So, how many times you saw Krasnopol in units? Ever? I have never seen it except 2 of them fired on artillery exercise in 2013. And here we are talking about MSTA-B as a piece not its ammunition, MSTA-B as a platform is a problem not its ammunition.
How many units have you seen on exercise... did you see the exercise from start to finish... every shot fired... every target hit or not hit?
I have never seen it confirmed that Russian soldiers issued with SVD rifles use specialist sniper ammo... for all anyone knows they might just use MG ammo, but I can make some assumptions... like the fact that if you are training troops to fire a gun then firing lots of conventional rounds is a good way to do that. However if the purpose is to kill targets then firing one round that hits is much cheaper than firing a dozen rounds that should effectively deal with the target mathematically.
APU? Why do they need APU? For balistic computer, for hydraulic pump, for tactical mobility when on firing position, for loading assistance equipment.... APU is the reason why its so much easier to use in field compared to MSTA, no manual winching around, no need for spinal cord manual labor... naturally all the "conventional" systems exist as a backup. Only real disadvantage of APU is IR spectrum signature, that is reason why Yugoslavians did not put APU on their original towed M84 Nora, which proved as good during 1999. war, however when its about Russia which should be able to actually protect its ground assets from air strikes it does not matter much really.
APUs are not space age, plenty of Anti tank guns had APUs including Sprut... such limited mobility would be important for an anti tank gun but not that important for towed artillery... artillery is hardly an ambush weapon that needs to move the instant after the trap is sprung...
Other APU issues are cost and weight and unnecessary added complication.
And i am really sorry but MSTA-B is based on early 70s technology... only really modern features on it from pure engineering aspects are hydraulic counter-recoil "rails" and a emulsion/oil (not rly sure which probably pure oil) cooled recoil brake but those exist for quite some time, still they were very nicely thought out on MSTA.
Your apology is not necessary... I realise WWI continues to this day in the Balkans, but for the rest of the world the 1970s is not WWI.
Other than that its extremly and way to simple artillery piece. Biggest issue is apsolute lack of any automation, 0, well except spring breech but its not real automation. It takes 10 minutes to set up position for howtizers like MSTA-B or M84, M46 and similar if you do everything by the book, and that is one of the main issues here, meanwhlie with FH77 if terrain is not too bad you can be ready in minute or so.
Yes, I hear airport security is no longer bothering with bolt action rifles because they are just so crude and simple and couldn't possibly be used to threaten or kill people in this day and age.
I find it funny you are trying to portray a weapon system that is simple as also being bad... does it need rails and laser sights and front mounted pistol grips?
Who cares if it takes a week to set up... you get spotted when you fire and that is when you need to move.... of course considering the MSTA will be operating with the Russian Army and will be operating under its air defence then it can probably take its time to move most of the time.
I mean seriously even Yugo M84B2 howtizer had pneumatic loading assistance with compressed Nitrogen i belive, lacked naturally APU and other modern features but that was in plans post 1991. which never happened.
If it never happened then you are not allowed to mention it...
T15 is IFV which is...not..in...service. Can we please limit ourself to stuff that actually exist in numbers higher than 25. At this point we have only APCs based on tank chasis, in future sure we will have IFVs, possibly not only from Russia. But that is not what we talked here about at all. I used CV90 ans an example of armored vehicle being produced by above mentioned countries.
This is the Russian Gun Artillery thread the T15 exists and will go into service in the near future... why ignore it?
CV90 seems to be scandinavian limited vehicle and therefore rather unimportant in military discussions.
i clearly said in my posts that MSTA-B has advantage with baseline ammunition in range and that its fine piece in terms of mechanical engineering, what did i paint there black and white exacly.
It is not a sophisticated western weapon so it must be crude and primitive and from WWI... the fact that it shoots further and has a much better range of ammo than the FH70 is unimportant to you.
I said 5 times already, MSTA-B is good artillery piece from the engineering point of view, however its badly, badly outdated in terms of equipment.
AK74 is a great rifle, still its going to be replaced in future coz it (among other things) does not have simple rails for electro-optical devices and not that great ergonomy. And its going to be fixed with AK12 or AEK doesnt even matter. Same is with MSTA-B. Its fine from mechanical aspect, but its horrid in "sophisticated" department, come on even famous UK 105mm "light gun" L118 got balistic computer, diagnostics, bore temperature sensors, chamber temperature, position and navigation chip, velocity radar etc... and its supposed to be a toy compared to MSTA-B. I am not sure what are you all trying to say, that MSTA-B is just fine, that it should be kept in this current state next 30 years?
No. I am claiming you are clearly a fool. The gun doesn't operate on its own in a vaccuum... just because you know of no upgrades to the weapon does not mean that all the troops and equipment and vehicles that operate with it have had no improvements or upgrades.
Why put an APU on a towed gun and a ballistics computer when such calculations can be made in real time by the recon platforms gathering the data? Are your troops so stupid as to need an electric motor to dial in the elevation and position of the target for them, or could they do that manually without extra cost or complication?
In minus 30 degrees when that FH77 does not work how space age is it?
it still wont be slaved to the gun and everything is still manual, and that is part that has to be changed. MSTA-B is not ultra light howtizer it needs partial automation if its to compete.
Yeah... making it cost more and making it more expensive will make it much better...