Artillery gun: types and firing range. Overview of artillery pieces from ancient to modern
Everyone knows how great is the importance of artillery in modern combat. The guns are capable of hitting enemy manpower, tanks and aircraft, and destroying the enemy, located in open space and in shelters.
At the same time, a number of ordinary people mistakenly attribute all these merits to the cannon, having little idea of what a howitzer is and how they differ. What is the difference between a cannon and a howitzer.
A gun- one of the types of artillery guns with a long barrel and a high muzzle velocity, good range.
Howitzer is a type of artillery gun for mounted firing outside the line of sight of the target from covered positions.
Comparison of guns and howitzers
What is the difference between a cannon and a howitzer? The gun has a long barrel and a high initial velocity of the projectile, which makes it convenient to hit moving objects from it. In addition, the gun is the most long-range of all types of guns. The elevation angle of the barrel of the gun is small, and therefore the projectile flies along a flat trajectory. Such features make the gun very effective in direct fire. When firing fragmentation projectiles, the cannon is good for incapacitating enemy manpower (being at an acute angle to the surface, bursting, the projectile covers a large area with fragments).
The howitzer is mainly used for mounted shooting, while the servants often do not see the enemy. The length of the howitzer barrel is less than that of the cannon, as is the charge of gunpowder, as well as the muzzle velocity of the projectile. But the howitzer has a significant angle of elevation of the barrel, thanks to which it is possible to shoot from it at targets located behind shelters. The howitzer is also financially more profitable: the walls of its barrel are thinner, it requires less metal for production and gunpowder for firing than a cannon. The weight of a howitzer is much less than the weight of a cannon with the same caliber.
The gun is more suitable for defensive actions. The howitzer, on the contrary, is for the offensive - it is capable of sowing panic behind enemy lines, disrupting communications and control, and also creating a barrage of fire in front of its own attacking troops.
What is the difference between a cannon and a howitzer
A cannon is an artillery weapon for flat firing with a high muzzle velocity.
Howitzer - a type of gun for mounted shooting from closed positions.
The barrel of a cannon is longer than that of a howitzer.
The muzzle velocity of a cannon is higher than that of a howitzer.
It is most convenient to hit moving and open targets from a cannon.
The howitzer is designed for mounted firing at covered targets.
The cannon is the most long-range weapon type.
A howitzer is lighter than a cannon with the same calibers, and the charge of gunpowder of its shells is less.
The gun is good on the defensive, the howitzer is good on the offensive.
In the second half of the century before last, attempts by gunsmiths-gunners to increase the range of guns ran into a limitation created by the fast-burning black powders used at that moment. A powerful propellant charge created a gigantic pressure during detonation, but as the projectile moved along the bore, the pressure of the powder gases quickly dropped.
This factor influenced the design of the guns of that time: the breech parts of the guns had to be made with very thick walls that could withstand enormous pressure, while the barrel length remained relatively small, since there was no practical value in increasing the barrel length. The record holder guns of that time had an initial projectile speed of 500 meters per second, and ordinary specimens were even less.
The first attempts to increase the range of the gun due to multi-chamber
In 1878, the French engineer Louis-Guillaume Perreaux proposed the idea of using several additional explosive charges located in separate chambers located outside the breech of the gun. According to his idea, the undermining of gunpowder in additional chambers should have occurred as the projectile moved along the bore, thereby ensuring a constant pressure created by powder gases.
In theory gun with additional chambers it was supposed to surpass the classic artillery guns of that time both literally and figuratively, but this is only in theory. In 1879, (according to other sources in 1883), a year after the innovation proposed by Perrault, two American engineers James Richard Haskell and Azel S. Lyman embody Perrault's multi-chamber gun in metal.
The brainchild of the Americans, in addition to the main chamber, in which 60 kilograms of explosives were laid, had 4 additional ones with a load of 12.7 kilograms each. Haskell and Lyman counted on the fact that the explosion of gunpowder in additional chambers would occur from the flame of the main charge as the projectile moved along the barrel and opened fire access to them.
