Intresting Facts about 1980s Soviet Equipment

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Overall the Iraqi's were in a completely different league to what NATO would have faced in Europe, even if they did feild similar equipment and employ similar doctrines.

I could not agree more. The constant slagging the Russian armed (I deliberately did not use the name Soviet) forces gets based on its woeful performance in Afghanistan and the first Chechnyan war and the poor performance of Soviet-made war material in the first Gulf War prompted me to write this apologetic:

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=897

[Dog 6]

good work dragoon !

[dragoon500ly]

One of the things that always impressed me about the Soviets was their belief in never throwing any weapon system away. As long as reservists were still around who had trained on it, they kept the weapon around. While many decry this as a waste of resources, it really is a very efficient use of resources, after all, many of these weapons are still effective, they have been used by tens of thousands of reservists, and its that much less production capacity tied down with building new weapons. So here we go!

M-1943 152mm Howitzer. The standard Soviet divisional heavy artillery piece from WWII. In the firing position, it weighs 3,600kg. It has a maximum rate of fire of 4rpm and a sustained rate of fire of 2rpm. Maximum range is 12,400m. Ammunition consists of HE (39.9kg), SAP (51.1kg), Chem, Smoke and Illum. The SAP round can penetrate up to 82mm of armor at 1,000m. Crew is 7 men. Unit of Fire is 60 rounds broken down as 48 HE, 9 Smoke and 3 SAP.

S-23 180mm gun. This weapon dates back to 1955. All indications are that it is in service with some artillery divisions. In the firing postion it weighs 20,400kg. It has a maximum rate of fire of 1rpm and a sustained rate of fire of 1 rd per 2 min. Maximum range is 30,400m with HE and 43,800m with RAP. Ammunition consists of HE (84.09kg), HE/RAP (97.7kg), and 0.2kt nuclear. Crew is 15 men. Unit of Fire is 40 rounds, broken down as 30 HE, 10 HE/RAP.

M-1938 (M-30) 122mm howitzer. A simple rugged design that has seen use as recently as the Vietnam War. It weighs 2,500kg in firing position. It has a maximum rate of fire of 6rpm and a sustained rate of fire of 3rpm. Maximum range is 11,800m. Ammunition consists of HE (21.8kg), HEAT (14.8kg), Smoke (22.4kg), Illum (21kg) and a propaganda leaflet shell (21.5kg). Crew consists of 8 men. Unit of Fire is 80 rounds, broken down as 62 HE, 6 HEAT, 12 smoke.

M-1937 (A-19) 122mm Field Gun. This is a army-level counterbattery piece. It weighs 7,117kg in firing position. Maximum rate of fire is 6rpm and sustained rate of fire is 3rpm. Maximum range is 20,800m. Ammunition consists of HE (25.5kg), APHE (25kg), Smoke (25.7kg), Chem and Illum. The crew consists of 8 men. Unit of fire is 80 rounds, broken down as 65 HE and 15 Smoke.

M-1937 (ML-20) 152mm Gun-Howitzer. Weighing 7,128kg in firing position. Maximum rate of fire is 4rpm and the sustained rate of fire is 2rpm. Maximum range is 17,265m. Ammunition consists of HE (43.6kg), APHE (48.8kg), Chem, Illum, Smoke. Crew consists of 10 men. Unit of Fire is 60 rounds, broken down as 45 HE, 5 APHE, 10 Smoke.

[HorseSoldier]

The 1991 Gulf War is extremely misleading in my opinion as the Iraqi's were not adhering to the Soviet doctrine of attack, but rather dug in defensively (and most importantly stationary and in relatively low numbers) and unable to close to short range where their guns might have been effective. Of course the allied air superiority didn't much help their situation much.

Definite agreement. Even with some very real gaps in quality and capability against NATO, a conventional slugging match in central Europe against people who had well developed doctrine and clear plans to get them to the Rhine or English Channel would have been a whole different animal than the '91 Gulf War.

[dragoon500ly]

There is a joke from a Russian military magazine that goes along the lines of...

It is after World War III has ended and two Russian tank generals met on the streets of Paris. After exchanging greetings, one asks the other if he has heard who has won the Air War. The second general shrugs and answers that he didn't know as the Air Forces were still fighting.

The Soviets recognize that air power is important, but their current doctrine stress that, at best, the skies will be neutral, neither side holding air superiority. Because of the threat from the air, the Soviets organize their air defense by four guiding principles:

Mass: Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) and surface to air missiles (SAM) are provided at all levels of command and on a scale greater than any other military.

Mix: This is achieved by the issue of complementary weapons systems, the different types providing air defense in spite of countermeasures reducing the efectiveness of any single system.

Mobility: This is intregal to the designs themselves, even static systems such as the SA-2 and SA-3 can be moved to new positions within four hours.

Integration: Air defense forces are integrated throughout the Red Army from forward area SAM brigades to the platoon's SA-7 launcher.

While the Soviets have a strong ADA doctrine, they realize that if attacking aircraft have the determination to press on, take their losses and attack their targets, all ADA can do is to make it more costly, more difficult and more time-consuming for the attacker to accomplish his mission. They don;t have to destroy enemy aircraft, all they need to do is reduce the effectiveness of enemy aircraft for the first, crucial days of the war.

By 1972, Hanoi was defended by 6,000 AAA guns (three times the number that defended Berlin), supplemented by 156 SA-2 launchers with stockpiles large enough to enable the firing of 100 missiles simultaneously. This mass of ADA was still not enough to prevent US aircraft from breaking their barrier and bombing the targets in Hanoi. It took five days to do so and it required that 50% of the US sorties flown be for air defense suppression. Thats half of all air attacks being delivered on emplaced defences and not being used on more productive targets.

