"Military Sub-plane" author: Big Ivan
Tensions continue in the Nagorny Karabakh region, and the total build-up of Azerbaijani troops during this time is said to have exceeded 60,000, which is a real lot for a country with a population of only 10 million.
In April 2023, the Russian Satellite News Agency reported that the Armenian army imported 84 ATAGS 52 times diameter 155mm howitzers to the Indian company "Kalyani" Strategic Systems, and finally received 6 in August this year, and the remaining guns are expected to be delivered next year.
To be fair, the ATAGS howitzer manufactured by the "Kalyani" strategic systems company has good performance, far more reliable than the garbage "Danush" engaged in by the Indian DRDO. On the one hand, it is equipped with 52 times diameter tubes, and "Danush" is a hodgepodge of 39 times diameter tubes and 45 times diameter tubes, and the research and development work is very chaotic, and whether it is 39 times diameter or 45 times diameter tubes, it is no longer the mainstream of 155 guns, and will be eliminated. The ATAGS 155 mm gun is the introduction of Canada's 52 times diameter barrel technology, the artillery propellant efficacy utilization rate, internal ballistic performance is relatively good, it is said that ATAGS used the maximum charge number to shoot with a jujube nuclear bomb to hit the limit range of 48.6 kilometers, was taken out by the Indians to blow all over the world, but this can at least see that ATAGS has reached the technical level of the world's mainstream 155 gun.
Of course, according to the Indian Army's strange equipment logic, the requirements for the self-propelled degree of artillery are very low, such as K9 self-propelled guns The Indian Army is only willing to buy 100 guns, and then a large number of equipment pits rely on FH-77B and ATAGS, self-propelled guns with auxiliary power systems to fill, self-propelled guns This kind of thing can be called evil roads in the history of artillery development, and can not shift positions on their own, at most you can decouple and put them on your own, the Indian Army does not know which tendon is wrong to equip self-propelled guns, It means that the tuition fee is still less, but the self-propelled gun is better than the less mobile towed gun.
Just such a gun, Armenia bought 84 pieces, how the performance let's not say, the most lacking for Armenia at present is not artillery is artillery shells, India's own 155mm grenade production capacity is very urgent, and the shells created and Pakistani a pair of Wolong phoenix chicks, the quality is not good, hit Danush, hit M777 have had explosion accidents; Counting on NATO countries, it is completely unrealistic, NATO countries' own 155mm shell production capacity is not enough, the most important thing is that the production of fierce explosives is limited, and it is necessary to give priority to the supply of aviation weapons, some time ago a big guy based on public information made an estimate, NATO's explosives production capacity has greatly limited the production capacity of 155mm shells, in fact, now the front-line Ukrainian army has begun to complain about the crude production of 155mm grenades given by NATO, 155 lethality and 122 are about the same, All NATO shell production capacity now has to be supplied to Ukraine on a priority basis, and where it is still Armenia's turn to reach out from it.
The most important thing is that Armenia's own artillery caliber, which was previously Soviet troops, Isshiki 152-mm military heavy artillery, 2S19, 2S3, and even the Czech "Dana", which means that the Armenian army will not have any 155-mm ammunition reserves on hand, after all, how can you possibly reserve ammunition that is not your own artillery standard? As a result, now it is in a hurry to change the caliber of the artillery units, 152 for 155, the quality of Indian shells is not good, NATO shells cannot be bought, then you buy these ATAGS howitzers and you yourself say what is the difference between this and burning sticks?
After spending a lot of money, I bought a bunch of fire-burning sticks without shells, the Armenian Army, ah, is really not an abstraction that ordinary people can understand ...