The friendship between China and Pakistan is higher than the mountains, deeper than the sea, sweeter than honey and harder than steel, and there is no doubt that Pakistan is a good brother and good partner of the mainland. In recent years, the SH-15 truck gun developed by the mainland can be said to be an "obvious product" of China's weapons and equipment exports in recent years, and it can be said that it has been widely praised in the international community. As a friendly neighbor of the mainland connected by mountains and rivers, Pakistan Railway is also very interested in this kind of weapons and equipment with good performance, and has reached an introduction agreement with relevant parties on the mainland as early as 2019.
According to relevant sources, the latest batch of SH-15 truck guns has been officially delivered to the Pakistani Railway Army, and the Pakistani Railway Army has been equipped with as many as 432 SH-15 truck guns, which is enough to equip 24 artillery battalions!
Before the Pakistani Railway was equipped with SH-15 truck guns, the country's army only had more than 300 relatively old American-made 155 mm M109A2/A5 self-propelled howitzers, about 60 203 mm M110 self-propelled howitzers and more than 100 155 mm M198 towed howitzers, etc., among these cannons, the more advanced M110 self-propelled howitzers have a range of only 30 kilometers, which is no longer quite in line with the combat needs of modern artillery. Fortunately, at such a critical moment, the mainland gave Pakistan Railway a helping hand and signed an agreement with it to provide SH-15 truck guns. At the previous commissioning ceremony of this type of truck gun, the then chief of staff of the Pakistani Railway Army, General Bajwa, also took the time to participate, which shows that the country's army attaches great importance to this SH-15 truck gun.
The biggest feature of the SH-15 truck gun is its strong mobility, the total weight of the whole vehicle containing 30 shells is only less than 30 tons, and the speed can reach 90 kilometers per hour, which is suitable for fast fighting and quick withdrawal. In addition, the gun also has relatively advanced functions such as automatic retraction and release of the stationed hoe, semi-automatic loading of ammunition, and in-situ adjustable suspension structure (the entire hull is lowered to increase stability when in use), and has a good march-combat state transition and continuous combat capability. In addition, although the performance of this model truck gun is advanced, the price is only more than 2 million US dollars, which is really good and cheap!
The flexibility and maneuverability of this truck gun is just right to restrain the huge and bloated Indian Army. At present, the Indian Army is still a "Soviet-style" army unit, and this is not only to say that its weaponry is mainly Soviet-Russian equipment, but also to say that its organizational and mobile capabilities are still in the same vein as those of the Soviet Union. Once you encounter an elite unit that is known for its flexibility and mobility, the result will inevitably not be very good-looking.
The most important thing is that through the introduction of Chinese-made equipment, Pakistan Railway has basically established a systematic elite army. Relying on China's huge industrial capacity, the SH-15 truck gun can make Pakistan "open to manufacturing" in terms of parts supply and ammunition supply. In contrast, on the one hand, the Indian Army is equipped with various types of cannons, including South Korea's K-9 self-propelled guns, American-made M777 ultra-light howitzers, Soviet-made D-30 122-mm howitzers, Swedish Bofors FH77B howitzers, and British-made FV433 105-mm self-propelled guns. Therefore, the author believes that in the event of an artillery battle between India and Pakistan, the victor will be none other than the Pakistani Iron Army.