SAU "Peony". Self-propelled artillery installation 2С7 "Peony": technical characteristics and photos

203-mm self-propelled gun 2S7 (object 216) refers to the artillery gun of the reserve of the Supreme High Command. In the army she received a nominal name - SAU "Peony". The photos in this article clearly demonstrate the power of this weapon. It is designed to suppress nuclear weapons and other critical objects located at tactical depths (at a distance of 47 km).

History of creation

The creation of the SAU "Pion" began with the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union of 1967. The task indicated that the new weapon was supposed to destroy earth, concrete and reinforced concrete fortifications, as well as destroy long-range artillery installations of the enemy. In addition, the SAU "Pion" 2S7 was designed as a "hunter" behind the tactical missile systems and other means of delivery of nuclear charges. According to the assignment, the minimum range of damage was to be 25 km.

And then two years later, from several proposed projects, the Council of Ministers chose the work of the designers of the Leningrad Kirov plant. Installation "Peony" was created on the basis of the tank chassis T-64 with an open-cut design. However, in the same year, significant changes were made to the work on the creation of the new weapon. The reason was the presentation of the designers of the Volgograd plant Barrikady, who presented their project of a self-propelled artillery installation in open execution on the basis of facility 429. As a result, the Ministry of Defense decides to combine these developments, and the 203 mm Pion is transplanted to a new chassis. This artillery unit had a range of firing up to 32 km with conventional ammunition and up to 42 km with active-reactive charges. Work on the development of long-range guns was in full swing when in March 1971 GRAU approves the updated requirements on the tactical and technical characteristics of the system being designed. The engineers were asked to work out the possibility of using a special shot from the ZVB2 howitzer B-4 with the same caliber. At the same time, the maximum firing range of conventional 110-kilogram shells was set at 35 km, and the minimum guaranteed no-rush is 8.5 km. The greatest distance of fire with special active-reactive ammunition was 40-43 km. All these changes fell on the shoulders of the main developer of the SAU "Pion" 2S7 - KB No. 3 of the Kirov plant, headed by N. S. Popov.

Creation of tools

At the same time, the engineers of the Barrikady plant, under the leadership of Chief Designer GI Sergeev, developed the artillery part of the SAU Pion installation. Volgogradtsy designed the warhead according to the classical scheme, however with a number of features. For example, an interesting solution was a collapsible barrel (a classic monoblock design is considered). It consisted of a breeze, a pipe, a coupling, a bushing and a casing. The author of this design is the engineer of the Obukhov factory AA Kolokoltsov, who developed it in the seventies of the century before last. The choice of this solution is due to the fact that artillery combat equipment of increased power (which is the "Peony") is subject to very rapid wear of the rifled part of the barrel during firing. As a result, the monoblocks that have become unusable should be sent for replacement to the plant, which requires significant time. All this leads to the failure of this installation for a long time. Collapsible barrels are also subject to rapid wear, but the replacement process is quite feasible under the conditions of an artillery workshop located in the front zone, it does not require specific equipment and is relatively simple.

"God of war with a nuclear gift"

It was this nickname received a new artillery installation, when in 1975 it was presented by the designers of the Leningrad plant. The Ministry of Defense immediately assessed the new ACS. And after conducting a number of factory and field tests, the expert commission gave the go-ahead for its acceptance into service and launch into mass production. In the same year, the first specimens go to the troops. The new weapons were equipped with artillery brigades of special power, and it was intended to suppress and liquidate artillery, nuclear weapons, mortars, heavy equipment, rear, enemy manpower, command and control posts. Eight years later, in 1983, the installation "Peony" underwent the first modernization. The updated model received the conventional name - "Malka". The GRAU index remained the same, only with a postscript: "M" -2S7M. It can be stated with certainty that Soviet engineers have outstripped their development by the time, almost 40 years have passed since the first "Peony" release, but this does not prevent it from being the most powerful and popular artillery installation in the world to this day. According to official data, since 1975 more than 300 units of this weapon have been produced. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many complexes were abroad, but continue to serve regularly in the armies of the countries of the former USSR. According to the Ministry of Defense, as of 2010, 130 units of the SAU "Pion" were in the Russian army. In order to understand the uniqueness of this artillery complex and why, despite the emergence of new types of long-range weapons, the modern armament of the Russian army includes these combat vehicles of the past era, let's consider the technical characteristics of the installation.

