On June 2, the Polish Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had provided Ukraine with 18 Crab 155 mm self-propelled howitzers and had also completed the training of 100 Ukrainian artillerymen. This is the fifth artillery main battle equipment obtained by the Ukrainian army after the American M777A2 towed gun, the French Caesar vehicle gun, the Italian FH-70 self-propelled gun and the Norwegian M109A3GN self-propelled gun. Unlike the previous classic artillery, the Crab type given by Poland belongs to the more unpopular model, but because the Polish Army itself has not used the new equipment for several years, it is not weak in performance, and the improvement of the combat ability of the Ukrainian artillery is not small.
Pictured: Polish Crab self-propelled howitzer production version, using the chassis of the Korean K-9 self-propelled howitzer
The Crab self-propelled gun given by Poland is actually a hybrid model saved by Poland itself, and its turret is the turret of the British AS-90 "Braveheart" type 52-caliber 155 mm self-propelled gun introduced through tender in the late 90s, so the gun performance is the same as the 52-caliber version of the AS-90. The chassis was first developed with Poland's own UPG-NG universal track chassis, which was based on the Karina track minesweeper jointly developed by Poland and East Germany in the 1980s, but replaced by the load wheels, suspension and 850 hp S-12U diesel engine of the Polish PT-91 main battle tank.
Pictured: The first batch of Crab self-propelled guns using a universal track chassis made from Poland
Pictured: Karina tracked minesweeper
However, because the Polish development of armored equipment was not deep enough, the technology was not solid, resulting in problems after the combination of the UPG-NG track chassis and the TURRET of the AS-90. The biggest problem was that the chassis could not withstand the rear seat of the AS-90's 52-caliber 155 mm gun, and cracks appeared in the chassis suspension support parts during the test, and the improvement still did not solve the problem. Later, the chassis cooling system leaked coolant and inefficiencies, which ran out of the last patience of the Polish military. Therefore, in the end, the Poles adopted the "introduction" method, and directly found the Koreans to introduce the K-9 self-propelled howitzer chassis to solve the problem. Only minor changes were made after being combined with the AS-90 turret, adding equipment such as auxiliary power units and air filters.
Pictured: Crab self-propelled gun with K-9 chassis
In terms of fire control, the Poles did not directly use the British system, but used the self-propelled artillery fire control subsystem in the Topaz Artillery Integrated System developed by themselves, and equipped with the FiN 3110L inertial navigation system with integrated GPS, the DD9620T gun commander terminal and the MVRS-700 SCD muzzle initial velocity measurement radar and other positioning navigation and display control equipment, with automatic positioning orientation, automatic solution of fire control elements and automatic gun adjustment capabilities. At the same time, the gun is also equipped with a semi-automatic loader, so its continuous rate of fire can be guaranteed.
In the end, this model, which used a British turret and a Korean chassis, plus Polish fire control, finally began mass production in 2016. At present, a total of 4 regiments of the Polish Army are equipped, with a total of about 96 guns. Purely in terms of performance, this saved crab-style paper indicator is not weak, and it is not much different from AS-90. For the backward Ukrainian artillery, it is indeed an advanced equipment. But the equipment saved often has two biggest problems, one is reliability problems, and the other is maintenance problems. Because the technology and subsystem equipment come from many countries, and the manufacturers in various countries have their own standards, the compatibility and matching between the various equipment are easy to problem, and because maintenance also involves multiple parties, once the problem occurs, the logistics and technical support is more complicated. These crab guns may perform better for Ukrainian artillery in the initial use, but over time, the failure rate and the dispatch rate will be difficult to guarantee.