152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20)
| D-20 | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Towed howitzer |
| Place of origin | Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Soviet Union and numerous others |
| Wars | Vietnam War, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Soviet war in Afghanistan, Syrian civil war and numerous others |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Petrov Artillery Design Bureau |
| Designed | Circa 1947 |
| Manufacturer | Artillery Plant Number 9, Yekaterinburg |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 5,700 kg (12,566 lbs) |
| Length | 8.69 m (28 ft 6 in) |
| Barrel length | 5.195 m (20 ft) |
| Width | 2.35 m (7 ft 9 in) |
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Crew | 8 |
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| Caliber | 152.4 mm (6 in) |
| Breech | Vertical semi-automatic sliding wedge |
| Recoil | hydraulic buffer and hydropneumatic recuperator |
| Carriage | Split trail |
| Elevation | -5° to 45° |
| Traverse | 58° |
| Rate of fire | Burst: 5-6 rpm Sustained: 1 rpm |
| Muzzle velocity | 650 m/s (2,132 ft/s) (typical) |
| Effective firing range | 17.4 km (11 mi) |
| Maximum firing range | 24 km (15 mi) (rocket assisted projectile) |
| Sights | PG1M indirect sight and OP4M direct fire sight |
The 152 mm gun-howitzer M1955, also known as the D-20, (Russian: 152-мм пушка-гаубица Д-20 обр. 1955 г.) is a manually loaded, towed 152 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union during the 1950s. It was first observed by the west in 1955, at which time it was designated the M1955. Its GRAU index is 52-P-546.
152 mm has been a Russian calibre since World War I, when Britain supplied 6 inch Howitzers and Russia purchased 152 mm guns from Schneider (probably derived from the 155 mm Gun Mle 1877/16) for the Imperial Army. The new gun-howitzer, was a replacement of the pre-war ML-20 gun-howitzer (the 152 mm howitzer M1937) and various World War II era 152 mm field howitzers, Model 09/30, Model 1910/30, Model 1938 M10 and Model 1943 D-1. By Soviet definition, a 152 mm howitzer is ‘medium’ calibre artillery. It was designated a ‘gun-howitzer’ because its muzzle velocity exceeded 600 m/s, and its barrel length exceeded 30 calibres. It equipped battalions in the motor rifle division artillery regiment and army level artillery brigades.
The design, which was probably initiated in the late 1940s, was first seen in public in 1955. It was designed by the well established design bureau at Artillery Plant No 9 in Sverdlovsk (now Motovilikha Plants in Yekaterinburg) led by the eminent artillery designer Fëdor Fëdorovich Petrov (1902–1978), who was responsible for several World War II pieces. The gun's factory designation was "D-20".
The carriage is the same as that used for the D-74 122 mm Field Gun. The barrel assembly was the basis for the D-22 (GRAU index: 2A33), which was used for the self-propelled 2S3 Akatsiya ("Acacia").
The D-20 has a 34 calibre (5.195 m) barrel, with a double baffle muzzle brake and a semi-automatic vertical sliding block breech, with a tied jaw and the block moving down to open. The barrel is mounted in a long ring cradle with the trunnions just forward of the breech. The recoil system (buffer and recuperator) is mounted on the cradle above the barrel. Compression balancing gear is attached behind the saddle support, passing through the complex shaped saddle to connect to the cradle just forward of the trunnions. This can be manually re-pressured by a pump below the breech. The breech has a projectile retaining catch to prevent the shell sliding out at higher elevations before it is rammed with a manual rammer.
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Wikipedia