Description of the design of the artillery complex "Peony"

As already mentioned above, the SAU "Peony" is made with an open frontal part, that is, without a crazy scheme. The rig is placed openly in the aft part of the tracked chassis. In the front part of the body there is a control compartment, then the motor-transmission compartment is located, followed by the calculation department and the combat deck closes. The armored hull has a very unusual shape - the cabin of the crew, taken far ahead, serves as an additional counterbalance to the heavy gun. The "Peony" artillery unit is serviced by a team of fourteen people, seven of them are the crew of the ACS. In the marching position the crew is located in the computation and management compartments, and the remaining seven people are in a special lorry or an armored personnel carrier.

Aft powerful cannon of caliber of 203 mm (2А44) is installed in the stern part of the hull, the mass of which is 14.6 tons. In addition to the fact that the gun is made folding, it has an additional number of innovations. For example, the design failure of using a muzzle brake provided a low-pressure muzzle in the working calculation area. This solution allowed to refuse additional special protection for the servicing calculation. The 203-mm gun is equipped with a piston shutter, operating in a two-stroke scheme. It opens and closes automatically thanks to the mechanical drive, and it is possible to perform this operation in manual mode. In the automatic control system "Peony", the delivery with subsequent dispatch of the projectiles is carried out using a special chain loading mechanism that operates at any angle of horizontal and vertical guidance. This design solution significantly reduced the recharge time, thereby increasing the rate of fire of the complex.

Power unit and chassis of automatic control system

The most powerful self-propelled artillery installation in the world is equipped with a twelve-cylinder V-shaped diesel power unit V-46-1 equipped with a turbo-supercharging system. Engine power is 750 liters. from. The use of this power unit allowed the 46-ton self-propelled gun to accelerate to a speed of 50 km / h. In addition, to ensure the autonomous operation of the complex in the engine-transmission compartment, an additional diesel generator with a capacity of 24 liters is installed. from. In order to increase the unification, a mechanical transmission with a bevel gearbox and on-board gearboxes was borrowed from the T-72. So, the self-propelled installation has a mechanical planetary power transmission with eight speeds and one-stage side gears with reducing gears.

In the undercarriage on both sides of the body installed seven supporting rollers with a suspension torsion type, equipped with individual blocking shock absorbers. Many nodes of the chassis are borrowed from the T-80. In fact, the undercarriage of the SAU "Pion" is a modernized version of the chassis of the T-80 tank, even the driving wheels are in front.

Doing fire

The loading operations of the gun are carried out from a special console, the delivery of shells is carried out with the help of a regular uniaxial hand cart. When guiding the gun, mechanical and electro-hydraulic drives are used. The rate of the artillery complex "Pion" is one and a half shots per minute. The unit has the following modes of fire: 8 shots in 5 minutes; 15 rounds in 10 minutes; 24 shots in 20 minutes; 30 shots in 30 minutes and 40 shots in an hour. On the trunk in its upper and lower parts are hydropneumatic chopping mechanisms. The length of the tool's retraction is approximately 1400 mm. Considering the huge capacity of the installation, the engineers have provided special guides, which are located in the stern part of the body. They are installed directly before conducting fire on the ground, play the role of auxiliary supports. In addition, a bulldozer-type coulter is installed in the rear part of the body to pay off a very noticeable recoil force. It is controlled by a hydraulic drive. During the fire, the opener penetrates into the soil to a depth of up to 700 mm, thus providing self-propelled installation with excellent stability. In addition, to absorb the pullback force, the designers have provided a system for locking the shock absorber suspension assemblies of the main tracked track rollers, as well as the lowering steering wheels.

Due to the use of very effective chopping mechanisms, fire from the gun can be carried out over a wide range of angle of aiming. So, the angle of horizontal information is 30 degrees, and in the vertical plane - in the range from 0 to 60 degrees.

In the event that the fire conducts from the ground, the calculation can use a two-wheeled cart, on which the charges and shells are placed on a special removable stretcher. Ammunition of the artillery installation "Peony" is 40 shells of separate loading. Four of them are stored in the stern compartment and provide an untapped reserve, while the rest are transported by special vehicles and laid out on the ground when preparing the automatic control system for firing.

Armament

The range of the Pion ammunition kit is very diverse: 203 mm ZVOF42 and ZVOF43 shells, fragmented 30F43, active fragmentation fragmentation ZOF44, ZVOF15 and ZVOF16 with fragmentation charges with damaging elements 3-0-14. The fighting equipment "Peony" is equipped with a mechanical sight like D-726, a collimator K-1, a panorama of PG-1M. In addition, an additional sighting device of the type OP-4M is used, which is used for direct fire directing. To protect the automatic control system and people, the unit is also equipped with personal weapons of the crew: it includes small arms (four assault rifles and a signal pistol), and RPG-7 hand-held antitank grenade launchers, Strela-2 missile systems, and F-1 grenades.

