《Military Technology》Big Guns: Iconic Designs & Evolutions of Large Caliber Artilleries

《Military Technology》Big Guns: Iconic Designs & Evolutions of Large Caliber Artilleries

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there are a wide variety of cannons with calibers that have peculiar numerical values is the phrase caliber Injustice based on scientific evidence or is it just a humorous qup in this episode of military technology we will unveil the mysteries of gun and Cannon calibers for you hello viewers welcome to military technology I am your host langha before we dive in we need a small favor from you please take a moment to hit the subscribe thumbs up and notification buttons below so you can stay updated on all our latest videos in the previous episode we introduced the common caliber models in the rifle World from small to large including 5.56 mm 7.62 mm and 12.7 mm from this we can see that the establishment of rifle calibers is a complex systematic project and to this day an optimal caliber has not been fully developed however as the caliber continues to increase eventually breaking through the 20 mm Mark we transition from the realm of guns to the domain of cannons when it comes to the caliber of cannons there are always some strange numbers that raise questions such as why the 152 mm caliber is not uniformly made into round numbers like 150 mm or 160 millim to answer this question we need to look at the entire history of Canon development as the manufacturing of cannons and their projectiles is much more complex than that of guns in the early days British scientists and Engineers considered various factors such as the propellant the shell casing and the fuse of the projectile and used the Imperial pound as the base unit to define a series of spherical cannonballs such as 1B cannonballs 2B cannonballs 3B cannonballs and so on the Cannons suitable for loading these cannonballs were correspondingly called one PB cannons 2B cannons 3B cannons Etc this is the origin of using weight to measure the form of cannons because that was the era of British Science and Industry relatively more developed the British Imperial pound became the basic unit for the form of cannons abbreviated as the pound system the emergence of the pound system during a certain period promoted the development of cannons by the time of the Napoleonic Wars each country had a relatively standard positioning for their cannons why is it said that it needed a standard positioning because when I say 4 lb a French person says 4 lb and an English person says 4 lb the weight they represent is different the standard pound used by France at that time was 1 pound equivalent to 4895 G while the British pound was 454 G so for example during the Battle of traler when everyone was fighting the French 32 lb Cannon actually fired 2.51 lb more weight than the British 32 lb cannon in this regard what did the countries do they used the pound weight itself as a way to indicate caliber eventually the pound weight gradually began to align with the diameter of the ammunition from the late 18th century to the 19th century with the Advent of breach loading cannons using caliber as the basis for Cannon design emerg marking the beginning of the transition from the weight based system to the barrel caliber system in the early stages of the transition from the weight-based system to the caliber system the design departments tried to maintain the continuity and inheritance of previous designs thus retaining the sizes of the early pound based Canon calibers for example the original 2B cannon ball had a diameter of 1.45 in so the 1.45 in caliber came into being from then on the standard for cannons changed from pounds to inches such as a 100 PB Cannon being 6 in and a 180b cannon being 8 inches after World War I when Western countries designed new cannons and other weapons they no longer used inches as the standard for Canon design but generally adopted metric calibers rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 such as changing a 6in cannon to a 152 mm Cannon and an 8 in Cannon to a 203 mm cannon from this table we can see many familiar calibers such as 152 mm and 203 mm these calibers which are either whole numbers or have decimals are quite peculiar just now we introduced the origins of modern Canon calibers and also explain the origins of some of these peculiar numbers next we will select some representative calibers for you from small to large and take you on a journey through Canon calibers first we will talk about the 122 mm caliber which is frequently used by Russia do you know what the concept of 122 mm is actually its diameter is roughly equivalent to the size of an orange now when we mention the 122 mm caliber do you have a question the number 122 has both whole and decimal parts so wouldn't it be better if it were 120 or 25 why is it specifically 122 so next let's explore the reasons behind this after World War II Western countries led by the United States first established a series of Canon calibers including 105 mm 155 mm 175 mm and 203 mm later they mainly retained the 105 mm and 155 mm calibers while the Soviet Union continued to develop new equipment based on their existing calibers forming a series of calibers such as 122 mm 152 mm and 203 mm eventually the 122 mm and 