In the long run, modern aircraft with effective ECM and creative tactics can defeat the Soviet air defense system. The Soviet concept of the short, victorious war is intended to deprive NATO of that long run.

The PVO-Strany (Soviet Air Defence of the Motherland) still fields large numbers of antiaircraft guns of the 130mm, 100mm and 85mm variety. Although these are being phased out and replaced by SAMs, they are still in reserve stockpiles, ready for use.

KS-30 130mm AA gun. Weighs 24,900kg in firing position. Sustained rate of fire is 12rpm. Max Altitude is 22,000m and effective range is 16,500m. It can throw a Frag-HE round weighing in at 22.4kg. Crew requirement is 11 men.

KS-19M2 100mm AA Gun. In the firing position, it weighs 11,000kg. Rate of fire is 20rpm. Max Altitude is 14,500m and the effective range is 11,900m. Its Frag-HE round weighs 15.7kg and it requires a crew of 9 men.

KS-18 85mm AA Gun. Weighs 4,986kg in firing order. Rate of fire is 20rpm. Max altitude is 12,300m and effective range is 8,380m. Its Frag-HE round weighs 9.75kg. Crew requirement is 7 men.

S-60 57mm AA Gun. Weighs 4,600kg in firing order. Rate of fire is 70rpm. Maximum altitude is 8,800m and effective range is 4,000m (optical control) or 6,000m (radar control). Its HEI round weighs 2.8kg. It requires a crew of 7 men and it has a basic load of 200 rounds in 4-round clips.

ZSU-57-2 SP AA Gun. A modified T-54 chassis that mounts two S-60 guns provided with optical fire control. A outdated design that is being replaced with SAMs. Considered to be a failure as a design due to inadequate sights. Mostly sold to various Third World countries.

M-39 37mm AA Gun. Weighs 2,100kg in firing order. Rate of fire is 80rpm. Maximum altitude is 6,000m and effective range is 3,000m. Its Frag-HE round weighs 0.74kg. It requires a crew of 8 men. Its ammuniton comes in 5-round clips and two can be held in the weapon at any time. It has a basic load of 400 rounds. Experience in Vietnam shows that it needs up to 3 37mm hits to destroy an F-4 Phantom.

ZU-23-2 AA Gun. A towed mount with dual AZP-23 cannons. It weighs 893kg in firing position. Rate of fire is 200rpm per barrel. Maximum altitude is 5,100m and effective range is 2,500m. Its HEI round weighs 0.19kg, it also comes with a API round weighing 0.19kg. Ammunition is via a box magazine holding a 50-round belt, usually loaded with one round of API for every three HEI. Crew requirement is 5 men. Basic Load is 600 rounds.

ZU-23-4 SP AA Gun. The standard AA weapon of the Red Army, each regiment has a AA platoon of four of these weapons. The vehicle (a development of the PT-76 tank) weighs 14,000kg. Has a road speed of 45km/h, a road range of 260km. It mounts 2 dual AZP-23 cannon mounts and carries a basic load of 2,000 rounds. Crew is 4. It also mounts a "Gun Dish" radar for fire-control. The Gun Dish is stablized and the "Zoo" can fire on the move, but with degraded accuracy. The Gun Dish is also fitted with a moving target indicator which assists in picking out aircraft from non-moving backgrounds, such as chaff, jamming and ground clutter. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Zoos were responsible for the destruction of 30 Israeli aircraft, lost in making low level attacks on Arab units or when driven into the Zoos engagement zone while evading SA-6s, a perfect example of the principle of mix. The 23mm round is not very lethal, requiring an average of 16 hits to destroy a F-4 Phantom.

ZPU-4, ZPU-2, ZPU-1 AA Guns. These are respectively, the quad, twin and single mounts of the basic KPV 14.5mm heavy machine gun. The ZPU-4 weighs 1,810kg in firing position. Rate of fire is 150rpm per barrel. Maximum altitude is 5,000m and effective range is 1,400m. Ammunition is API and HEI (0.065kg). Crew is 5 men. The machine gun is fed from a 150 round belt in a drum magazine. Unit of fire is 4,800 rounds. The ZPU is considered to be a very effective weapon. The larger weapons are cumbersome, and easier to spot and destroy, so much so that many experts consider the ZPU to be far more deadly than the Zoo. The ZPU can be dismantled and man-packed, permitting effective antiaircraft ambushes to be set up.

[dragoon500ly]

Here is a question for you,

What is the size of a standard Red Army Tank Platoon?

Is it 3 tanks?

Or is it 4 tanks?

Or is it 5 tanks?






The answer is....

All of the above.

The three tank platoon is the standard size for tank regiments in the tank division and for most Category I and all Category II and III tank regiments of the motor rifle division.

The four tank platoon is the standard size for the tank regiment of a Category I motor rifle division, especially the ones stationed in East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The five tank platoon is only found in the independent tank battalion/regiment of a motor rifle division or front.

[HorseSoldier]

I'd heard of the four tank platoons, but not the five tank platoons. Did those platoons still comprise three platoon companies?

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

I'd heard of the four tank platoons, but not the five tank platoons. Did those platoons still comprise three platoon companies?

Yup. And to confuse things even more, the independent tank battalion has between 4-5 companies. The independent tank regiments have between 4-6 companies.