News from the baddies
Well, let’s start with the Chinese. They have added a transport base to their PCL-181 howitzer. The gun is now on a 6-wheeled 6×6 truck, making it faster and more maneuverable that a bulky track system. The howitzer itself breaks with most Sov-style systems, too, in that fires standard NATO 155mm rounds rather than the more usual Russian 152mm rounds.
The howitzer is mounted on a wheeled 6×6 truck, not a tank-like track system, making it faster, lighter, and more mobile.
Its mount enables the gun to allegedly travel at speeds of over 56 mph (90 kph) with an operational range of more than 373 miles (600 kilometers). The howitzer platform can carry 27 rounds of ammunition. Interesting Engineering
The article cites a fair number of key points, like a semi-automatic loading system that allows them to fire up to 6 rounds per minute along with advanced targeting systems, satnav, digital communications. The wheeled chassis is able to be sited and fire within three minutes, and reposition accordingly (which I suspect will make counter-battery operations more difficult.)
Me, I am thinking their choice of caliber and loads means they are anticipating the use of captured ammunition without needing to modify the gun. Recent testing of the gun at high altitude mountainous conditions points to its versatility. It’d be nice to get some expert tube-arty commentary?
And it looks like it is time to say goodbye to an old friend. Sadly, the world’s biggest self-marking target may be leaving us – the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s smokin’ aircraft carrier (and I do mean that smokin’ literally!) may be taken out of service and broken up for scrap. Gone will be the days when she could be spotted below the horizon by her plumes of black smoke.
The pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Izvestia recently reported that the Russian military might be giving up on getting its troubled and only aircraft carrier back into service. Citing high ranking “informed sources,” they said the carrier might be decommissioned and broken down for scrap. The reason? The high costs of repairs and the greater focus on smaller, automated weapons systems in war. Now the military is weighing if the need to have an aircraft carrier, like other world powers, is worth the costs already sunk into the Admiral Kuznetsov.
Powered as she is by burning a Russian crude called mazut, the Kuznetsov spews fumes – externally as smoke, internally as unventilated fumes. Being posted to the Russian navy’s sole aircraft carrier should be a plum, prestigious assignment, no? Well, no – more like a punishment assignment, retribution for having screwed up elsewhere in the fleet.
It’s also been plagued by malfunctions, mechanical failures and fires. It often needs to be pulled by a tugboat. One sailor died when a fire broke out in 2009. In 2017, the ship went to dock for a major overhaul meant to extend its lifespan and address some of its major challenges. That process has had its own issues. In 2018 the floating dock sank, causing a large and heavy crane to crash into the Admiral Kuznetsov. There were multiple fires onboard the carrier, including one that killed two crewmembers. The overhaul was meant to be done in 2021 but it has continually pushed back its timeline, including notable claims from USC it would be back in service in 2024.
That last sounds like their shipyards were trained by ours, doesn’t it?
But if this is the end of the line for the Admiral Kuznetsov, then it is going out as it lived: at port and constantly broken. Task & Purpose
Glad it’s them and not us (cough cough Littoral Combat ship cough cough)
Assuming they are using copied US 155mm and not some funky Chinese cannon, the range and power are going to be much greater. While the diameter is only 3mm more a 155 shell is typically 40% longer. This allows packing in a lot more boom in every shell.
Max range w/rap on 152 is around 25km, on 155 it is 40km.
In theory accuracy is about the same. In practice, whoever practices the most usually does better. While the US has upped production by nearly 200% by expanding their Radford facility the Ukes have been shooting it almost as fast and the shortage has persisted for over three years now.
Any way we can “turn about is fair play”, and steal either one of these new CCP toys, or the plans, and copy some of the better features into our own 155 boom-boom cannons?
It’s quite likely it was stolen from us. We sit around on our ass playing Pentagon Wars instead of making shit.
https://www.armadainternational.com/2021/10/wheeled-self-propelled-artillery-at-ausa/
We are already moving the MLRS to a wheeled chassis from tracks. I didn’t understand why at first. I’m not a track guy nor Artillery, but all of the guys that I talked to that were – In The know – were happy with the change. I’m getting it now .
Guaranteed it uses technology Gerald Bull developed, too.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-military-self-propelled-howitzers-120630344.html
I believe the carrier’s crew were mostly transferred to rifle companies of the Russian Army and sent to Ukraine. Oof.
South Korea estimates that 1/3 of the troops sent by the NORKs to the Ukraine have become casualties. They are mostly CS troops too. It’s a typical Russian meat grinder hell.
I found a YouTube video of the NORKs in Ukraine. Just sad. One dood falls down trying to avoid a drone and accidentally shoots another one in the back of the head. Another NORK.
They’ve always been too worried about how to control them and keep them from defecting to worry about proper training.
A lot to be said for getting out of harm’s way as fast as you got into harm’s way…and not sending up smoke signals while you’re doing it.
“The gun is now on a 6-wheeled 6×6 truck, making it faster and more maneuverable that a bulky track system”
Does it carry a spare tire? Seems to me a sniper could
disable a wheeled vehicle quite easily whereas a tracked
vehicle could “flatten” a sniper.
I’m sure that many of the tires used in today’s combat vehicles are “run-flats”.
Hopefully more advanced and less complex than the ones I had to do PMCS on lo, too many decades ago (gel packets taped to the inside of the tire rim. if tire goes flat, packet is burst, gel is smeared around inside of tire, stopping leak. sounds simple, but wasn’t)
I recently had four new tires mounted and balanced
using the internal beads. No lead weights on the rims.
My mechanic puts them in all the logging trucks with
good results but to have them work in a pickup truck
is pretty cool.
As to the Russian Navy, what did they expect when they awarded the contract to All Points Logistics?
That Phil Monkies would be the Captain of the Ship.
Wheeled 6×6 trucks?
Do they expect to fight on urbanized terrain?
That shit doesn’t work on wadis and other unpaved terrain.
80% of Taiwan is urban so, yes.
Sounds like China wants to sell guns to small western customers who use 155mm.
Truck mounted is cheaper to maintain. Most of Europe has a vast road network.
Plenty of places need enough arty to discourage neighborly predation. If they don’t intend their own invasion adventures, and they have adequate roads and/or grassland, wheels work well enough.
Would not surprise me at all if China winds up offering truckmount 152s as well.
Can 152s be adapted to 155 tubes by adding fatter driving bands? Plus maybe an end cap?
Could they be built modularly (you know like a Navy LCS), Where you just swap out the barrel? Depending on the customer, you get a different barrel, but everything else is the same!
The recoil system would need modded for the differing energy of the round fired.