However, in practice, everything turned out differently than on paper: the detonation of charges in additional chambers occurred prematurely, contrary to the expectations of the designers, and in fact the projectile was not accelerated by the energy of additional charges, as expected, but was slowed down.
A projectile fired from a five-chamber cannon of the Americans showed a modest 335 meters per second, which meant a complete failure of the project. The failure in the field of using multi-chamber to increase the range of artillery guns made weapons engineers forget about the idea of additional charges before the Second World War.
Multi-chamber artillery pieces of World War II
During World War II, the idea of using multi-chamber artillery guns to increase the firing range actively developed by Nazi Germany. Under the command of engineer August Könders, in 1944, the Germans begin to implement the V-3 project, code-named (HDP) "High Pressure Pump".
Monstrous in its scope, a gun 124 meters long, 150 mm in caliber and weighing 76 tons was supposed to participate in the shelling of London. The estimated range of its arrow-shaped projectile was more than 150 kilometers; the projectile itself, 3250 mm long and weighing 140 kilograms, carried 25 kg of explosive. The barrel of the HDP gun consisted of 32 sections 4.48 meters long, each section (except for the breech from where the projectile was loaded) had two additional charging chambers located at an angle to the bore.
The weapon was nicknamed "Centipede" due to the fact that additional charging chambers gave the weapon a resemblance to an insect. In addition to range, the Nazis relied on rate of fire, since the estimated reload time of the Centipede was only a minute: it’s scary to imagine what would have been left of London if Hitler’s plans had come true.
Due to the fact that the implementation of the V-3 project involved the implementation of a huge amount of construction work and the involvement of a large number of workers, the Allied forces learned about the active preparation of positions for the placement of five HDP-type guns and on July 6, 1944, the forces of the British Air Force bomber squadron bombed the building under construction in stone galleries long-range battery.
After the fiasco with the V-3 project, the Nazis developed a simplified version of the gun under the code designation LRK 15F58, which, by the way, managed to take part in the shelling of Luxembourg by the Germans from a distance of 42.5 kilometers. The LRK 15F58 gun was also 150 mm caliber and had 24 additional charging chambers with a barrel length of 50 meters. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, one of the surviving guns was taken to the United States for study.
Ideas for using multi-chamber guns to launch satellites
Perhaps inspired by the successes of Nazi Germany and having a working sample in hand, the United States, together with Canada, began work on the High Altitude Research Project HARP in 1961, the purpose of which was to study the ballistic properties of objects launched into the upper atmosphere. A little later, the military became interested in the project, who hoped with the help multi-chamber light gas guns and probes.
In just six years of the project's existence, more than a dozen guns of various calibers were built and tested. The largest of them is a gun located in Barbados, which had a caliber of 406 mm with a barrel length of 40 meters. The gun fired 180-kilogram shells to a height of about 180 kilometers, while the initial velocity of the projectile reached 3600 meters per second.
But even such an impressive speed, of course, was not enough to put the projectile into orbit. The project manager, Canadian engineer Gerald Vincent Bull, developed the Marlet rocket projectile to achieve the desired results, but he was not destined to fly and the HARP project ceased to exist in 1967.
The closure of the HARP project was certainly a blow to the ambitious Canadian designer Gerald Bull, because he may have been a few steps away from success. For several years, Bull unsuccessfully searched for a sponsor for a grandiose project. In the end, Saddam Hussein became interested in the talent of an artillery engineer. He offers Bull financial patronage in exchange for the post of project manager for the creation of a super weapon in the framework of the Babylon project.
From the scarce data available in the public domain, four different guns are known, of which at least one used a slightly modified multi-chamber principle. To achieve a constant gas pressure in the barrel, in addition to the main charge, there was an additional one fixed directly on the projectile and moving along with it.
