Sorry to not reply earlier, been bit busy elsewhere...
It seems that we both represent the too major schools in artillery, towed, o SP both having served with the corresponding type of the school that we hold better.
What comes to the mobility and the the fact that Brigades speed depends on the lowest unit in fact towed guns have far greater benefit over SP guns. SP guns are often tracked system, so their speed is far slower than those moving on wheels. Basicly the SP systmes are so low that they need special trailers to move them along which is highly expensive and still much more slower than towed guns. You see towed guns are, like the name indicates, a towed systems so they need a hauler. Hauling truck can haul the towed gun actully far faster than many other mobile unist in average mechanised brigade. From personal expereince I can tell that the 14 ton 155K98 can be towed over 110 km/h althoug not recommended. In general normal roadspeeds of 80 km/h can be ahcived.
I agree with your criterias and here's few add form my own wievs...
Like I said above about the fist criteria, SP guns do however have an advantage in this field and thats the tactical mobility. As beeing tracked systems, they have better off-road abilityes and deployment is easier as they are if looked as purely mobile platforms much more simple than towed gun and hauler combination.
The criteria two is unrelevant to comparising SP and towed systems as they both can have the same tubes and use the same ammunitions. The actual weapon is the heart of all artillery systems and it's doesen't matter which platform they are fitted. The rate of fire is another matter, but the presence of APU can give the towed guns similar autoloader capabilityes as SP sytems.
The third criteria is the most important in the face of SP and Towed systme comparison. Shoot and scoop. It's true that SP systems have a great avantage in this field, or at least the had. The APU (auxiliary power unit) fitted in modern towed guns pretty much eats the advantage of SP systems to very minium.
The shoot and scoop tactic is important when facing enemy with counter battery radars. So firing and getting out of the firepositions is highly important.
So lets look this form the Towed APU fitted guns spectrum, 155K98 for example:
The APU enables the gun moving around by itself for short distances with soem 12 km/h. It also gives power to various hydraulic systmes which reduces the time needed to put the gun in action and taking it off. The deployment to the fire position is the most time consuming phase of the entire artillery operations. 155K98 as able to be deployed in about 5 mins when arriving to the fire position. The gun itself, changed from the driving mode to the shooting mode is made in 2 minutes by three to four mens. The most timedraining task is to spade the gun down to the ground (tough some singaporean towed guns have found spadeless solution to stabel the gun). But the deployment is rahter irrelevant as the counter battery fire is only isseu when you have fired your first rounds. The disaseemble of the gun is the more relevant matter.
155K98 can be disasembled and driven out from the fire position propaply faster than oldest SP guns. In few minutes. It's slower than let say PZH2000 but still quite faster than non-APU guns like D-30, which needs about 10 minutes. I don't know exactly how fast is the counter battery firing, but asemble the ammunitions and charges plus aiming the gun needs few minutes at least so the time is just enough...
Lets look at another important priority still unmentioned, the ability to give continious fire support (which is the main task of all artillery)
The lower cost of towed guns ables 6 gun batteries and 18 gun battalions. This gives the posipility to rotate the guns deployment and shooting rate more than in 4 gun SP batteries and 12 gun battalions. Lets look this more closely form one batterys eyes:
The batterys two fireplatoons are disperenced in such a wide area if enemy counter battery fires at one platoon, the other is safe from the hits. THe first paltoon comes to the position and fires a quick burst of few rounds each and then scoops out as fast as possiple. Then when the firts paltoon is on the move or already deplying to next pre-selected fire positions, the seccond platoon does the same thing and so on. In battalion level the rotation can be made that one battery fires and other is on the move. The ammount of tubes firing have considerable effects on the very effectivness of the artillery fire.
But like you said both SP and Towed systems have their palce in the battlefield and army the size of PLA sure can afford the both systems. To which unit having which type is the key issue. As the mobility is the number one priority, the selection of the proper artillery system should be made on the fact which type of brigade you have. Amourd brigades tends to have tracked vehicles as a main mobilisation solution so tracked SP systems are naturally the best choise. But these mechanized brigades that orginally were the topic of this thread are another thing. In chinese case they are mostly fitted with the wheeled WZ551 ACPs which are naturally more faster than tracked IFVs and ACPs. So in light of this the towed artilery (with modern systems with APU) is more ideal choise. Sadly, china currently doesen't posses such a systems.
