I'm not a military guy but I am kind of a geek(since very young) on military gear so I thought I'd share some interesting bits from falling down the Wikihole. Tonight really heavy mortars for
Duke, sometimes even laser guided:
The 2S4 Tyulpan (often spelled Tulpan, Russian: 2С4 «Тюльпан»; English: tulip) is a Soviet self-propelled mortar. "2S4" is its GRAU designation.
It was identified for the first time in 1975 in the Soviet army and so was called M-1975 by NATO (the 2S7 Pion
also received the M-1975 designation), whereas its official designation
is SM-240(2S4). Its design is based on the GMZ tracked minelaying
vehicle carrying an externally mounted M-240 240 mm breech-loading mortar on the rear of the hull.
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The crew consists of four men, but an extra five are required to
operate the mortar. This has a range of 9,650 m but an extended range
munition exists with a possible range of 20,000 m. Due to the large size
of the weapon and the weight of the ammunition (130 kg for a standard
projectile) it has a slow rate of fire: one round per minute. In
addition to the high explosive bombs, it can fire armour-piercing, chemical and nuclear rounds. It can also fire the "Smel'chak" (daredevil), a laser-guided round.
The Tyulpan is currently the heaviest mortar in deployment among any country.
It saw action during the conflicts in Afghanistan[1] and Chechnya.[2]
In both conflicts, the Smel'chak projectile consistently destroyed
targets quickly, precisely, and with only a few rounds. The extreme
firepower per round compensates for the Tyulpan's slow rate of fire.
There were reports of the Tyulpan being used by the Syrian Army during the bombardment of Homs.
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Neat. Way back when I was stationed in Germany the French were testing some kind of big ass mortar like that out on one of my ranges and as I remember it they got some pretty poor results. I don't think anyone died but there were alot of crackerbox ambulances running them into the dispensary and a few were airlifted out as well.
ReplyDeleteKing of Battle.
It says bad things when your quality control is worse than the Soviets.
DeleteIn 1975, its primary purpose was likely to be for gas attack. The low pressures of a mortar make for a lot of space in the shell for the "filler".
ReplyDeleteIt is a legacy item that works well in less intense combat settings: much like our B-52 bombers. We have had radar that can track the incoming parabola of mortar shells for some time. Slow firing, not particularly mobile, artillery pieces wouldn't last long in a more up to date setting.
Yeah I'm pretty sure the Soviets didn't envision these shelling targets with HE for hours, tactical nukes were probably on the menu too.
DeleteI have wondered if anyone has thought of developing air-burst chaff shells in the Firefinder's spectrum.