Based on the results of testing a 350 mm caliber gun, it was assumed that a two-ton projectile fired from a similar 1000 mm caliber gun could launch small (up to 200 kilograms) satellites into orbit, while the launch cost was estimated at about $ 600 per kilogram, which is an order of magnitude cheaper than a launch vehicle.
As you can see, someone did not like such close cooperation between the ruler of Iraq and a talented engineer, and as a result, Bull was killed in 1990 in Brussels after working on the super-weapon project for only two years.
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During the Second World War, Fried.Krupp AG, in collaboration with many dozens, if not hundreds, of other German firms manufactured two 800-mm railway artillery mounts, known as Dora and Schwerer Gus-tav 2. They are the largest artillery pieces throughout the history of mankind and are unlikely to ever lose this title.
The creation of these monsters was largely provoked by pre-war French propaganda, which colorfully described the power and impregnability of the defenses of the Maginot line, built on the border between France and Germany. Since German Chancellor A. Hitler planned to cross this border sooner or later, he needed appropriate artillery systems to crush the border fortifications.
In 1936, during one of his visits to Fried.Krupp AG, he asked what should be a weapon capable of destroying the control bunker on the Maginot line, the existence of which he had learned shortly before from reports in the French press.
The calculations presented to him soon showed that in order to break through a seven-meter-thick reinforced concrete ceiling and a meter-long steel slab, an armor-piercing projectile weighing about seven tons was needed, which suggested the presence of a barrel with a caliber of about 800 mm.
Since the shooting had to be carried out from a distance of 35000-45000 m, in order not to fall under the blows of enemy artillery, the projectile had to have a very high initial velocity, which is impossible without a long barrel. A gun with a caliber of 800 mm with a long barrel, according to the calculations of German engineers, could not weigh less than 1000 tons.
Knowing A. Hitler’s craving for gigantic projects, the Fried.Krupp AG firms were not surprised when, “at the urgent request of the Fuhrer,” the Wehrmacht Arms Department asked them to develop and manufacture two guns with the characteristics presented in the calculations, and to ensure the necessary mobility, it was proposed place it on the rail transporter.
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800 mm gun 80 cm K. (E) on a railway transporter |
Work on the realization of the Fuhrer's wishes was started in 1937 and carried out very intensively. But due to the difficulties that arose when creating, first of all, the gun barrel, the first shots from it were fired at an artillery range only in September 1941, when the German troops dealt with both France and its “impregnable” Maginot line.
Nevertheless, work on the creation of a heavy-duty artillery mount continued, and in November 1941, the gun was no longer fired from a temporary carriage mounted at the training ground, but from a regular railway transporter. In January 1942, the creation of an 800-mm railway artillery mount was completed - it entered service with the specially formed 672nd artillery battalion.
The name Dora was assigned to the gunners of this division. It is believed that it came from an abbreviation of the expression douner und doria - "damn it!", which everyone who saw this monster for the first time involuntarily exclaimed.
Like all railway artillery installations, Dora consisted of the gun itself and the railway transporter. The length of the gun barrel was 40.6 calibers (32.48 m!), The length of the rifled part of the barrel was about 36.2 calibers. The barrel bore was locked by a wedge gate equipped with a hydraulic drive with a crank.
The survivability of the barrel was estimated at 100 shots, but in practice, after the first 15 shots, signs of wear began to be detected. The mass of the gun was 400,000 kg.
In accordance with the purpose of the gun, an armor-piercing projectile weighing 7100 kg was developed.
It contained “only” 250.0 kg of explosives, but its walls were 18 cm thick, and the massive head was hardened.
This projectile was guaranteed to penetrate an eight-meter ceiling and a meter-long steel plate, after which the bottom fuse detonated the explosive charge, thus completing the destruction of the enemy bunker.
The initial speed of the projectile was 720 m / s, due to the presence of a ballistic tip made of aluminum alloy on it, the firing range was 38,000 m.
