• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Type 63 A 105mm howitzer

The Type 63 A 105mm howitzer is currently the active artillery of the Taiwan Army . The Type 63 A is an improvement from the Type 63, and the Type 63 is an imitation of the American M101 105mm howitzer.

M101 is the renaming of the M2A1 howitzer using the M2A1 gun mount when the US military replaced the equipment numbering system in 1962. At the same time, the M2A1 howitzer using the M2A2 gun mount was named M101A1. During World War II, it was the artillery equipment of the American division, with a caliber of 105mm and a maximum range of 11 kilometers. It is also the light howitzer with the largest number of US troops. It was produced in 1940, and was mass-produced as division-level support firepower on various battlefields and supported by allied forces.

It was recognized by the artillery for its low cost, simple design, and moderate firepower. Its upgraded version is still in some parts today. The M101 howitzer came from the United States and began to develop in 1919, and it was finalized in 1928 [M1 105mm howitzer. In 1934, it was improved to M2, and in 1940, it was improved again to M2A1 105mm howitzer and mass production began. After World War II, the M2A1 was renamed the M101.

The M101 howitzer was produced in large quantities during World War II and supported the operations of the Allies. Therefore, it became the standard equipment of many countries after the war. After the war, the U.S. military renumbered the equipment and originally changed it to the M101 howitzer. Later, some of the gun mounts and gun mantlets were modified to become M101A1. And experienced the Korean War and the Vietnam War , and its ammunition has become the standard ammunition for other 105mm howitzers . The U.S. Airborne Forces and the Marine Corps replaced the M102 howitzer with the same caliber and lightweight gun mount in 1964, but because of the price factor, there was no way to completely complete the M101 howitzer. It was not until the U.S. military introduced the M119 howitzer from the United Kingdom that the M101A1 was decommissioned from the army. AC-130 aerial gunships still use this weapon as fire support.

In 1973 (62 years of the Republic of China), the Republic of China imitated the M2A1, that is, the M101, and named it Type 63. The Type 63 completely refers to the M2A1 gun body, gun mount, and retreat system. Maybe the military is not very familiar with its old performance. Satisfied, there was no mass production.

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. Of course, with Taiwan's technical level, it would be useless to create a new artillery piece from scratch, so it was still necessary to imitate advanced artillery pieces from other countries.

In August 1974, the translation of the blueprint of the M101A1 howitzer was completed, and the imitation work began in September. The first gate was completed on October 18, 1974, it was towed to the Daifuku shooting range on the 19th, and 12 rounds were successfully tested on the 20th. The Type 63 A uses the M2A2 gun body, gun mount, and the M2A2A5 retreating system, combined with an improved gun body shield, and changed the mechanical jack to a hydraulic jack. All components are produced by the Republic of China.

The Type 63 A was officially mass-produced in 1977 (66 years of the Republic of China), and was attached to the battalion-level artillery active in the infantry division. But after all, it is an old design. Under the influence of the solid case, refined case and the concept of self-propelled artillery, the Type 63 A is likely to be the last 105mm howitzer of the Republic of China Army, and there is currently no update plan.