Panzerhaubitze 2000 long-range armored howitzers to Ukraine. Also known as the Pzh 2000, 61.5-ton tracked vehicles155-millimeter caliber heavy artillery systems are quite common across the globe, but they’re hardly all created equal even if the shells fired are of similar diameter.
With the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which began development in 1987, German firms Rheinmetall and KMW set out to make the gold-plated Porsche of armored self-propelled howitzers to replace the Bundeswehr’s U.S.-built M109 Paladins. Thus the new vehicle integrated technological enhancements to nearly every aspect of what could have been a boilerplate design.
The resulting 12-meter-long vehicle, which incorporated elements of the Leopard 1 and 2 tanks, can still accelerate to a respectable 41-miles per hour thanks to its turbocharged 986 horsepower MTU 881 diesel engine.
The main armament is a long-barrel rifled 52-caliber 155-millimeter gun is fed shells by an ornate auto-loading system, as you can see below. The human loader need only insert appropriate strength charges prior to firing, though the gun can also be fully manually loaded should the autoloader malfunction. A total of 60 shells can be stored, typically including smoke and illumination rounds as well as high explosives.
The gun’s chromium-lined, laser-hardened barrel also has substantial heat tolerance, allowing it to sustain high rates of fire which would quickly overheat the barrel and require lengthy cool-downs in other howitzers.
Rapid fire attacks can be more lethal, as most casualties caused by artillery occur in the first few minutes of a bombardment, when personnel are surprised and exposed and have yet to make it into cover. That means firing, 20 shells in 1-2 minutes is much more effective than 20 shells in 10 minutes. Furthermore, rapid high-volume fires enhance survival, allowing artillery to quickly complete their fire missions and reposition to avoid counter-battery attacks from opposing artillery.
Here, the Pzh2000’s autoloader and barrel synergize: it can rapid fire 3 shells in just nine seconds, tolerate around 20 rounds in 2 minutes, or maintain 8 rounds per minute long-term. Furthermore, it’s fire control system can execute Multiple Release Simultaneous Impact (MRSI) strikes in which it discharges up to five or six rounds in succession with variable strength charges, which can all land at the same target at roughly the same time - ensuring a vicious initial strike before troops can make it into cover.
Another key characteristic is range: the longer, the more targets which can be hit, and the fewer enemy guns with range enough to shoot back. The Pzh 2000 has a maximum range of 22 miles using ordinary DM121 shells, but that increases to 29 miles using more expensive base-bleed shells, and up to a whopping 35-42 miles using DM702A1 rocket-assisted projectiles.
The Panzerhaubitze also boasts an elaborate fire control system informed by multiple sensors: a weather sensor to gauge climate factors (temperature, wind, humidity etc.), a combination of GPS and international navigation to precisely gauge the howitzer’s position and inclination; and even a phased array radar to gauge the speed and trajectory of the shell upon firing, and use that data to correct aim for subsequent rounds. These datapoints are all calculated by a fire control computer to generate a firing solution.
Even greater accuracy can be achieved using guided shells. Those can include American 155-millimeter munitions like the relatively cheap M1156 PGK GPS-guidance kit, or the fancier German SMArt 155 shell, which floats down on a parachute. Using a built in IR sensor, it scans for tanks below and discharges an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) into the thin top armor of armored vehicles detected.
The Pzh 2000 also has more elaborate protection than many armored howitzers, which are not supposed to engage enemy forces within sight under ordinary circumstances, but aren’t always so fortunate. Its welded steel armor is thick enough to repel 152-millimeter artillery fragments and 14.5-millimeter machine gun rounds used by Russian armored personnel carriers. The crew can also optionally fit add-on top armor to protect against mortars and cluster submunitions.
The vehicle is also engineered to improve survival odds if penetrated - particularly by ensuring ammunition is stored in separate compartments from the crew, as well as using blast-vents in the ceiling to allow some of the explosive pressure of a penetrating blast to “leak out” the vehicle.