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Born from necessity: A new Russian self propelled howitzer



 The Russian army introduced a new self propelled artillery system to the Ukrainian battlefields. 

Mystery SPG (Photo: mil.in.ua)


Ukrainian journal Mil.in.ua speculates that it is based on the Uraltranshmash 2S43 Malva wheeled SPG, that is basically a rear mounted 152mm A64 gun from the MSTA-S out in the open.


2S43 Malva



The new system has an independently rotating turret, but still an open turret. The layout is much closer to the Titan-Barrikady A-222 Bereg 130mm coastal artillery SPG, which has also seen combat in the Ukrainian southern front. A-222 Bereg isn’t a viable candidate for further production, as its non-standard caliber limits the available ammunition stocks and isn’t currently being produced in Russia.


A-222 Bereg



Russia is also suffering extremely hard attrition on all of its artillery systems, both from the Ukrainian counter battery fires and simply by barrels wearing out. There is a limited amount of machinery in Russia that is capable of producing a decent quality artillery barrel in the 152mm range. This limits the amount of newly built SPGs like 2S35 Koalitsiya, a replacement for the MSTA-S. MSTA-S is being phased out as its chassis is a T-80 derivative, while the Koalitsiya is based on the much easier to produce T-72/T-90 chassis.


2S35 Koalitsiya-SV



Russia is also losing vast quantities of main battle tanks of all imaginable types. The combination of refurbishing the increasingly worse tanks from the deep storage facilities and the manufacture of new T-72/T-90 tanks puts a lot of strain on both MBT parts and companies capable of working with tank systems like Uraltransmash.


On the other hand Titan-Barrikady, with its wheeled vehicle production, isn't under that heavy burden. From the industrial standpoint, it would make sense that the new SPG is a simplified and army use adapted variation of the A-222 Bereg system, that is being manufactured from available components. The Bryansk Automobile Plant is capable of producing enough base vehicles for the production and by the use of the Giazint-B barrels the new SPG also sidesteps the barrel shortage.


While the new vehicle, being based off of an older towed howitzer, is a downgrade from the more automated MSTA-S, Koalitsiya and even the Malva, it has some improvements over them too.


The new SPG has a longer range than either Malva or MSTA-S. It’s faster to deploy and more flexible to use than the Malva. It also has much better drone protection and thermal signature reduction than any of the precious Russian artillery systems.


This new SPG is the best that Russia can actually produce in meaningful numbers, under the current industrial and battlefield constraints.


Video of the system can be found on Telegram.
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