D-20 152mm howitzer
The 152mm caliber D-20 howitzer was once the most dangerous cannon in the hands of Vietnamese artillery. This is a gun designed by the Soviet Union, born in 1950 and used by Vietnam quite a lot in service. The D-20 is one of the most successful Soviet howitzers during the Cold War. It was developed in the late 1940s and first entered service in 1955. The D-20 is all too familiar when it appears in every conflict around the world from the 1960s until now and one of them includes the Vietnam War. Vietnam is one of 27 countries in the world still using the 152mm D-20 howitzer model, which is staffed for both the army and navy. Despite its decades-old age, the D-20 still proves to be a reliable and effective artillery in modern warfare in addition to its superior firepower.
The D-20 was the first Soviet howitzer with a caliber of 152mm and a range of over 20km. The gun frame used the same frame of the D-74 cannon, but the rear rack was enhanced by two small wheels for the crew to easily rotate the cannon on the battlefield. A special feature of the D-20 is that this cannon is equipped with a very modern navigation aiming system, which makes it possible to fight both day and night and especially to shoot tanks when using the direction. Depending on the strength of the combat crew, the maximum rate of fire of the D-20 can be up to 6 rounds per minute, and can fire up to 65 shots per hour. However, this rate of fire will decrease gradually because the crew has to reload the ammunition by hand, which is very laborious.
The development of the D-20 howitzer was implemented by the Soviet Army after World War II when the country's 122mm artillery models were judged outdated and ineffective. To shorten its development, the D-20 inherited the gunframe design of the 122mm D-74 howitzer, one of the Soviet-developed tug-of-war models in parallel with the D-20. After entering service, the D-20 quickly became the star of the Soviet artillery armies. It goes into mass production with thousands of units. In addition, the Soviet Union also began to aid D-20 countries in the socialist bloc, including Vietnam, and on the battlefield D-20 completely outperformed American guns.
Like the D-74, the D-20's gun frame has two fixed paws with 2 main wheels and two auxiliary wheels at the end of the gun barrel allowing the gunner to move the gun more easily, along with a protective shield. for the gunner. Another common feature between the D-20 and D-74 is that they are both equipped with two hydraulic shock absorbers located at the end of the barrel, their guns can also be lowered or raised from -5° to 45°.
The D-20 can fire a variety of 152mm artillery shells developed by the Soviet Union from fragmented shells, powerful explosive shells or penetrating bullets. In some countries, including Russia, to modernize the D-20, people also equip this cannon with laser-guided shells to increase accuracy when firing, its maximum range possibly can reach 24km. To operate this 5.7-ton gun requires a crew of 8-10 soldiers accompanied by a dedicated artillery cart, usually Ural-375 6 × 6 special truck or some motor vehicle. other. And the crew must be ready for the artillery to fire within 3 minutes of deployment.
The maximum rate of fire of the D-20 is from 5-6 shots / min, but in normal combat conditions this figure is only about 1 shot / min and uses semi-automatic firing mechanism with a spiral lock.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
