Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1173894
the driving band, however, the rear section came in a form of a metal foot and powder bags placed around. The quantity of the powder bags could have been changed quite rapidly. The foot had a primer element cast inside. This solution turned out to be an Achilles' heel of the 2A51 and its derivative. The pneumatic loading system frequently broke the powder bags when the round was placed in the chamber. Thus, the loading process had to be conducted very carefully. The loader had to carefully place the round on the ramrod element and he also had to inspect the powder bags. As a result, the system had an actual rate of fire of 5 to 6 RPM, meaning that it was never even close to the declared 10 RPM. The ammunition, however, was deadly. 3ОF49 round had a range of 8850 m. Its 4.9 kg A-IX-2 (RDX) explosive load was an equiv- alent of 5.7 kg of TNT. This is a record that has not been broken yet, defined for 120 mm mortar rounds. Meanwhile, 3ОF50 round, with an auxiliary rocket engine fitted to it, had a range of 12.800 m (with a low- er accuracy) and 3.5 kg of A-IX-2 (equivalent of 4.14 kg of TNT). Rus- sians have also developed a 3BK-19 shaped-charge round capable of penetrating 600 mm of steel. It had a range of 500 to 800 meters. The whole gun was placed in a small, tight but light turret on BMD-1. The new system entered production in 1981 as 2S9 Nona. It was only 8.7 tons, had excellent mobility, was amphibious and could have been air dropped. The four-man crew was protected against firearms and frag- mentation. The new vehicle also had high firepower and long range. It carried 25 rounds (usually - 5 shaped charge and 20 HE). However, 1P8 and 1P30 and lack of a proper fire control system were a major disad- vantage. As a result, it took longer to prepare the system to fire. The 1V119 Reostst battery-command vehicles were simply obsolete. Until 1991 around 1,000 2S9 were manufactured. Since some time now, a new, modernized 2S9-1M Nona has been in use. The only enhancement was automated artillery C2 suite coupled with a commander terminal and a radio. The concept was quite successful, and steps were taken to develop similar system for the land forces based on the BTR-70 and BTR-80. 2A60 gun-mortar became the basic building block here. It had a greater elevation range and low- er weight. The system inherited all the disadvantages of its predeces- sor. The mortar was placed in a new, larger welded turret with a small turret for the commander, fitted with the TKN-3A sight and manually dispensed 3D6 Tucha smoke grenades. The whole 2S23 Nona-SVK platform based on the BTR-80 chassis weighed 14.5 tons and carried 30 rounds. It had a range of 600 km on the road and 200 km off road. It has been manufactured since 1990, and 50-60 pieces were made. When compared to the much younger Rak platform, it is obvious that the 30 years old designs will be less capable. One could also ap- preciate the advantages: high mobility of 2S9, long range of the 3ОF50 rounds or firepower of 3ОF49. And this is where the advantages end. No fire control system is available in case of both of the aforesaid plat- forms. They also feature obsolete targeting systems. The turrets are not spacious. The loading process is semi-automatic and needs to be done with care. The comfort levels are low, to say the least, while the obsolete BTR-80 cannot be really compared to the Rosomak platform - in any domain whatsoever. 2S9-1M Nona received a simple fire control system in a form of commander terminals. However, this solution is a counterpart of the Polish Topaz system versions developed...20 years ago. The situation is improved by the fact that a very good Kapust- nik-B and -BM automated fire control element was introduced at the squadron level. However, 2S9 and 2S23 effectors are a bit obsolete. No complete system has been introduced, with an exception of the 1V119 Reostat vehicles. Reostat's direct fire capability is limited due to the lack of a targeting system, lack of a fire control system, long loading process and lack of active protection systems. Russia Russia inherited numerous advanced projects that had been launched before the fell of USSR. However, the Yeltsin era was not really friendly for those initiatives - it was impos- sible to finalize most of those projects until the 2000s. The process of development was so long that when they were ready for serial manufacturing, they turned out to be obso- lete which forced the Russians to upgrade them right away. The situation was very much similar in case www.fragoutmag.com