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SH-16 155mm self-propelled howitzer turret

A Next Generation 155mm/L52 Lightweight SPH Unmanned Turret System was first displayed in December 2022, mounted on a tracked chassis. The SH-16 is standardized with a crew of two and a fully automated loading system. The Turret Module weighs less than 14 tons and can be mounted a tracked chassis with a combat weight of less than 32 tons, or on a lighter-weight truck chassis. Before the Spring Festival, in mid-February 2024 Norinco Group, China's ordnance industry system, released a New Year promotional video, which comprehensively showcased Norinco's weapons and equipment research and development and military trade work over the past year. The most eye-catching one is, of course, the first public announcement by Norinco Group. SH-16 155mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer. In terms of its performance, this gun may be the most advanced howitzer system officially released by China's ordnance industry system.

THe chassis of the tracked variant is evidenly the same as that of the Type 88 / PLZ-45 155mm self-propelled howitzer, developed as a foreign trade equipment in the late 1980s. The make and modelof the truck chassis is not reported, and is not readily apparent. China is the world's largest heavy truck market. From 2016 to 2020, China's heavy truck sales surged from 728,000 units to 1,617,000 units, hitting new records for the consecutive four years, but then dropping to 700,000 in 2022. This is due to a regional economic slowdown, COVID-19 lockdowns, and many customers pre-purchasing in 2020 and 2021. There are 15 heavy truck companies, including FAW Jiefang, Dongfeng Group, Sinotruk, Foton Motor, Shaanxi Automobile Group, JAC, Hualing Automobile, Qingling Motors, Dayun Automobile, Beiben Truck, SAIC Iveco Hongyan, Tri-ring Special Vehicle, XCMG Automobile, Feidie Automobile and Hanma Technology Group One important feature is that that this artillery system uses the PLC-181 cannon, which demonstrates the desire of the Chinese to make the level of standardization even more perfect, with unification of artillery systems and ammunition.

The biggest feature of the SH-16 is that it uses an unmanned turret system. This type of unmanned turret system seems to be a new generation of general-purpose unmanned aircraft developed by the Chinese weapons industry. The turret 155mm self-propelled artillery appeared in the weapons industry’s promotional materials probably last year. The public configuration at that time used a traditional self-propelled artillery universal chassis, rather than a new generation self-propelled artillery universal chassis developed based on the ZTQ-15 new light tank. It adopted a common design of a power cabin in front and a combat chamber in the rear. The instructions stated The Mingming vehicle uses an unmanned turret firepower system, which has the advantages of light weight, high degree of informatization, and good automation.

Nonetheless, judging from the fact that this type of self-propelled artillery uses advanced unmanned turret technology but is equipped with an old chassis similar to the PLZ-05, it can be seen that the configuration of this crawler chassis may be just a stopgap measure. In the future, there will inevitably be models equipped with new universal chassis, and they will also be equipped with different chassis according to the performance needs of different customers. As expected, the SH-16 self-propelled artillery system using unmanned turret technology and equipped with a truck chassis has emerged. Compared with the tracked howitzer using an old chassis, the chassis of the SH-16 wheeled self-propelled artillery is said to use a new generation Universal off-road chassis, better driving performance and passing performance. In addition, it is also specially equipped with command vehicles, ground survey vehicles, artillery reconnaissance vehicles, etc. using universal chassis, and is even equipped with dedicated ammunition transport and loading vehicles, etc., proving that it is a systematic self-propelled artillery system.

In terms of the performance characteristics of the unmanned turret itself, it has achieved several technological breakthroughs and has the following advantages over traditional artillery in terms of performance.

One is the realization of the first automatic latch and laser ignition technology. Traditional howitzers often need to manually open the bolt for the first round, load the primer and then fire. After firing, the breech automatically opens and throws out the empty brass cartridge. At this time, an automatic loader or manual loading of the second round is used to continue firing, and the first round is opened. This is somewhat of a stumbling block in the design of unmanned turrets. With the popularity of unmanned turrets, the initial latch can be completed mechanically, breaking through this technical difficulty. The second is to realize the loading of the automatic loading machine at different angles and in different states. Since it is an unmanned turret, then an automatic loader must be used for loading, and there are several technical routes for automatic loaders to achieve loading: First, the 2A70 100 mm low-pressure gun similar to the BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle Fixed-angle loading, after firing a shell, the barrel returns to a specific angle for reloading, which is not conducive to the sustained rate of fire of the artillery. Second, it is similar to the entire turret and barrel of the "Archer" artillery. This It will greatly increase the weight of the artillery pitching mechanism and reduce the reliability. The third is to use non-fixed-angle loading technology, that is, the automatic loader can load in place regardless of the artillery pitching angle and direction angle. At present, China's unmanned The turret must use non-fixed-angle automatic loading technology, which is a great technological advancement in the design of the automatic loading machinery and electrical system of the artillery.

The third is the use of a new propellant system. The PLA's self-propelled artillery has long used Soviet-style brass propellant cartridges. In contrast, the new generation of 155mm howitzers of NATO forces have generally popularized modular propellants. The Russian army's 2S35 "Alliance- SV” also popularized modular propellants. Compared with brass cartridges, modular propellants are lightweight, easy to use, and save materials. However, due to equipment inertia, the PLA has not used this type of equipment. The SH-16 self-propelled artillery and several other foreign trade self-propelled artillery The same, both use modular charges.