Nuclear weapons and defense

Artillery self-propelled gun "Pion" is capable of taking part in armed conflicts using nuclear weapons. For this, the automatic control system has a filter-ventilation installation, an automatic fire-fighting system, a system for sealing the inhabited compartments, capable of protecting the crew and the calculation from the action of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons. In addition, it is equipped with equipment for internal telephone communication, a radio station and a night vision device. To apply an atomic strike to the enemy, the SAU "Peony" can use a special ammunition with a nuclear charge. The use of such shells is possible only if there is an appropriate order from the higher command. In this case, ammunition to the firing position is delivered from special storage facilities as part of a guarded convoy. The nuclear projectile is designed to destroy particularly large infrastructure facilities, industrial facilities, enemy forces, etc. The minimum firing range for such ammunition is 18 km, and the maximum range is 30 km.

Self-propelled artillery installation 2S7M "Malka"

In 1983, KB No. 3 of the Kirov plant upgraded the Pion plant. As a result, the updated model began to differ from its predecessor rubberized elements of the chassis, in addition, the chassis began to make of higher-strength materials. In the control system of the complex, a new fire control equipment has appeared, capable of receiving information in an automatic mode. In addition, the engineers improved the remote loading mechanism and changed the design of the charging plates. New charges and high-power ammunition were introduced, and the untold supply of shells was increased to eight. The updated ammunition included active-missile shells. In addition, the Malka automated control system established a system of regulated control of continuous operation with an automatic system for diagnosing the status of all key subsystems of the artillery system.

Improvement of the chassis allowed to increase the resource of the motocross to ten thousand kilometers. Due to the modernization of the remote device for loading the unit, this procedure became possible at any angle of vertical guidance. In addition, the rate of fire of the complex (1.6 times) - up to 2.5 rounds per minute - was significantly increased, and the time of continuous fire was three hours. The variant of fire control with automatic reception of data allowed obtaining target coordinates via wire and radio channel communication means with subsequent display on the digital indicators of gunner's and commander's devices, while the guidance system independently takes into account the change in weather conditions. The updated ammunition included active-rockets, the range of which was 55 km, as well as high-precision and anti-tank munitions with direct-air on-board air-jet engines.

Today, the SAU "Pion" and "Malka" have a huge potential for further modernization, they are able to keep pace with the times and use modern armaments, including tactical weapons and high-precision weapons in their arsenal.

St. Petersburg: Museum of Artillery

This institution was founded in 1703 by the decree of Peter the Great as Tsekhhgauz - a place for storing curious and memorable artillery pieces. Here the most valuable and interesting specimens were brought from all over the country. Later, other types of weapons, banners, uniforms, including trophy, began to be added to the exposition. Later, in the days of Elizaveta Petrovna, this museum of artillery was renamed into the Renaissance Hall, and it was placed on the Foundry. And only in 1869 this institution began to actively live and develop. This year the Museum of Artillery receives at its disposal part of the building of Kronwerk, it houses military historical collections. In the days of the Soviet Union, in 1963, the institution accepts funds from the Central Historical Military Engineering Museum, and two years later the Military Communications Museum is part of it.

Visitors are invited to familiarize themselves with the rarest collections of world armaments from 55 countries of the world, from the fourteenth century to our days. Here you can see among the exhibits the personal weapons of members of the imperial family, outstanding commanders, unique documents, military awards, military uniforms, mock-ups of fortifications and fortresses and much more. A separate exposition presents Russian artillery, including experimental samples of Shuvalov, Nartov and others guns.

The Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps has one of the largest collections of arms of West European countries of the XV-XVII centuries in our country. In 2006, the institution opened a new exposition dedicated to the history of the military affairs of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early modern times. The museum of artillery is visited with pleasure by both adults and children. Here, in the courtyard of Kronverk, modern weapons of the Russian army are represented, such as the intercontinental strategic missile system of mobile ground-based Topol RS-12M and many others. Guests can not only see, but also touch their hands, be photographed next to such giants who serve as a guarantor of our country's security from external invasion. After all, most students have a superficial acquaintance with such types of weapons as ACS, tank, armored personnel carrier, artillery gun, which they receive from computer games and television movies. Having seen them personally, having felt the power of their armor and tools, they will forever be imbued with respect not only to the profession of the military, but also to the designers who created these wonderful machines. Children and adults will be interested in visiting both festivals of military historical reconstruction, and demonstration performances of members of the Club of historical fencing Silhouette, which are regularly held on the territory of the museum. So unforgettable impressions of visitors to the museum are guaranteed!