As published by Army Recognition last 13 January, the wheeled self-propelled Malva 2S43 gun is beginning trials in 2021. The 152mm artillery system is mounted on the 8x8 Voshchina prime mover. Until recently, all Soviet and Russian howitzers were tracked. A whole family of new highly mobile guns and mortars is at the final stage of design. The transition to such hardware is a modern trend in global artillery and the new gun will be of interest for potential buyers of Russian weapons, the Izvestia daily writes.
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2S43 Malva 152mm 8x8 self-propelled howitzer (Picture source: en.topwar.ru)
Russian Defense Ministry sources said the trial schedule for this latest howitzer had been approved. The designers engaged in Nabrosok R&D had to test fire it by late 2020 and check the running capabilities by a multi-kilometer march. The gun will be finalized after factory trials and will be handed over for other tests to the Defense Ministry. The trials are likely to begin in the spring or early summer of 2021.
Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief Army General Oleg Salyukov earlier said the R&D had reached acceptance trials of highly-mobile mortars on various undercarriage. Some of them were designed for Arctic operations. The trials are to be completed in 2021.
The first Malva images appeared in 2019. It was presented at Army-2020 forum at a closed display. It is armed with a 152mm 2A64 gun. Tracked Msta-S is also armed with it. The howitzer can destroy various targets at a distance of 24 kilometers.
BAZ-60120-027 all-terrain 8×8 chassis of the Bryansk Automobile Works ensures Malva mobility. The open howitzer installation without additional armor or turret decreased the weight. It weighs 32 tons with 30 rounds of munitions. It is a quarter lighter than tracked the Msta-S with the same gun. “The transition to wheeled hardware is a modern trend. Wheeled artillery increases mobility. Tracked hardware is more expensive,” expert Alexey Khlopotov said.
There are many such guns in the world armies today. They are ATMOS 2000 in Israel, CAESAR in France, Archer in Sweden. China and several East European countries have designed their own guns. The Warsaw Pact was armed with several hundred large-caliber wheeled Dana howitzers of Czechoslovak design. The Soviet Union tested them, but did not accept into service. “The Soviet Union several times designed self-propelled artillery on a wheeled undercarriage, but the work was limited to experiments,” Khlopotov said. “There was a concept that self-propelled artillery has to accompany tanks and should have a comparable cross-country capability. Today no combat is practically waged in dirt and cross-country terrain. Europe has a developed road network. There are many dirt roads, stony soil, steppes in the southern directions where wheeled hardware can properly operate,” he said.
Russian designers now follow the trend: “The new wheeled howitzer is of interest for the world arms market. The world, including African and Asian countries, annually buys several dozens of guns. The Russian export portfolio lacks such self-propelled guns. We are only serially producing tracked Msta-S. Not all buyers are interested in it and we do not have lighter options,” expert Andrey Frolov said. Wheeled artillery can be engaged everywhere. As Malva is tested in various climates at various temperatures, any operational restrictions are unlikely.
Burevestnik Company in Nizhny Novgorod is testing another wheeled self-propelled gun. It is Koalitsia-SV. Its tracked samples were supplied in 2020 for test operation. The armored turret with a 152mm gun is carried by 8x8 KAMAZ-6550 truck. The firing characteristics will not be inferior to the predecessor, the Izvestia said.
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