According to the Global Times quoted by the South China Morning Post, India recently claimed that China deployed 100 PCL181 long-range rocket launchers on the China-India border, and this is mainly in response to India's three M777 light howitzer regiments deployed on the border, because they also happened to be equipped with almost 100 guns of this type. So the Indian artillery is really so powerful, we need to match the firepower, how is the performance of the M777 ultralight howitzer?
To be honest, the M777 ultra-light howitzer is still remarkable in performance, a large number of titanium alloy and aluminum alloy materials, the whole gun design is also very compact, only about 4 tons weight. Under such a thin physique, the firing of ordinary shells can still reach the level of excalibur guided shells that can still fire a range of 40 kilometers, due to the installation of a series of automatic equipment such as automatic bottom fire loading device, auxiliary loader, digital fire control system, etc., the M777's full gun combat preparation time only takes 2 minutes, and it can still complete the shooting when only 5 people are needed.
Light weight, high degree of automation, so it is particularly suitable for the United States this kind of high level of mechanization of the flying army, the use of Chinook helicopter hoisting artillery into the position, follow-up personnel and then through helicopter transport vertical landing position, can complete the combat deployment in the fastest time, seize the favorable terrain. In complex highland environments, this flexible deployment and rapid deployment capability is particularly suitable for fire support in situations where vehicles are impassable. Because of this, India attaches great importance to this gun, and does not hesitate to order 145 guns at a unit price of 5 million US dollars, a total of 737 million US dollars, and most of them are deployed on the Sino-Indian border.
However, the M777 is good in the hands of the Americans, and it may not work in the hands of India. First of all, talk about these guns, the gun itself is no problem, but unfortunately the shell is produced by the Indian Belangil Shell Factory, the Indian military industry has generally understood, the lack of modern machinery, the ability of workers is also limited, basically equivalent to the upgraded version of the village workshop, so that the shells can be made well? So in 2017, when the equipment reception test of the two M777s was carried out, India used domestic artillery shells for test firing, and the result was that the two guns were all blasted, and the war had not yet started? That cost ten million dollars.
More outrageous than this is the so-called artillery regiment formation in India, in general, an artillery regiment with 3 18 artillery battalions, how to get more than 50 guns, sorry, India is really not. They bought a total of 145 guns, leaving aside those backup stocks and some calibration test guns, the estimated maximum number of guns that could be installed was up to 120 guns, but at this point, India was equipped with 7 artillery regiments. On average, a single artillery regiment could not even score 18 guns. In fact, this is related to the indian army establishment, their so-called artillery regiment follows the British honorary regiment organization, in fact, it is an artillery battalion, so calculated, the Number of M777s that the Indian army does not lose on the Sino-Indian border is less than 60, and there can be no more. Just like these dozens of traction artillery pieces from the sea were blown to the point of being divine, and the Indian army dared to clamor to compete with our army in firepower, which was obviously not qualified enough.
Well, there are 54 guns, but is this towed howitzer really as good as the legend? No, the reason why the US military can play an effect is because they have many helicopters, slaves to transport guns, and then the Black Hawk to follow the transport, the perfect combination, just right. However, India's current main helicopter is the Mi-17, which does not have the ability to hoist the M777 on the plateau, and only bought a total of 15 Chinooks from the United States, which are also under the jurisdiction of the Air Force. Don't use it at the India-Pakistan border? Don't you want to use other weapons and equipment for the Air Force? The Indian Army estimated that it could not find a helicopter that could be hoisted during the war, and could only drag it with a car, what is the difference between this and the old-fashioned 152 mm plus howitzer?
▲ India is now vigorously supporting domestic helicopters on the plateau, whether it can be large-scale installation is another, but none of them can hoist the M777 howitzer
The Indian Army is actually not yet fully mechanized, because most of the military expenditure has been divided up by the Navy and Air Force
Looking first at the Type 181 155mm truck gun they cared most about, the M777 and his ratio were not at all a horizontal product. From the range point of view, the 181 truck gun fired the bottom row of extended range shells, the range of more than 70 kilometers, almost double that of the M777, that is to say, we can completely pour fire on its positions outside the range of the Indian artillery, but they can not reach us at all. From the design point of view, the 181 truck gun has achieved the ultimate of the current truck gun, not only the length has achieved the shortest in the world, due to the design of the liquid gas suspension chassis plus trunnion jack, its accuracy has been enough to rival the traditional towed gun, and the realization of one-key deployment and automatic reloading, the rate of fire and preparation time are also much stronger than the M777.
