Guided Artillery Weapons

Nice!

PanAsian said:

Wow, is that from an almost WW2 vintage gun? It is so characteristically PLA, glad to see they are still making the most out of existing equipment through meaningful upgrades to keep them effective, in this case it makes a lot of sense.

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Does it really look like WW2 vintage gun to you? ... I really feel sorry for you ....

Sure the Type 60 field gun is old, but definitely not WW2 vintage gun, neither is the Soviet D-74 field gun that the Type 60 is the former's licensed copy version...ok, the D-74 is a early post-WW2 design, with many WW2-era features.

Basic design of tube artillery and guns have reach their maturity long time ago, the only thing to improve upon them is advance electronics.

Example: Colt M1911 handgun entered service in 1911, WW 1 era, and is still in good service after more than 100 years.

Put smart munition to use with these artillery makes hell of big difference.

The release of the pictures at the beginning of this thread was about the happenings of the final phase of the recent major exercise, which the "Red Force" cranked out all their stuff for it, up to and including those PGM rounds they themselves so rarely used, because those shells are reportedly costing "tens of thousand of RMB" per round.

As for the Type 60 howitzer, the gun shield is a carry-over, as in its original model D-74, from WW2, a features common during WW2 and dropped since because howitzers no longer need to double as AT gun (not that they can't, the D-74 comes with anti-tank gun sight) that's nothing more than deadweight now as today's howitzers are dedicated indirect fire weapons, from design to doctrine of their applications.

How on Earth are these rounds actually guided and are they standard HE rounds or more specialised?

I assume that the extra cost of the rounds is offset by the efficiency of their accurate use.

Is this the way that Artillery Guns are heading? being used for precision attacks, while rocket artillery becomes the tool of choice for area bombardment and enemy suppression?

SampanViking said:

How on Earth are these rounds actually guided and are they standard HE rounds or more specialised?

I assume that the extra cost of the rounds is offset by the efficiency of their accurate use.

Is this the way that Artillery Guns are heading? being used for precision attacks, while rocket artillery becomes the tool of choice for area bombardment and enemy suppression?

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"Red-Earth" is laser guided projectile. PRC versions of the "Krasnopol" Russian Guided Artillery Round - ,

There were a lot of stuff about it at CDF, I'll try grab some of it.

Here the 155mm (export??) version :

SampanViking said:

How on Earth are these rounds actually guided and are they standard HE rounds or more specialised?

I assume that the extra cost of the rounds is offset by the efficiency of their accurate use.

Is this the way that Artillery Guns are heading? being used for precision attacks, while rocket artillery becomes the tool of choice for area bombardment and enemy suppression?

Click to expand...

I think the answer to your first question will also settle your second one.

These shells need someone within LOS of the target painting it with a laser in order to be effective.

As such, these shells will likely remain a niche weapon that only come into their own when you have forward spotters in place who have the right gear to guide those shells in.

When that is not possible, using these shells will just be a waste of money compared to just using regular shells.

Hell, with how accurate modern artillery have become with just standard rounds, I think the only time anyone would bother breaking these out is if you are engaged in urban fighting, so want to minimise collateral damage, and/or when you happen to get a high value mobile target that you want to make absolutely sure dies with the first shot so it doesn't get a chance to relocate.

Another possible use would be counter battery missions, whereby you want to silence the enemy guns ASAP to avoid return first.

Other than that, I am struggling to think of scenarios where the better accuracy will justify the significantly higher unit cost of these shells.

What I think would be more useful would be precious guided mortar rounds for light infantry and airborne.

These troops will have limited carrying capacity, so it's extra important to make every shot count.

The nature of these troops types will also mean they are far more likely to be in close contact with the enemy, so weblike have a much better chance of regularly having forward elements in position ready to guide the rounds in.