High-explosive shells weighing 4800 kg were also fired to the cannon. Each such projectile contained 700 kg of explosives and was equipped with both a head and a bottom fuse, which made it possible to use it as an armor-piercing high-explosive projectile. When fired with a full charge, the projectile developed an initial velocity of 820 m/s and could hit a target at a distance of 48,000 m.
The propellant charge consisted of a charge in a cartridge case weighing 920 kg and two cartridge charges weighing 465 kg each. The rate of fire of the gun was 3 rounds per hour.
Due to the large size and weight of the gun, the designers had to design a unique railway transporter that occupied two parallel railway tracks at once.
On each track there was one of the parts of the conveyor, which in design resembled the conveyor of a conventional railway artillery installation: a welded box-shaped main beam on two balancers and four five-axle railway carts.
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Thus, each of these parts of the conveyor could move independently along the railway tracks, and their connection with transverse box-shaped beams was carried out only at the firing position.
After assembling the conveyor, which was essentially the lower machine tool, an upper machine was installed on it with a cradle with an anti-recoil system, which included two hydraulic recoil brakes and two knurlers.
Following this, the gun barrel was mounted and the loading platform was assembled. In the tail section of the platform, two electrically driven lifts were installed to supply shells and charges from the railway track to the platform.
The lifting mechanism placed on the machine had an electric drive. It provided guidance of the gun in the vertical plane in the range of angles from 0° to +65°.
There were no mechanisms for horizontal aiming: railway tracks were built in the direction of firing, onto which the entire installation was then rolled. At the same time, shooting could only be carried out strictly parallel to these paths - any deviation threatened to turn the installation over under the influence of a huge recoil force.
Taking into account the unit for generating electricity for all electric drives of the installation, its mass was 135,000 kg.
For the transportation and maintenance of the Dora installation, a set of technical means was developed, which included a power train, a maintenance train, an ammunition train, handling equipment and several technical flights - up to 100 locomotives and wagons with a staff of several hundred people. The total mass of the complex was 4925100 kg.
Formed for the combat use of the installation, the 672nd artillery battalion of 500 people consisted of several units, the main of which were headquarters and firing batteries. The headquarters battery included computing groups that made all the calculations necessary for aiming at the target, as well as a platoon of artillery observers, in which, in addition to conventional means (theodolites, stereotubes), infrared technology, new for that time, was also used.
In February 1942, the Dora railway artillery was placed at the disposal of the commander of the 11th Army, who was tasked with capturing Sevastopol.
A group of staff officers flew to the Crimea in advance and chose a firing position for a gun in the area of the village of Duvankoy. For the engineering preparation of the position, 1,000 sappers and 1,500 workers were forcibly mobilized from among the local residents.
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Projectile and charge in the sleeve of the 800-mm gun K. (E) |
The protection of the position was assigned to a guard company of 300 fighters, as well as a large group of military police and a special team with guard dogs.
In addition, there was a reinforced military chemical unit of 500 people, designed to lay a smoke screen for camouflage from the air, and a reinforced air defense artillery battalion of 400 people. The total number of personnel involved in servicing the installation was more than 4,000 people.
The preparation of the firing position, located at a distance of about 20 km from the defensive structures of Sevastopol, ended in the first half of 1942. At the same time, a special access road 16 km long had to be laid from the main railway line. After the completion of the preparatory work, the main parts of the installation were submitted to the position and its assembly began, which lasted a week. When assembling, two cranes with diesel engines with a capacity of 1000 hp were used.
The combat use of the installation did not give the results that the Wehrmacht command had hoped for: only one successful hit was recorded, which caused an explosion of an ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 m. In other cases, a cannon shell, penetrating into the ground, pierced a round barrel with a diameter of about 1 m up to 12 m deep. At the base of the barrel, as a result of the explosion of a warhead, the soil was compacted and a drop-shaped cavity with a diameter of about 3 m was formed. several guns of smaller caliber.
