certain about the number of units produced and their participation in hostilities.
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| Self-propelled gun Caesar. |
| Source: Viktor Bodrov/ TASS |
Foreign artillery systems differ in design, rate of fire, firing range. For example, the Archer has an automatic loader, and the Zuzana 2 is also equipped with an armored fighting compartment that can withstand bullets from large-caliber small arms.
Leonkov believes that it is incorrect to directly compare the characteristics of "Malva" and Western "gifts" to Kiev.
"It is not the technical characteristics on the battlefield that decide its outcome, but how this artillery system works in combination with other systems," the expert expressed his opinion. For example, Zuzana 2 participated in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in 2020, but its effectiveness, according to Leonkov, was due to the lack of the Armenian side's ability to conduct a counter-battery fight. And Caesar, which the press wrote about last summer, has now disappeared from the media space, although it continues to appear in the reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the destroyed equipment of the Armed Forces.
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| The model of the ACS Zuzana 2. |
| Source: Viktor Bodrov/ TASS |
And a direct comparison of data often does not go in favor of foreign cars. Zuzana 2 and Caesar have a rate of fire of six rounds per minute, inferior to the "Malva".
The data of the Ukrainian modernized Bogdana is even more modest. According to information from open sources, the ACS, presented at the IDEX 2023 arms exhibition in the United Arab Emirates in the form of an advertising leaflet, will be able to fire five shots per minute, and the ammunition carried will be 20 shells.
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| The model of the self-propelled gun "Bogdana". |
| Source: Viktor Bodrov/ TASS |
In addition, Leonkov noted the high modernization potential of the Russian wheeled self-propelled gun, recalling as an example that on the basis of the "Msta-S" the self-propelled gun "Coalition-SV" of the latest generation was created. It has the means of automating the processes of gun guidance, is capable of firing up to 10 shells per minute and hitting targets at a distance of up to 70 km. The opinion of the military expert is confirmed by the words of the deputy General director of Rostec, Vladimir Artyakov, who announced the development of a variant of the "Mallow" with an increased firing range.
.Victor Bodrov
