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152mm MSTA-BTowed Howitzer
Towed Howitzer
Mission
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152mm 2A65 Msta-B towed howitzer is designed to engage hostile exposed and sheltered manpower, weapons, tactical nuclear weapons, command and control posts, artillery and mortar batteries, tanks and infantry in strongholds, at deployment lines and on march, AD and EW assets, etc., as well as to demolish field fortifications.
Features
Depending on the mission at hand, howitzer fires regular or HE-fragmentation rocket-assisted ammunition including cluster munitions filled with fragmentation, HEAT-fragmentation, or self-targeting submunitions, illuminating and smoke rounds, active tactical communications jamming rounds and Krasnopol laser beam-riding precision-guided projectiles.
Unlike other artillery systems, 2A65 howitzer can fire ammunition organic to ‘legacy’ pieces, e.g. 152mm D-20 gun-howitzer.
The weapon is mounted on a twotrail carriage provided with a firing platform. When trails are being split, the wheels’ springing automatically cuts off, which in combination with the three-baffle muzzle brake makes the howitzer very stable at firing. Msta-B has an elevation of 70 degrees, with traverse equalling 28degrees to the left and 27 degrees to the right. Laying is performed via a two-speed laying mechanism. The howitzer features separate loading which at any elevation is performed by the spring-operated projectile and propellant charge rammers cocked by the weapon’s recoiling parts in the course of firing. There is a loading tray to prevent round’s components from falling down. The tray is set into position automatically whenever the wedge-type breech mechanism is open. When in travelling configuration, Msta-B howitzer is towed by Ural-4320 or KamAZ-43118 truck. Basic specifications Full weight in travelling configuration, kg 7,000 Barrel length, cal 53 Max firing range, m:
HE-fragmentation round 24,700 rocket-assisted projectile 28,500 cannon-launched guided projectile 22,000-25,000 Weight, kg:
HE-fragmentation projectile 43.56
RAP 42.86 Cyclic rate of fire, rds/min 7 Max permissible rate of fire, rds/h 110 Operating temperature range, oC ±50