152 mm calibers became the main calibers the 122 mm caliber which we say is a standard Soviet caliber was actually established during the zist Russia era after the Russo Japanese war zerest Russia felt the need to equip a field Cannon larger than the 47 line Cannon or 47 lines equal 4.7 in so a cannon larger than 47 lines would be 48 lines and when converted 48 lines is equivalent to 122mm superscript one the 122 mm caliber unique to Soviet weapons has been passed down from the Zar Russia era to the present day becoming the standard caliber for divisional howitzers the d3122 mm caliber Howitzer is a relatively classic 122 mm Howitzer from the Cold War period the D30 Howitzer was designed and developed by the Petrov design Bureau based on the M31 122 mm Howitzer before it the Soviet Union had a model called the m30 which had Ideal Power for 122 mm caliber ammunition and decent Mobility but during World War II a problem was exposed the gun Carriage could only fire at a relatively small angle Additionally the m30 had a relatively shorter Barrel therefore its shooting accuracy was not ideal It could only be used as a suppressive artillery piece therefore the Soviet side proposed to solve these issues with the m30 and what we finally see is the D30 the greatest advantage of the D30 is that it uses an all directional open angle Carriage the main difference between the D30 and the m30 lies in the number of angles the D30 adopts a triangular Carriage structure when deployed each leg of the carriage is spaced 120° apart and the entire Cannon sits on a platform that can rotate 360° in all directions in this way the D30 overcomes the m30 howitzer limitation of having too small a firing Arc its quick response capability and other aspects are now considered ideal when engaging with a 105 mm Cannon I can suppress you with my power and range when engaging with a 155 mm Cannon my Mobility is higher allowing me to maneuver therefore it occupies a unique caliber range that the West does not have giving it certain advantages the 122 mm caliber situated between the 105 mm and 155 mm calibers combines the accuracy of smaller calibers with the power of larger calibers additionally its caliber size is also very suitable for armored vehicles therefore during World War II many Soviet armored vehicles used the 122 mm caliber as their main weapon caliber for instance look at several Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns from World War II for example among the self-propelled guns there were the su2 and later the isu2 which could support infantry units and assaults of course its Barrel was relatively short but it could also perform some anti-tank operations under extreme conditions another example is the Soviet Union's most classic heavy tank at the time the is-2 the Chinese people's volunteer army also equipped the is- 2's main gun which was a 122 mm tank gun during the Korean War whether it was used to strike the opponent's heavy tanks or to attack their fortifications it was very effective we just finished discussing the 122 mm D30 Howitzer and now we add 30 mm to the caliber bringing us to the 152 mm caliber at this point the caliber size has increased from the size of an orange to the size of a grapefruit the 152 mm caliber like the 122 mm caliber is a commonly used caliber in Russia for a long time in the realm of large caliber suppressive artillery besides Russia's 152 mm caliber there has been another mainstream caliber which is the 155 mm caliber this inevitably raises the question with only a 3 mm difference between the two main calibers couldn't the manufacturers of these two calibers compromise with each other what exactly caused this 3 mm difference in fact there is not much difference between the 152 mm and 155 mimet calibers themselves but behind this 3mm difference lies a whole set of technical disputes and the establishment of Standards witnessing an extraordinary era in the early Cold War period the whole of Western Europe shivered under the shadow of the Soviet steel torrent Soviet cannons had advantages in both range and power so starting in the 1960s NATO led by the United States began to intensify the development of large caliber suppressive artillery the 155 mm caliber became the NATO standard and around the late 1980s to early 1990s NATO signed a joint ballistic agreement this joint ballistic agreement stipulated that the range of the one 155 mm Cannon rocket assisted projectile should reach 40 km and the range of standard howitz or shells should reach 30 km after this agreement was signed it led to the development of the classic Western self-propelled artillery models we are familiar with today such as the P2000 in 1987 NATO signed the second NATO joint bistic memorandum of understanding adopting the British proposal to use a 155 mm caliber with a 52 caliber barrel length and a 23 L chamber volume as the technical standard for the third generation of large caliber artillery the P2000 self-propelled Howitzer is the world's first self-propelled Howitzer to be put into service that complies with NATO's second ballistic memorandum of understanding the PGH 2000 self-propelled Howitzer was developed by cross MAF wman for the German Army is a new generation of self-propelled howitzers p is the German abbreviation for Panzer Hobbits meaning armored Howitzer and the PGH 2000 refers to the armored Howitzer of the 2000s the PGH 2000 self-propelled Howitzer has a whole length of 7.92 m a

