Drones have turned artillery into an incredibly effective strike force. They correct the fire and the projectiles accurately hit targets. Nowadays, even obsolete, it seems, guns can accurately hit the enemy’s fortifications or armored vehicles. What is there to talk about modern artillery systems with guided ammunition.
For example, the Russian army has the latest self-propelled artillery support (ACS) “Coalition SV”, but so far not so many of them have been released. And what we have a lot are 203mm caliber 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns and 240mm caliber 2S4 Tulip self-propelled mortars. These terrible weapons, which have enormous destructive power, combined with drones that can shoot accurately, have suddenly become the present and the future of self-propelled artillery.
“Peony” caliber 203 mm
The 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortar was developed by the specialists of the Uraltransmash plant in 1971, and the 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun of the Kirov plant in Leningrad appeared in 1975. The first artillery system fires at 30 km, and the second – at 50 km. That is, they shoot far beyond the horizon, that is, at a distance of about 5 kilometers from a person standing on a flat surface.
“Tulip” caliber 240 mm
In addition, the mass of explosive in the Pion projectile is two to three times greater than that of 152 and 155 mm NATO shells. Modern grenade manufacturing technologies can increase the firing range to 70-90 kilometers. This gives the artillery systems absolute superiority – no gun can fire that far in the world. The accuracy of hits is provided by drones, which will allow to destroy the enemy at distances inaccessible to him.
The advantage of artillery is that it is impossible to intercept the shells, unlike rockets and kamikaze drones. In the case of the Peonies and Tulips, a big plus is the fact that these are self-propelled guns that can change position quickly without falling under retaliatory attacks.