In recent years, the importance of wheeled self-propelled guns has been unanimously affirmed by all countries, and countries have developed similar models. Wheeled self-propelled guns rely on the construction of road networks or aircraft delivery, which can obtain higher mobility than tracked self-propelled guns, while the cost of chassis is lower. At present, modern wheeled self-propelled guns can be divided into turret type and turretless type, and the turretless type will now be more called truck gun. The turret type generally has stronger chassis protection and higher degree of automation, but the model is slightly less, mainly including the South African turret rear G6 self-propelled gun, china's turret rear PLL09, SH-11 and so on. There is also a Dana Dana 152 wheeled self-propelled gun with a turret in the former Czechoslovakia production. He continued to develop after the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovakia developed the Zuzana series, the caliber was also changed to 155 mm 45 and 52 caliber, the Czech Republic developed its own 152 Dana M1 and Dana M2, and finally developed the 155 mm caliber DITA wheeled self-propelled gun we are going to talk about today.
The DITA wheeled self-propelled gun was developed by the Czech excalibur Army (Excalibur Military) company, unveiled in January 2021 and participated in the IDEX 2021 International Defense Exhibition in March, seeking foreign trade customers. The total length of this type of self-propelled gun is 13.02 meters, the width is 3.08 meters, the height is 3.12 meters, the total combat weight is 29 tons, the vehicle has a maximum speed of 90 km / h, an off-road speed of 25 km / h, a range of 600 km, in fact, it is developed on the basis of the 152 mm Dana M2 self-propelled gun.
The DITA wheeled self-propelled gun chassis adopts the Taituo 815 VP31M type 8×8 off-road chassis, which was born from the Taituo 815, and the air-cooled Taituo T3C-928-90 eight-cylinder diesel engine was moved from the front of the car to the rear of the truck, thus forming a pattern of the front cab, the central fully enclosed turret, and the rear engine compartment. The vehicle's armor has STANAG 4569 Class I protection against small shrapnel and light weapons ammunition, the vehicle is equipped with on-board high-power air conditioning and a three-defense system, it is also equipped with a 24 V auxiliary power supply and emergency hydraulics, and a central tire inflation and deflation system is also used.
The front cockpit has two front windows, both of which are made of bulletproof glass, and there is no baffle mounted, which is quite sci-fi. Inside the left side of the driver, the right side of the gunner, the middle of the panel is installed with a liquid crystal display, can display the side and reverse image, the gunner seat front has a touch screen display, the interior is installed with the on-board control system, including automatic diagnosis, automatic navigation, fire control system and ammunition management system, the gunner can control the gun by selecting the menu option to automatically complete the entire firing process, the degree of automation is very high. The car is equipped with 3 hydraulic station hoes, all of which adopt a circular design, distributed in the middle of the sides of the car and the rear of the car, and can be automatically retracted, so that the self-propelled gun can achieve fast strike and quick withdrawal in less than 60 seconds. Due to the low cockpit, the gun could fire forward. The vehicle has a crew of 3 people, and if necessary, one person in the turret can be manually aimed and fired.
The car adopts advanced unmanned turret technology, its turret is composed of two positive and inverted pyramid platforms, the upper part is positive and inclined to the rear, and there is an extended tail compartment, which can enhance certain protective performance, the left side has a triangular observation window operated by emergency personnel, and the lower part is inverted platform shape, which is conducive to reducing the size of the turret seat. The entire turret resembles to be located in a pit, the turret seat is low in height, and the rear of the cockpit is equipped with an automatic marching retainer that automatically locks the gun. What is more amazing is that the turret inherits dana's design, and the 155mm howitzer and the upper muzzle speed gauge device are installed in the longitudinal opening in the center of the turret, which can increase the high and low firing range of the gun, and its arbitrary angle autoloader is also exposed. This bizarre design is truly unique in the world.
The left side of the car is the launch chamber, the right side is the projectile cabin, using a chain-driven vertical storage / ammunition mechanism, you can pull open the box at the rear of the turret for replenishment operations, in the automatic loading of the first magazine rotation to select the appropriate shell, the L-shaped lever at the top of the gun tail is extended upwards to expand to the longest, and then the right cylindrical grenadier arm grabs the shell and swings it laterally to the tail position, the rotation angle is aligned with the gun chamber, and then the L-type lever pushes the tail of the projectile into the gun chamber to be fixed, and then the right side of the grenadier arm and the L-shaped lever are returned to the initial position. The left cylindrical bomb delivery arm grabs the propellant and swings it laterally to the tail position of the gun, the rotation angle is aligned with the gun bore, and then the L-shaped lever pushes the tail of the propellant into the gun chamber to fix, and finally the screw bolt of the gun tail closes the gun chamber, and the firing can be carried out, and the whole process is quite smooth. DITA's 155 mm gun can be compatible with NATO standard ammunition, there are 40 shells in the ammunition compartment, the rate of fire is 6 rounds / min, the continuous rate of fire is 5 rounds / min, the ordinary projectile range is 39 km, the maximum range of the guided shell can reach 50 km, can be single shot, rapid burst, programmable interval shooting, with the ability to fire multiple rounds at the same time.
It can be seen that the DITA wheeled self-propelled gun is a wheeled self-propelled gun with advanced technology level, with strong battlefield survivability and reaction capabilities, and its deliberate replacement with NATO-style 155mm caliber guns and ammunition also shows that its export potential customers are European countries, and the wheeled chassis is also in line with the current situation of many high-grade roads in Europe. Now the only thing that is lacking is the 45 caliber gun, which is still far from the 52 caliber range, depending on when it can be replaced, and equipped with such an advanced system, it is estimated that its price will be more than 8 million US dollars. Having said that, despite the relatively strong performance of the DITA wheeled self-propelled guns, in August 2020 the Czech Ministry of Defense announced plans to spend 5.95 billion CZK (245 million euros) to purchase 52 French "Caesar" 155 mm self-propelled howitzers to replace the Dana 152 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzers. Delivery is scheduled for 2022-2026 and the contract will be signed later in 2020. It seems that without export orders, the fate of the DITA wheeled self-propelled gun would not be too wonderful.