Four rare artillery pieces of the PLA that

Four rare artillery pieces of the PLA,?

For a long time, towed artillery has occupied a fairly important position in the PLA artillery. Even with the increasing popularity of tracked self-propelled guns and truck guns, the artillery units still retain a large number of towed guns. Compared to self-propelled guns, towed guns are inexpensive and simple to use, and even ordinary people with little military training can quickly master the use of towed guns after simple instruction.

Therefore, for a long time, the development of towed artillery was one of the PLA's important matters. However, among the many artillery pieces equipped by the PLA, some of them have been used for decades as if they were evergreen, but some of them are short-lived and even rare. Below, let's take a look at those rare towed artillery.

Since it's called a towed artillery piece, a towed vehicle is definitely essential. Usually, the towed vehicle will pull the artillery to the preset position, and then the artillery will make adjustments to the artillery. However, tractor-trailers are not omnipotent, such as mountainous areas, dense forests and other zones, tractor-trailers will not be able to go. Then want to get artillery support in these areas how to do? To this end, our military engineers have developed a DWA01 105mm pack howitzer.

Compared with traditional artillery, the gun's most important feature is light weight, only 1310 kilograms. It can be airdropped by airplane or helicopter, or towed by vehicle or animal power, and can even be disassembled into 11 parts and transported by personnel or mules and horses if necessary. Theoretically, all 11 parts could be handled by manpower and reassembled into a howitzer in less than five minutes.

The DWA01 105mm pack howitzer has a maximum range of over 10 kilometers and a minimum range of 2.2 kilometers. In addition to being capable of curved fire, it can also be fired flat as an anti-armor weapon. Despite its light weight and versatility, the gun was not installed in the army and was only used as a foreign trade weapon for export because the caliber of the gun was incompatible with the caliber of the traditional artillery of the PLA artillery.

As the evergreen of the PLA artillery, the Type 66 152mm cannon howitzer is definitely the existence of the big brother level. The gun with 1966 finalized, and is still the backbone of the artillery towed artillery. However, its descendant, the Type 83 152mm Cannon (also known as Type 86 152mm Cannon in some sources), did not have such luck, even though it is the best performance of 152mm caliber artillery in China.

As an artillery piece that was not finalized until 1986, the Type 83 152mm cannon's range far exceeds that of its predecessor, the Type 66 152mm cannon howitzer, at 30 kilometers. Even compared with the 39x 155mm guns currently in service abroad, this value is not outdated. However, it was the time when "Dr. Boole" initiated the "45x artillery revolution", and this trend also influenced the subsequent development of our artillery. Therefore, the Type 83 152mm cannon was finally produced as a foreign trade product, while the PLA artillery entered the 155mm caliber era.

Talking about China's 155mm caliber artillery, we have to mention the PLL01 155mm towed cannon howitzer. This short-lived 155mm artillery may only be after 80 and part of the 90 will have an impression, while the vast majority of 95 and 00 do not even know that this artillery once existed. As mentioned earlier, "Dr. Boole" initiated the "45 times the diameter of the artillery revolution" has influenced the development of China's artillery, and the PLL01 155mm towed cannon howitzer is the fruit of China's military industry enterprises.

The gun has a 45x body tube and a maximum range of 39 kilometers. Unfortunately, due to some technical problems, the gun disappeared from view after only a small number of troops were equipped and participated in the National Day parade in 1999. Soon after, the PLA began to mass-market the PLZ-05 155mm self-propelled gun with a 52x body tube. It was only at this point that Chinese military engineers really penetrated all the technology of the long-bore 155mm gun.

In China's development of all the towed artillery, there is a gun has the reputation of "Asia's first gun", it is the FGT-203mm towed artillery. As China's self-developed field artillery of the largest caliber, FGT-203 mm towed artillery developed by China North Industries Corporation. In today's world, there are only two countries that are massively equipped with 203-millimeter artillery, and those are the United States and Russia.

The former is mainly equipped with the M110 gun with a maximum range of 29.1 kilometers; the latter is mainly equipped with the 2S7 gun with a maximum range of 47.5 kilometers. Compared to the first two guns, the FGT-203mm gun with a 45x body tube has a maximum range of 50 kilometers, which gives the gun a head start in long-distance counterfire.