Speaking of vehicle-mounted howitzers, we are not unfamiliar, that is, the so-called truck guns, this type of equipment in the country is very much, especially in recent years, with the upsurge of high altitude areas, more and more began to speed up the equipment of this area, similar to PLC-181 and PLC-171 vehicle-mounted howitzers, by military fans affectionately become plateau "printers". However, for such a weapon that is enough to appease the "fear of insufficient firepower", the other party also cares very much. Recently, India has been following the principle of joining the indian version of the vehicle gun, which has pulled you into the test Indian version of the gun, but its performance may be difficult to adapt to high altitudes.
According to social media reports, we saw that the Indian side was testing a vehicle-mounted grenade tray at the border, which appeared to be a 4-wheel layout of light armored vehicles as the chassis, followed by a 105 mm howitzer. Judging from the pictures, the truck gun system is very small, and the maneuverability and flexibility seem to be high, but in fact the equipment may be more suitable for desert environments than for high altitude environments.
According to the current information, this so-called Indian version of the vehicle-mounted howitzer is provided by the KSSL Group, and in fact, it is not the Indian domestic equipment, after all, the international goods are old and traditional. The prototype of this equipment should be the American "Hawkeye" 105mm light vehicle-mounted howitzer, while the Indian side is an authorized version of this model, which is produced by KSSL after introducing some parts. It is worth mentioning that this American gun uses a unique forward-thrusting soft rear-seat principle, because of this structure, it is possible to deploy a 105 mm vehicle-mounted howitzer on a relatively short vehicle.
In simple terms, this principle is different from the recoil radiation method of the general vehicle-mounted gun, but it is in the rear seat position before firing, and the fire is fired when the forward reset is carried out, so that the recoil will be greatly reduced. So will the test of this equipment give the Indian side some advantages in the field of truck guns? In fact, there is no need to worry, in fact, from the performance point of view, the Indian side of this vehicle-mounted howitzer belongs to the 105 mm small water pipe, the domestic mortar is now 120 mm to start, PCL-171 has also reached 122 mm, and PCL-181 is 155 mm caliber, in terms of fire strength alone, the Indian side of this American small water pipe is not enough to see. In addition, from the perspective of automation level, this 4-wheel layout chassis vehicle gun is too streamlined, the automation level is very low, and it basically does not have an automatic reloading system, so it is difficult to suppress the opponent's firepower by manual firing.
Then look at the high-end information artillery part, the vehicle's on-board cab part is too small, in addition to the basic driving configuration, it is difficult to cram into such advanced equipment such as one-button gunning, advanced command and coordination system, and satellite positioning. And these may only be solved by plug-in communication equipment, and its level of coordination and informatization is still at the level of the Cold War period. As we all know, the domestic PCL-181 vehicle-mounted gun has the ability to receive firing between marching and pulling, and can be launched within a few minutes after the final position, and then quickly shift the position, which is not available in this American light vehicle gun.
At present, this Indian side's vehicle-mounted gun, only to meet its ratio but not to join, the eyes of high-end vehicle-mounted howitzer, only to find a low-end American version of the first pad, and all the choice of this kind of streamlined and compact 105 mm version, but also considering that the body is too large to enter the high altitude. However, correspondingly, this American equipment is not designed for the special environment of high altitude cold and mountainous areas, and it cannot be compared with advanced vehicle guns in terms of stability, range and accuracy, and is at most a little stronger than towed artillery.
Overall, in terms of modern vehicle-mounted howitzers, domestic similar equipment has reached a very perfect degree, such as the PLC-181 body structure is almost integrated. In high-altitude operations, curved fire support is particularly important, compared with the towing artillery, helicopter lifting and other methods, the artillery with a high level of on-board informatization has obvious advantages, which may also be the reason why the Indian side is thinking about this kind of equipment. But even if some American low-end weapons can be authorized, their performance is still useless at high altitudes, and it is easier to be named by the anti-artillery system.