Then look at the mobility and degree of automation, the total weight of the 181 truck gun is about 25 tons, the vehicle design is very compact, the body is short to ensure the small radius turning ability under complex road conditions, the 6×6 truck chassis used has a fairly strong off-road ability, climbing and wading are not a problem, enough to be unimpeded in most parts of the plateau, due to the design of the vehicle gun, the 181 truck gun can achieve fast strike and quick withdrawal, which is not at all comparable to the traction gun. In terms of automation, 181 integrates a new type of automatic fire control system, using a digital touch screen operation interface, which can automatically complete a series of tasks from receiving target information, ballistic trajectory calculation, launch elevation positioning, parameter loading, meteorological information reconnaissance, ammunition loading, etc. Only need to use the last one-key launch function to complete the fire strike. Compared with the towed artillery, the truck gun team rides in the cab, has a certain armor protection, can resist ordinary rifle machine gun fire and fragmentation killing, will not be a shell on the whole class extinguished, wartime survivability is also greatly enhanced.
The bigger killer than the 181 truck gun is actually our PCH191 modular rocket, which can reach a maximum range of 450 kilometers after using the dragon-guided rocket, and it is not an exaggeration to say that one shot can hit New Delhi from the border. Even with ordinary 300 mm rockets, the range is 70 kilometers, and it is not a big problem to hit Leh. Looking at the density of firepower, M777 fires 5 shells a minute, 191 adopts a modular design, once can carry 2 groups of 5 rockets, ten seconds can be launched and poured out, and it only takes a few minutes to change the box again. The Checkered Terminator is no joke.
▲ This kind of accuracy and range, I am afraid that the Indian army has not yet opened fire, and the artillery position is gone
Unlike India, which only has the M777, which can be said to be a "killer weapon", in addition to the 181 truck gun and the 191 long-range fire, we also have a series of heavy equipment such as the Type 03 long-range fire, the 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, the Type 05 155 mm self-propelled howitzer and so on, which can accompany the infantry to fire support tasks. The range covers far, medium and near, the caliber covers large, medium, and small, and the wheeled track type are all available, which can flexibly allocate equipment according to the combat task, and there is more than india in the choice.
However, there is still a question, we can already produce a domestic AH4 ultralight gun comparable to the M777 Why is it not equipped with itself, but exported? After all, light towed artillery still has its own unique advantages, and the ability to use helicopters to lift and deliver is not available to other artillery. The AH4 is an ultra-light 155 mm howitzer developed by China North Industries Group in 2014, which is almost as good in performance and weight as the M777, and has been exported to the United Arab Emirates.
▲Domestic AH4 ultralight howitzer
In fact, in highland combat, artillery is not the decisive factor, the Sino-Indian border is lined with mountains, the artillery firing boundary is greatly affected, most of the time it takes ultra-high elevation angle shooting to attack the target across the mountain, and the fire support effect is greatly reduced than that in the plain area. So in the highlands, what is most relied on is actually helicopter gunships and fixed-wing fighters, drones and other aerial platforms, provided by the air to provide fire support, there are almost no dead ends in the open shooting boundary, God's perspective points to which to fight, and at this point we have greatly surpassed India.
▲ Type 05 self-propelled gun in the plateau of ultra-high elevation shooting, this is the practice of fighting cattle across the mountain
Under this air superiority, while we are equipped with a large number of long-range fire and truck guns, there are also many old-fashioned 130 and 152 towed howitzers in service, so the installation of ultra-light howitzers is not so urgent, and if there is a real need, it can be replenished at any time. By the way, in modern warfare, weapons and ammunition losses are extremely large, we are only a piece of equipment localization, ammunition unlimited supply can kill the third brother in a second, I don't know how many shells are in stock of the third brother's M777, can the weapons reserves be supported until the day of surrender?
▲ Even the old-fashioned 152 plus howitzer can now fire red earth laser guided artillery shells, and can also use handheld terminals for information transmission, as well as the support of a variety of digital systems such as drone reconnaissance and damage assessment, which is far beyond the indian army's single artillery