US develops self-propelled gun with 3 times longer firing range than Msta-S
According to National Interest, the US has begun producing a new generation of self-propelled artillery with a range of up to 70km - more than 3 times farther than the Msta-S in the Russian Army.
The new US self-propelled artillery is based on the M109A7 prototype currently in the US army. The purpose of this self-propelled artillery development program is to compete directly with Russia.
The new American artillery system is equipped with a fairly modern barrel with a caliber of up to 155mm and is integrated with an automatic loading system to increase firing speed and stability when loading.
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| American heavy self-propelled artillery. |
In addition, this generation of artillery can also launch missiles through the barrel and destroy targets at a range of up to 70km. With this range, the US has created a generation of self-propelled artillery with an effective range 3 times longer than Russia's Msta-S.
Not only is the US quietly developing new weapons, it is also quietly surpassing Russia in this field because according to General Robert Brown, Commander of the US Army Pacific Command, stated:
"The US military needs to maximize the range of all tactical and strategic weapons systems to gain an advantage over its opponents. The US needs artillery that can fire as far as rocket artillery, rockets with a range like missiles, while missiles need to destroy targets at a distance of nearly 500 km."
Based on the plan to increase the firing range of US artillery, experts say this could turn artillery into the US's trump card in a future military conflict with Russia. And this plan goes completely against the US's previous statement about Russia's investment in artillery.
Not long before, this same general had affirmed that, in modern warfare, large investments in artillery forces were no longer appropriate, and the great powers had gradually shifted the role of artillery to air force and tactical missiles that were highly mobile, had strong destructive power, and were versatile in many cases.
Therefore, the number of towed artillery has gradually decreased, so the US now only prioritizes heavy artillery with strong firepower to support infantry like the M777. And this is the reason why US artillery is inferior to Russia. But to prevent the case that air force firepower cannot support in time, the US suddenly realized that it needs to have a strong enough artillery force to surpass Russia.
However, the US's efforts are very difficult to implement because according to data published by Global Firepower in 2017, Russia is currently equipped with about 14,000 artillery pieces of all kinds, while the US's number is much more modest with only 1,299 artillery pieces and ranked 12th in the world in artillery.
Of the approximately 14,000 Russian artillery pieces, the number of towed artillery pieces amounts to 4,000 of various types. Self-propelled artillery pieces make up the largest number of Russian artillery pieces, amounting to 6,000 of various types.
The most modern of these is the 2S19 Msta-S. Although there are 6,000 guns, only about 2,000 are on combat duty. The Russian Army's multiple rocket launcher force currently has about 3,600 guns.
However, there are only about 1,200 rocket artillery pieces on active duty, the majority of which are BM-21 Grad. The number of the most powerful multiple rocket artillery system, BM-30 Smerch, is said to be only about 30, with the remaining 100 in storage.
Russian artillery is also equipped with a number of portable and self-propelled anti-tank missile systems. For example, the Khrizantema-S missile system is capable of destroying any modern tank in the world.
