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M68 155mm [Soltam] L33 caliber towed gun

The ROC imitation of the M68 in fact has no official name, the whole process about 1976 to 1980 (the Republic of China 65 years to 69 years), and therefore referred to as country-made M68 155 mm howitzer. The M68 howitzer was developed by Israel in the late 1960s and was Israel's first self-made howitzer. Strictly speaking, this artillery is not part of the "39-caliber revolution". It has only 33-caliber and has a range of 3-4 kilometers less than the 39-caliber artillery, but the firing range of the M68's 21 kilometers, advanced enough for Taiwan's Joint Logistics 202 plant.

After the founding of Israel the main sources of heavy artillery was the United States for M114 howitzer and France's M50 155 mm howitzer, but the performance suffered compared with the Soviet artillery neighboring countries. Therefore Israel in 1968 with French M50 howitzer based on the 33-diameter extension of the barrel and the installation of a muzzle brake to reduce the impact of the increased recoil after the barrel is increased, a semi-automatic feeder operated by air pressure was also installed to increase the rate of fire. The entire improvement plan was planned in 1970. Completed in the year. Subsequently , the M68 issued to the Israel Defense Forces performed well in the Yom Kippur War and was adopted by many countries. South Africa referred to the purchased M68 as a G-4 howitzer.

The M68 imitation plan was not a formal construction plan under the Army’s decision. It is only a private operation by Luo Youlun , the joint logistics commander, on the orders of the 61st factory. Therefore, Luo Youlun’s plan fell into a semi-delayed state after leaving office. The entire imitation plan is only the technology accumulated in the 61 factory did not enter mass production after the successful imitation, but the entire imitation plan made a great contribution to the future production of the XT-69 howitzer in the 61 factory.

Chen Hu once served as the chief engineer of the joint logistics. Under his leadership, Taiwan's artillery factory Lianqin 202 Factory made continuous achievements in the 1970s, and successively imitated the American-made M101 105mm howitzer and M114 155mm howitzer, named 63A and 65 howitzers ( They are all calculated according to the chronology of the Republic of China), mass-produced and equipped with the Taiwan military, which solved the problem of exhaustion of the service life of the US-aided World War II artillery received by the Taiwan military in the 1950s.

After the successful imitation of the M114, Chen Hu began to trial-produce more advanced artillery at Lianqin 202 Factory in view of the vigorous "39-caliber revolution" in NATO countries at that time. However, at this time, the Taiwan military did not have an official artillery project, it was just a "self-financed" project that the then Joint Logistics Commander Luo Youlun privately explained to Chen Hu.

Of course, with Taiwan's technical level, it would be useless to create a new artillery piece from scratch, so it is still necessary to imitate advanced artillery pieces from other countries. But in the diplomatic environment at that time, where can Taiwan find advanced artillery? At this time, Taiwan and Singapore reached the "Starlight Exercise". Since 1975, Singapore's "Starlight Troops" have been sent to Taiwan for training. The object of observation of Taiwanese military workers who "made guns behind closed doors."

At that time, the artillery equipped by the Singapore Army was the M-68 155mm howitzer developed by the Israeli Saltam Company. Strictly speaking, this kind of artillery is not part of the "39-caliber revolution". It only has 33-caliber guns, and its range is 3-4 kilometers closer than that of 39-caliber guns, but it is less than 15 kilometers away from M114 or Type 65. The range of 21 kilometers of the M-68 is advanced enough for the joint logistics 202 factory.

The Republic of China did not exchange artillery technology with Israel in the 1970s. The chance of encountering the M68 was that Singapore came to the Republic of China ’s Starlight Forces for training . Because the performance of the M68 was better than the World War II artillery in the hands of the Republic of China at that time, Therefore, a few people in the military have the idea of imitation.

However, at the beginning of the imitation work, although the Taiwan military had access to this weapon, after all, the property rights of the weapon belonged to Singapore, so although they quickly drew its size according to the appearance, there was a gun body and gun mount in early 1977. However, there were still a lot of troubles about the fact that the Israeli artillery, which was actually a French artillery, was very different from the American artillery. Until the end of 1977, the Taiwan Army somehow borrowed an M-68 from the "Starlight Troops" and directly After dismantling the research, the imitation of the artillery was able to continue. The copying of the M68 was carried out by Colonel Chen Hut of Factory 61. Since the M68 was not a weapon of the Republic of China, it could not be disassembled and reverse engineered. At the beginning of the imitation work, although the Taiwan military had access to this weapon, after all the property rights of the weapon belonged to Singapore. Therefore, although they quickly mapped its size based on external observations, the gun body and gun mount were available in January 1977. But there are still a lot of worries about the part of the Israeli artillery that is actually a French artillery that is very different from the American artillery.

The R&D team could only conduct external observation and mapping of the artillery. Because of the lack of other parts design (the balancing machine and the mechanism for retreat and retraction are French technology, which is different from the American system), the development is slow; however, due to Luo Youlun’s resignation, the plan progress has not been affected by the military. The unit's attention, the imitation plan was not carried out until November 1977 after borrowing a real gun from the Starlight Troops for disassembly and assembly research.

After obtaining the actual product disassembly and analysis, the part specification problem was temporarily solved, but because the rifling is a variable twist design, it needs a special instrument to measure it. Therefore, the imitation plan was temporarily suspended; until the completion of the 41st case of the 202 factory expansion plan and the purchase of the bore measuring instrument, the imitation of the M68 was successfully completed. The entire M68 generic case 61 plants results in addition to the experience of using the new equipment, the main contribution to the technical clearance bore with muzzle brake these World War II US-made guns have not yet adopted these technologies howitzer XT-69 R & D A certain degree of contribution was obtained in the case.

Since then, the development of the artillery has experienced delays in waiting for the introduction of special measuring instruments and other equipment. It was not until the late 1970s that the imitated M68 was successfully trial-produced. Since the performance of this gun is neither as good as the 39-times diameter howitzer, nor as the "favorite" of the national army at the time, even if the imitation is successful, this gun has not been favored by the military, or even won an Official name.

Of course, Lianqin Factory 202, this was not in vain. In addition to introducing some equipment for manufacturing advanced artillery, they also learned about the manufacture of such equipment as brakes for the first time.