So in general, the SH-16 155mm wheeled self-propelled artillery using an unmanned turret is not only a great improvement in automation compared to self-propelled artillery with manned turrets, but also represents China's progress in self-propelled artillery. Huge progress has been made in the design of relevant mechanical parts, electrical system design and other fields. Otherwise, China's technical foundation would not be able to support such advanced things as self-propelled artillery unmanned turrets. In short, the unmanned turret is just the front end, which reflects the huge progress Chian had made in the overall back-end design of the artillery, including the entire artillery technology field.

In terms of ammunition types for self-propelled artillery, including informatization capabilities, this has always been the strength of Chinese artillery: According to the information disclosed at the 2022 Zhuhai Air Show, the PLA has a PLZ-52 155 mm tracked howitzer. The types of ammunition prepared include BEE-17 series bottom-row anti-explosive bombs, bottom-row anti-explosive bombs, and BEE-17C bottom-row rocket extended-range ammunition. For special ammunition, the ordnance industry has equipped the 155mm howitzer with GP The -155 series precision artillery shells include laser-guided, GPS-guided, terminally sensitive ammunition and other types of ammunition, which can fully meet the needs of the 155mm artillery system to attack different types of targets.

Looking at the video photos of the SH-16 wheeled self-propelled artillery, the gun is equipped with a muzzle speed radar above the barrel, a communication antenna and photoelectric aiming equipment on the top of the turret, and there is probably a medicine temperature measurement sensor inside the turret. equipment. Judging from these details, the gun must have integrated artillery signal and fire communication and fire control capabilities, and can shoot directly. The two crew members only need to click a keyboard button in the turret to complete automatic gun adjustment and automatic fire, allowing the gun to It has a very strong advantage in fire response speed.

David Wang noted that in many cases, a 155mm Howitzer has two equilibrators, one each left & right, Yet the 6x6 SH-16 Wheeledd SPH has only a single equilibrator. Weight restrictions were perhaps taken into account in this case. A cannon equilibrator is a device used in artillery to counterbalance the weight of a gun barrel, making it easier to elevate or depress the barrel for aiming without requiring excessive force from the gun crew. This is particularly important in large artillery pieces where the barrel can be very heavy.

The cannon equilibrator typically consists of a hydraulic or pneumatic system that applies an opposing force to the gun barrel, effectively neutralizing its weight. This allows the gun crew to adjust the elevation of the barrel with relatively little effort, making the aiming process more efficient and accurate. Overall, the cannon equilibrator helps to improve the maneuverability and usability of artillery pieces, especially in situations where rapid and precise aiming adjustments are necessary, such as during combat or artillery bombardments.

In general, the SH-16 155mm self-propelled gun released this time has made a generational improvement in automation performance compared to the previous generation SH-15 155mm truck gun. Even in the current world, in the military trade market, it is not necessarily that backward.

After all, in the current international arms market, there are almost too many new-generation 155mm heavy guns using unmanned turrets to count on one hand. The Swedish "Archer" is not actually an unmanned turret. After all, its turret follows the barrel and can only be regarded as half a turret. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom, etc., have not yet used unmanned turrets. A new generation of self-propelled artillery has appeared in the international arms market. As for the K-9 self-propelled artillery that sells well in South Korea, it is actually the previous generation of self-propelled artillery in front of China's SH-16.

In this sense, the technical advantages of SH-16 are quite obvious, and it is more suitable for countries that are not sensitive to price and the technical inheritance of artillery, but are rich in wealth. This can also be seen from the paint of SH-16. It uses the desert color paint of the Middle East. This basically means that the big dogs in the Middle East are coming to buy it. Let’s wait and see. Maybe this year This gun will be unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show.

Of course, the SH-16 155mm wheeled self-propelled artillery also has some areas for improvement. Judging from the current public information, the gun uses modular unmanned turret technology, that is, such a turret has suitable It can be installed on the chassis of a truck. It is currently installed on a truck chassis. To a certain extent, it is a truck cannon. From the perspective of serialization development, the SH-16 can be installed on different types of chassis. For example, it can be installed on the previous generation crawler universal chassis. If you want to improve its mobility, you can also use a new generation of self-propelled guns. Universal chassis, or using a new eight by eight chassis, etc. Big Ivan believes that China's weapons industry will definitely have such an improvement plan, and we will just wait and see what happens.

So does the Chinese Army have any plans to equip an artillery piece with such advanced performance? Big Ivan believes that maybe there really isn’t one, at least it won’t be seen in recent years. As we said before, the Chinese Army's howitzers have long used Soviet-style brass propellant cartridge technology. The PLA Artillery's entire service and equipment system is also developed around this technology. Now you want China's The artillery is replacing modular propellants and unmanned turrets. Advanced performance is certainly advanced, but it also means that the entire artillery service system of the Army must be replaced on a large scale. The price to be paid is probably astronomical. If you look at the Russian Army, which is equipped with 2S35 equipment, and under Shoigu's personal intervention, it only equipped its first battalion in February this year, you can see how much inertia the army's equipment has.

Under the circumstances that the current focus of the PLA's army building is not the army, and the most emphasized ability of the army's artillery is the ability to integrate fire and fire, in fact, should an artillery be replaced with a high-end modular propellant? High-end unmanned turret technology is not the most important issue. After all, the manned turret is not completely unusable, and there is no generational difference in performance between brass propellant cartridges and modular propellants.

Therefore, while the Chinese Army has fully deployed the two 155mm howitzers, PLZ-05A and PCL-181, the PLA has actually not had the necessity to change the equipment of the artillery units of the group army on a large scale in the past 10 years. The SH-16 155mm self-propelled artillery is certainly good, but good equipment may not necessarily meet the objective needs of the PLA.