It seems that we both represent the too major schools in artillery, towed, o SP both having served with the corresponding type of the school that we hold better.
What comes to the mobility and the the fact that Brigades speed depends on the lowest unit in fact towed guns have far greater benefit over SP guns. SP guns are often tracked system, so their speed is far slower than those moving on wheels. Basicly the SP systmes are so low that they need special trailers to move them along which is highly expensive and still much more slower than towed guns. You see towed guns are, like the name indicates, a towed systems so they need a hauler. Hauling truck can haul the towed gun actully far faster than many other mobile unist in average mechanised brigade. From personal expereince I can tell that the 14 ton 155K98 can be towed over 110 km/h althoug not recommended. In general normal roadspeeds of 80 km/h can be ahcived.
I agree with your criterias and here's few add form my own wievs...
Like I said above about the fist criteria, SP guns do however have an advantage in this field and thats the tactical mobility. As beeing tracked systems, they have better off-road abilityes and deployment is easier as they are if looked as purely mobile platforms much more simple than towed gun and hauler combination.
The criteria two is unrelevant to comparising SP and towed systems as they both can have the same tubes and use the same ammunitions. The actual weapon is the heart of all artillery systems and it's doesen't matter which platform they are fitted. The rate of fire is another matter, but the presence of APU can give the towed guns similar autoloader capabilityes as SP sytems.
The third criteria is the most important in the face of SP and Towed systme comparison. Shoot and scoop. It's true that SP systems have a great avantage in this field, or at least the had. The APU (auxiliary power unit) fitted in modern towed guns pretty much eats the advantage of SP systems to very minium.
The shoot and scoop tactic is important when facing enemy with counter battery radars. So firing and getting out of the firepositions is highly important.
So lets look this form the Towed APU fitted guns spectrum, 155K98 for example:
The APU enables the gun moving around by itself for short distances with soem 12 km/h. It also gives power to various hydraulic systmes which reduces the time needed to put the gun in action and taking it off. The deployment to the fire position is the most time consuming phase of the entire artillery operations. 155K98 as able to be deployed in about 5 mins when arriving to the fire position. The gun itself, changed from the driving mode to the shooting mode is made in 2 minutes by three to four mens. The most timedraining task is to spade the gun down to the ground (tough some singaporean towed guns have found spadeless solution to stabel the gun). But the deployment is rahter irrelevant as the counter battery fire is only isseu when you have fired your first rounds. The disaseemble of the gun is the more relevant matter.
155K98 can be disasembled and driven out from the fire position propaply faster than oldest SP guns. In few minutes. It's slower than let say PZH2000 but still quite faster than non-APU guns like D-30, which needs about 10 minutes. I don't know exactly how fast is the counter battery firing, but asemble the ammunitions and charges plus aiming the gun needs few minutes at least so the time is just enough...
Lets look at another important priority still unmentioned, the ability to give continious fire support (which is the main task of all artillery)
The lower cost of towed guns ables 6 gun batteries and 18 gun battalions. This gives the posipility to rotate the guns deployment and shooting rate more than in 4 gun SP batteries and 12 gun battalions. Lets look this more closely form one batterys eyes:
The batterys two fireplatoons are disperenced in such a wide area if enemy counter battery fires at one platoon, the other is safe from the hits. THe first paltoon comes to the position and fires a quick burst of few rounds each and then scoops out as fast as possiple. Then when the firts paltoon is on the move or already deplying to next pre-selected fire positions, the seccond platoon does the same thing and so on. In battalion level the rotation can be made that one battery fires and other is on the move. The ammount of tubes firing have considerable effects on the very effectivness of the artillery fire.
But like you said both SP and Towed systems have their palce in the battlefield and army the size of PLA sure can afford the both systems. To which unit having which type is the key issue. As the mobility is the number one priority, the selection of the proper artillery system should be made on the fact which type of brigade you have. Amourd brigades tends to have tracked vehicles as a main mobilisation solution so tracked SP systems are naturally the best choise. But these mechanized brigades that orginally were the topic of this thread are another thing. In chinese case they are mostly fitted with the wheeled WZ551 ACPs which are naturally more faster than tracked IFVs and ACPs. So in light of this the towed artilery (with modern systems with APU) is more ideal choise. Sadly, china currently doesen't posses such a systems.