Why "Coalition-SV" was left with one gun barrel
Proposed layout of the double-barreled "Coalition-SV"
Twin "Coalition-SV"
Sergei Chemezov, general director of the Rostec state corporation, said that at the end of December a pilot batch of Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled howitzers will appear at the front. From the entire host of the latest Russian weapons It is long-range artillery that is most in demand in special operations. With the advent of the Coalition-SV, Russian artillerymen finally have a “long arm” for counter-battery combat. There is no desire to get too far ahead, but a self-propelled gun may well depreciate the value of the vaunted imported artillery - PzH 2000, Caesar and others. With a sufficient level of reconnaissance and the number of self-propelled howitzers, of course. The 70-kilometer range of the Coalition-SV is more than enough for such tasks.
The Germans also played with the double-barreled idea on land vehicles. Pictured is Versuchsträger 1, which could become new a tank Leopard
One of the most interesting decisions during the development of the Coalition-SV self-propelled gun theme was the use of two artillery barrels. At the stage of formulating the tactical and technical specifications, it was the “double-barreled gun” that was the priority. For land vehicles, such large-caliber guns are paired extremely rarely. The experienced German tank Versuchsträger 1 comes to mind, which had two 105 mm guns placed in a horizontal plane. Due to its turretless layout, this vehicle looked the least like a tank—more like an anti-tank self-propelled gun. And now the “Coalition-SV”, conceived in the form of a 152-mm double-barreled gun. Why did domestic engineers need to create such difficulties, which were eventually abandoned?
First of all, the double-barreled configuration means an unprecedented fire density for this class of gun. Of course, the Coalition-SV would never be able to fire from two barrels at the same time. But the time interval between the first and second shot remained minimal. A pair of guns is especially useful for operating a self-propelled gun in fire raid mode. The shells travel one after another towards the target along different trajectories and hit it at one point in time. The name “Coalition” largely reflected the essence of a self-propelled howitzer, in which two guns work together. The rate of fire also naturally increased - according to some data, the double-barreled shotgun included in the 2A88 howitzers could fire more than 16 rounds per minute at the enemy. That is, more than two times more than Msta-S. At long distances, this made it possible to leave the place of opening fire even before the moment the first projectile fell on the target.
A special operation is in many ways a unique armed conflict. Just look at the changed tactics of using tanks and the widespread drones-kamikaze. Neither one nor the other was predicted by the General Staff until February 2022. But in the concept of using artillery, both sides of the conflict guessed the development of events 100 percent. The war will be won by long-range and high-precision howitzers - the rest will fall victim to counter-battery warfare. “Coalition-SV” seemed to be developed for the realities of a special operation. Unfortunately, she comes to the front only at the end of the second year of the special operation. And not in a double-barreled version.
As you know, the Coalition-SV is equipped with a Doppler radar to track the flight path of a fired projectile. This allows you not to use a sighting shot, that is, not to inform the enemy in advance that you intend to work on him. All corrections are promptly made to the on-board fire control system, and the second projectile flies towards the target along the “correct” trajectory. The double-barrel layout squared this advantage. The second gun made it possible not to waste time reloading after the first sighting shot. Under a certain set of circumstances, the second projectile hit the target earlier than the first and much more accurately.
Struggle of layouts
There is not much official information about the Double-Barreled Coalition, but even the meager images of experimental vehicles speak of the difficulties that the designers had to face. As you know, the combat compartment of the Coalition-SV is uninhabited - all the work is done by automation using pneumatic drives. Two 152-mm howitzer guns forced a noticeable increase in the dimensions of the cabin and, accordingly, the final mass of the product. Even taking into account the noticeable weakening of the chassis and wheelhouse armor, the double-barreled howitzer turned out to be overweight. The issue could have been resolved by completely reconfiguring the combat vehicle, but this significantly increased the final cost. As a result, a self-propelled howitzer with noticeably smaller dimensions of the fighting compartment went into production. From a hundred meters, not every Bandera member will be able to distinguish the “Coalition-SV” from the “Msta-S”. And this is good.
The advantages of the double-barrel configuration of the Coalition-SV from the past include a large resource of guns. Simply because, on average, a howitzer will use each barrel twice as much. In a conflict like SVO, this is especially important. The fact is that all long-range guns of NATO countries quickly exhaust their barrel life. The reason is not the low quality of the steel, but the extreme working conditions. The standard Msta-S fires a conventional projectile at a range of 25 kilometers, while the German PzH 2000 fires at ten kilometers more. But such range requires sacrifice. A significant increase in the pressure of powder gases to achieve the required firing range causes accelerated wear of the barrel. In conflicts like the Afghan one, such features are not critical, but in Ukraine the PzH 2000 works to its limits, and it wears out very quickly. All these shortcomings will not bypass the Russian Coalition-SV, although, of course, we do not know all the intricacies of preparing 2A88 gun barrels at the factory. But definitely the “double-barreled gun” would go to the rear much less often to replace guns.
Any duplication is always a twofold increase in survivability. Two barrels made it possible not to leave the battle for premature repairs due to damage to one. When working intensively on special operations, this advantage is important.
Why, with all the advantages, was the double-barreled configuration of the Coalition-SV abandoned? According to available information, they decided to leave one barrel back in 2010. The first and most important reason is the high cost of a dual automatic loader and placing two guns on one chassis. We won’t know the exact prices for a long time (if they ever become available), but the costs of developing and finalizing the vehicle into series production were not entirely affordable for the defense budget. But one could live with this if cost were the only drawback of the paired arrangement.
As mentioned above, the weight of a vehicle with two howitzers could be 55 tons or more. And these are already difficulties with transporting the vehicle using standard tank carriers of the Russian army. The noticeable complication of the Coalition-SV automatic loaders with two barrels cannot be removed from the list of minuses. On the one hand, the survivability of the vehicle under fire is higher, on the other hand, more failures in a complex system will be expected. As well as the requirements for the qualification level of repair teams. Two barrels and two automatic loaders left less space for transportable ammunition, which required special logistics. Loading machines for double-barreled self-propelled guns must travel more often, which increases the vulnerability of the equipment. Taking into account the fact that the crews would also expend shells faster than on a traditional self-propelled gun, the situation became completely uncomfortable. One cannot but take into account the good visibility of the two barrels for the enemy - on the battlefield such “Coalition-SV” would become priority targets.
A compromise was found, and “Coalition-SV” was sent for a special operation with the usual one, but long-range weapon. But this does not mean that the interesting and beautiful idea with a 152 mm double-barreled shotgun has gone into oblivion. The designers will definitely continue to work with the concept, but at a different technological level. And then a true revolution awaits the battlefield.
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