width of 3.58 M and a hull height of 3.06 M with a maximum combat weight of 60 tons a top speed of 60 km per hour and a maximum range of 420 km the pgh2 can transition from a driving state to a firing state within 30 seconds thanks to its Fire Control System and loading system it can effectively perform shoot and Scoot tactics amid NATO's continuous Innovations the Soviet Union was not willing to be outdone and hastened to develop 152 mm artillery in the 1980s NATO's joint ballistic agreement brought their artillery capabilities close to the level of the Soviet Union's 203 mm 2 S7 nuclear artillery at that time the Soviet 152 mm Cannons of that era could not reach such long ranges which the Soviet Union found unacceptable prompting them to quickly develop new self-propelled artillery the 2s9 self-propelled Howitzer is a 152 mm caliber track self-propelled Howitzer developed and equipped by the Soviet Union in the late 1980s this Howitzer was developed based on the chassis of the T 0 tank and is equipped with a 152 mm 52 caliber Howitzer with a range of up to 30 km and features an automatic loading system this Howitzer boasts High firing speed good mobility and a large ammunition capacity the classification of Soviet artillery was very clear with regiment level artillery division level artillery and then artillery between the division and the Army group the artillery between the division and the army was the 152 mm which was its classic or standard suppressive caliber it was impossible for them not to have this caliber so when we talk about the positioning of the 2s9 on one hand it had to counter the new Western 155 mm artillery with longer range on the other hand it had to meet the fire suppression needs of the Russian division to Army level in this context we say that only the 152 mm caliber could fulfill this role hence the 2s9 the use of the 152 mm artillery was partly due to tradition and partly due to practical considerations once a technical standard is established it is very difficult to change during the Cold War both the eastern and western blocks produced large quantities of ammunition resulting in significant stock piles arbitrarily changing artillery calibers would lead to massive waste Russia inherited the Soviet military industrial system the 152 mm caliber for domestic artillery use is difficult to change only when competing in the international market would they introduce export models with a 155 mm caliber in the modern artillery caliber system traditional suppressive artillery calibers generally go up to 155 mm however in the pursuit of larger calibers people have never stopped now let's once again increase the caliber to 203 mm which at this point the muzzle size is equivalent to that of a volleyball this caliber originally used as the main weapon on Cruisers was also applied by designers to landbased Weaponry the 203 mm caliber in fact is an 8 in Naval gun this caliber in the context of various country's ground artillery absolutely belongs to the category of heavy or even super heavy artillery because its Mobility is significantly reduced therefore specialized equipment is required to transport it and its use generally has specific purposes later during the Cold War there was the 27 Pion a self-propelled Howitzer developed by the Soviet Union in the mid 1970s this large caliber self-propelled Howitzer had a maximum range of 37.5 km when firing standard shells and 47.5 km when firing rocket assisted projectiles the sustained rate of fire is 2.5 rounds per minute capable of

firing various conventional Munitions and nuclear shells the 27 is based on the chassis of the t64 main battle tank and uses the 2844 203 mm Howitzer with a 59 caliber Barrel the barrel lacks a muzzle break and fume extractor and it employs a screw type breach block an ammunition handling system and a separate loading design the barrel has a lifespan of 450 rounds with a maximum muzzle velocity of 960 m/s the elevation range of the muzzle is between 0° and plus 60° with a horizontal firing Arc of 15° to either side why was the 203 mm caliber proposed during the Cold War was to fire Atomic shells specifically nuclear artillery shells initially the caliber for Soviet nuclear artillery shells above 200 mm was not 203 mm but 210 mm this type of ammunition we say was developed before being equipped by the Soviet artillery research suggested that there was no traditional 210 mm caliber so it was proposed to reduce the caliber to 23 m which is a traditional caliber thus the 203 mm 27 Pion was developed nowadays it is used to fire concrete piercing shells in long range howitz or shells however during the Cold War its primary or main task was to fire nuclear shells special times always give birth to special weapons the 203 mm caliber designed to fire nuclear shells already seems incredible to me yet crazy designers always find ways to create crazy weapons next let's increase the caliber once again and this time it's not just by a few dozen millimeters we had 597 mm to the 203 mm caliber reaching 800 mm which is nearly four times the caliber of the 203 MIM artillery this caliber is already considered the Pinnacle in the realm of artillery