After the capture of Sevastopol by German troops, the Dora installation was transported near Leningrad to the Taitsy station area. The same type of installation Schwerer Gustav 2 was also delivered here, the production of which was completed in early 1943.
After the beginning of the operation by the Soviet troops to break the blockade of Leningrad, both installations were evacuated to Bavaria, where in April 1945 they were blown up when American troops approached.
Thus ended the most ambitious project in the history of German and world artillery. However, if we consider that only 48 shots were fired at the enemy out of both 800-mm railway artillery mounts, this project can also be considered the most grandiose mistake in planning the development of artillery.
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It is noteworthy that the Dora and Schwerer Gustav 2 installations are operated by Fried. Krupp AG did not limit itself to creating superguns.
In 1942, her project of the 520-mm Langer Gustav railway artillery mount appeared. The smoothbore gun of this installation had a length of 43 m (according to other sources - 48 m) and was supposed to fire active rockets developed at the Peenemünde research center. Firing range - over 100 km. In 1943, Minister of Armaments A. Speer reported the Langer Gustav project to the Fuhrer and received the go-ahead for its implementation. However, after a detailed analysis, the project was rejected: due to the monstrous weight of the barrel, it was not possible to create a conveyor for it, which, moreover, could withstand the loads that arise when fired.
At the end of the war, A. Hitler's headquarters also seriously discussed the project of placing the 800-mm Dora gun on a caterpillar conveyor. It is believed that the Fuhrer himself was the author of the idea of this project.
This monster was supposed to be driven by four diesel engines from submarines, and the calculation and main mechanisms were protected by 250 mm armor.
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The Archer self-propelled guns use the chassis of a Volvo A30D with a 6x6 wheel arrangement. The chassis is equipped with a diesel engine with a capacity of 340 horsepower, which allows you to reach speeds on the highway up to 65 km / h. It is worth noting that the wheeled chassis can move through snow up to one meter deep. If the wheels of the installation were damaged, then the ACS can still move for some time.
A distinctive feature of the howitzer is the absence of the need for additional calculation numbers for loading it. The cockpit is armored to protect the crew from small arms fire and ammunition fragments.
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"Msta-S" is designed to destroy tactical nuclear weapons, artillery and mortar batteries, tanks and other armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, manpower, air defense and missile defense systems, command posts, as well as to destroy field fortifications and impede the maneuvers of enemy reserves in the depth of his defenses. It can fire at observed and unobserved targets from closed positions and direct fire, including work in mountainous conditions. When firing, both shots from the ammunition rack and those fired from the ground are used, without loss in rate of fire.
Crew members are talking with the help of intercom equipment 1V116 for seven subscribers. External communication is carried out using the R-173 VHF radio station (range up to 20 km).
The additional equipment of self-propelled guns includes: automatic 3-fold action PPO with control equipment 3ETs11-2; two filtering units; self-digging system mounted on the lower frontal sheet; TDA powered by the main engine; system 902V "Cloud" for firing 81-mm smoke grenades; two tank degassing devices (TDP).
8 AS-90
Self-propelled artillery mount on a tracked chassis with a rotating turret. The hull and turret are made of 17 mm steel armor.
The AS-90 replaced all other types of artillery in the British Army, both self-propelled and towed, with the exception of the L118 light towed howitzers and MLRS, and were used by them in combat during the Iraq War.
7 Krabs (based on AS-90)
The SPH Krab is a 155mm NATO compliant self-propelled howitzer manufactured in Poland by Produkcji Wojskowej Huta Stalowa Wola. The ACS is a complex symbiosis of the Polish chassis of the RT-90 tank (with the S-12U engine), an artillery unit from the AS-90M Braveheart with a long barrel of 52 caliber, and its own (Polish) Topaz fire control system. The 2011 SPH Krab version uses a new gun barrel from Rheinmetall.
