2S43 "Malva" 152-mm SP howitzer

It has a rear mounted firing spade to absorb recoil but does not seem to have the jacks to stabilise the vehicle located around the vehicle.

In comparison. the Topol has jacks all around that actually lift the vehicle up off the ground for firing so when the weight of the vehicles suddenly changed when the missile is launched the energy is transmitted directly into the ground instead of the vehicles suspension.

Rather than having soldiers standing at the rear feeding rounds in to this gun it looks like it has some sort of auto loading system... their might be a loading vehicle that tops up a fixed auto loader with perhaps 6-12 rounds ready to fire and then the loading vehicle tops the auto loader back up with 6-12 more rounds or maybe it has a loader and direct feed so a burst loader is attached to the vehicle which can be hand loaded or loading vehicle loaded an then fired, or the burst loader can be filled but for normal ops it can be hand loaded or loaded from an auto loading vehicle for long periods of shelling with an option to use the burst feed loader for short high tempo bursts.

I would suspect this vehicle would probably significantly cheaper to buy and operate than any tracked model but also cheaper than the wheeled coalition... the wheeled coalition seems to have a full coalition turret so likely has 70-80 rounds and propellent charges ready to fire... but the loader support vehicle for this vehicle could probably also work with all artillery vehicles to allow sustained fire.

I would like to see a lighter towed 152mm gun that perhaps uses all the same projectiles, but a smaller lower energy propellent charge out to perhaps 25-30km or so.

It would mean it could be made lighter and more mobile under their new helicopter types for use in rugged terrain but with a heavy shell with a lot more power than the 122mm shell. In the mountains range is not so critical but lighter weight would make it easier to operate and move around the place... and ammo commonality would be valuable too.

A tracked or wheeled version of the lighter version could be smaller and more mobile and be used by naval infantry and VDV and would be a very powerful system using standard ammo...

The lightweight model 152mm gun could be mounted on an updated D-30 mount so it can turn 360 degrees to shoot in any direction.

this vehicle seems to have a turntable mount so it might be able to turn a few degrees either side but the single spade and no jacks suggests to me this lighter vehicle probably moves with the recoil so perhaps being able to aim 20-30 degrees either side of directly forward is probably about as good as it can manage... which is fine.

A spade would not be much good on a sealed road as it would not dig in, so it clearly leaves the road to fire, so lack of traverse is not a huge problem... the article does call it a cross country truck... called an all terrain truck.

Interesting in those photos above it uses what appear to be mortar base plates at the rear rather than a conventional spade...

Wonder if that means it can brace the vehicle on uneven ground or firing on a slope with perhaps one pushed down further than the other on a slope to level the vehicle when firing...

Interesting use of existing technology that already works.

Those rear spades actually look like mortar base plates... specifically 120mm mortar baseplates, which is interesting because when properly bedded they should be able to absorb recoil in any direction.... obviously when put in place the mortar can fire in any direction and the baseplate is designed to direct the recoil energy into the ground.

In theory that should mean with those rear mounted baseplates the gun should be able to be pointed in any direction with the main recoil going into the ground via these two baseplates without needing to dig out a spade and relocate and turn to fire in a different direction.

That is rather clever...

You don't actually see what happens but I suspect it is a three man operation where one jumps up on the right hand side where the ammo is stored and one on the left side and one stands on the ground between them. The guy on the right grabs a live shell and passes it down to the man on the ground who passes it to the guy on the left who loads it in the left side ready to be rammed by the autorammer up into the chamber while the guy on the right hand side has grabbed the propellent case and placed it into a feed tray beside the rammer (but from the other side to the projectile)... the round is rammed and then the propellent charge is rolled into line with the chamber/bore and it is rammed in behind the projectile and they all run to the protection of the small building for firing...

Would assume the gun auto relays after each shot for accuracy and rate of fire.

lancelot wrote:The specifications of the gun are way too weak.

But it will cost 1/3 of the tracked version.
It could be an issue if not a fact of having hundreds of MSTA and regular Koalitsya on the way.
But with the circumstances, it is a way to deliver punch at a factor of a cost.

lancelot wrote:It is not the same gun. Just look at it. It uses same gun as Msta-S. Not Koalitsiya.

It is not relevant.
Its role is to fill a niche of inexpensive both purchase and operation gun systems for low-intensity conflicts.
Sometimes it is quite complicated to figure the real idea Russkie had in mind, as they still operate the same gun systems in towed and tracked versions.
So wheeled is ... just another type.