so what kind of weapon has such an enormous caliber during World War II Hitler issued an order to German Engineers demanding that they design a super shell capable of penetrating 1 M of Steel 7 m of concrete and 30 m of Earth thus the Gustav gun was born the Gustav gun is the largest Cannon ever built including its transport vehicle it weighs 1,344 tons the entire Cannon stands four stories high 20 ft wide and 140 ft long operating it required the cooperation of 3,000 soldiers along with specialized rail tracks to transport and move the super monster and to fire deadly shells at the enemy the Gustav gun's Barrel nearly 1 meter in diameter could hit targets 29 M away making it a super weapon of its time so the first one back then it was to breach the imagino line requiring a weapon capable of penetrating the formidable combination of reinforced concrete and armor that made up its shell ultimately the Germans had no choice but to conduct tests incrementally starting from 600 mm and eventually increasing to 800 mm this ensured effective penetration of course an 800 mm Cannon essentially has no Mobility because as we know Europe has always had so-called Railway guns but their calibers generally reached only around 400 MM with some extending to 460 mm at most however the 800 mm Cannon also had a long barrel because to penetrate the opponent's heavily fortified targets you also needed range which meant the barrel had to be very long the overall weight of the cannon far exceeded normal carrying capacities a single Railway line could not transport it and it was impossible to move such a massive object so what could be done with such a thing using auxiliary tracks and in fact It ultimately required four auxiliary tracks effectively using four tracks simultaneously to transport and maneuver such a Giant Cannon during World War II the Gustav gun fired a total of 300 shells at the city of sebasti and in 1944 it fired another 30 shells in Warsaw Poland after that it was never used again due to its extreme weight transporting it was quite Troublesome and it was easily targeted by enemy Air Forces for bombing this super monster ultimately did not revive the dying Nazi Empire the first heavy Gustav gun was intended for the majino line while the second one Dora was actually meant for Stalingrad there was also a third one called long Dora it had a longer Barrel than the known Dora and schwarer Gustav with a longer range reportedly capable of firing from Paris directly to London essentially serving as a strategic strike weapon before the Advent of missiles however the last Cannon was never completed and was directly destroyed by the Allies through Air Raids after the war the Americans discovered some remnants of this long Dora after learning about the insane 800 mm caliber did you think it was over of course not let's continue to increase the number from 800 to 9914 in the previous section we mentioned that the Gustav gun was the Pinnacle of early human artillery calibers so what is this 9914 why is it not the Pinnacle this brings us to the 914 mm caliber Little David heavy mortar the 914 mm caliber is 36 in and when converted it appears to be a neat and whole number like most of the previous calibers it actually corresponds to a relatively whole number in the imperial system the reason it is not considered the Pinnacle of artillery is because its purpose differs from the previously mentioned cannons when the little David was introduced it was not intended to Target anything rather it was to simulate the effects of aerial bomb attacks as we know the size of Arial bombs is generally larger than the caliber of artillery shells so when condu these tests you need to determine whether your fortifications can truly withstand such attacks for example during World War II the weight of bombs started at around 250 kg then it increased to 500 kg later to 1,000 kg and gradually became even larger how could you test whether your fortifications could withstand such super bombs if I were to drop a bomb from an airplane it would be unbearable and the time and cost of deploying a single bomb from an aircrafter very high so people thought could we simulate this using artillery this led to the development of the Little David the little David with its 36in caliber was designed to simulate the effects of such super bombs including aerial bombs later it was also used to test the destructive effects of missiles to see if ground fortifications or other equipment could withstand such powerful attacks It could only be used in a testing ground as a specialized experimental device it is not a traditional combat artillery piece in the conventional sense therefore Little David cannot be considered the Pinnacle of artillery however we can still see the heights that Humanity can reach in the development of weapons through it military researchers continuously strive in the study of weapon Effectiveness repeatedly breaking through the boundaries of limitations It is believed that in the future calibers measured in meters or even kilometers will eventually emerge well thank you for continuously following the National Defense military Channel's military technology program we will see you at the same time next episode goodbye [Music]

2024-10-02 14:15

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