SPH Krab was immediately created with the ability to fire in modern modes, that is, for the MRSI mode (multiple simultaneous impact shells) as well. As a result, SPH Krab within 1 minute in MRSI mode fires 5 projectiles at the enemy (that is, at the target) for 30 seconds, after which it leaves the firing position. Thus, for the enemy, a complete impression is created that 5 self-propelled guns are firing at him, and not one.
6 M109A7 "Paladin"
Self-propelled artillery mount on a tracked chassis with a rotating turret. The hull and turret are made of rolled aluminum armor, which provides protection against small arms fire and field artillery shell fragments.
In addition to the United States, it became the standard self-propelled guns of NATO countries, was also supplied in significant quantities to a number of other countries and was used in many regional conflicts.
5PLZ05
The ACS turret is welded from rolled armor plates. Two four-barreled blocks of smoke grenade launchers were installed on the frontal part of the tower to create smoke screens. A hatch for the crew is provided in the aft part of the hull, which can be used to replenish ammunition while supplying ammunition from the ground to the loading system.
The PLZ-05 is equipped with an automatic gun loading system developed on the basis of the Russian Msta-S self-propelled guns. The rate of fire is 8 rounds per minute. The howitzer gun has a caliber of 155 mm and a barrel length of 54 calibers. The gun ammunition is located in the turret. It consists of 30 rounds of 155 mm caliber and 500 rounds for a 12.7 mm machine gun.
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The Type 99 155mm self-propelled howitzer is a Japanese self-propelled howitzer in service with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. It replaced the obsolete self-propelled guns Type 75.
Despite the interests in self-propelled guns of the armies of several countries of the world, the sale of copies of this howitzer abroad was prohibited by Japanese law.
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The K9 Thunder self-propelled guns were developed in the mid-90s of the last century by the Samsung Techwin corporation by order of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea, in addition to the K55 \ K55A1 self-propelled guns in service with their subsequent replacement.
In 1998, the Korean government signed a contract with Samsung Techwin Corporation for the supply of self-propelled guns, and in 1999 the first batch of K9 Thunder was delivered to the customer. In 2004, Turkey bought a production license and also received a batch of K9 Thunder. A total of 350 units have been ordered. The first 8 self-propelled guns were built in Korea. From 2004 to 2009, 150 self-propelled guns were delivered to the Turkish army.
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Developed in the Nizhny Novgorod Central Research Institute "Burevestnik". SAU 2S35 is designed to destroy tactical nuclear weapons, artillery and mortar batteries, tanks and other armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, manpower, air defense and missile defense systems, command posts, as well as to destroy field fortifications and prevent maneuvers of enemy reserves in the depths of his defense . On May 9, 2015, the new 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzer was officially presented for the first time at the Parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in terms of a set of characteristics, the 2S35 self-propelled guns outperform similar systems by 1.5-2 times. Compared to the M777 towed howitzers and M109 self-propelled howitzers in service with the US Army, the Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzer has a higher degree of automation, an increased rate of fire and a firing range that meets modern requirements for combined arms combat.
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Self-propelled artillery mount on a tracked chassis with a rotating turret. The hull and turret are made of steel armor, which provides protection against bullets of up to 14.5 mm caliber and fragments of 152 mm shells. The possibility of using dynamic protection is provided.
The PzH 2000 is capable of firing three rounds in nine seconds or ten rounds in 56 seconds at ranges up to 30 km. The howitzer holds a world record - at a training ground in South Africa, she fired a V-LAP projectile (active rocket with improved aerodynamics) at 56 km.
Based on the combination of indicators, the PzH 2000 is considered the most advanced serial self-propelled guns in the world. ACS has earned extremely high marks from independent experts; Thus, the Russian specialist O. Zheltonozhko defined it as a reference system for the present, which all manufacturers of self-propelled artillery mounts are guided by.
