China’s new PLZ-05B 155mm self-propelled howitzers recently appeared on the road. According to the coating, they should be on their way to service.
The PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer is a great improvement over the PLZ-05A, which means that technical difficulties such as high-power engines and a new generation of reinforced chassis have been overcome by China. One of the biggest differences between the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer and the PLZ-05A is the change to a new, highly protective, heavy-duty chassis.
The PLZ-05A self-propelled howitzer adopts China’s second-generation medium-sized general-purpose chassis, and the biggest appearance feature is the upper slope protection on the front, and the front right of the vehicle body has shutters for engine heat dissipation.
The chassis of the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer is obviously different from that of the PLZ-05A, and its chassis is obvious lower slope protection. The lower slope protection is adopted to provide more space in the front of the vehicle, and it perfectly avoids the shortcomings of reduced structural strength and reduced protective power caused by the front placement of the engine.
At present, there are two types of crawler chassis in China that use lower slope protection, one is the Type 15 light tank chassis, and the other is Type 04A infantry fighting vehicle chassis. Judging from the obvious rear arrangement of the turret, the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer uses an extended Type 04A infantry fighting vehicle chassis. This is also the second large-caliber howitzer in the world that uses an infantry fighting vehicle chassis. The first is the new M109A7 self-propelled howitzer in service of the United States, which uses the famous M2 infantry fighting vehicle chassis.
The use of Type 04A infantry fighting vehicle chassis will give the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer a greater protection performance than the PLZ-05A. The front of the vehicle can defend against 12.7 mm armor-piercing projectiles, and the addition of new spaced additional armor can defend against 30mm armor-piercing shells and 40mm rocket attacks. The side of the vehicle is equipped with additional armor to prevent 12.7 mm armor-piercing projectiles. In addition, the louvers on the front of the vehicle for engine heat dissipation have been moved to the upper right position of the cockpit. This will help improve protection against fragmentation and light weapons. The front armor of the turret should also be able to defend against 12.7mm armor-piercing projectiles.
Another major difference between the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer and the PLZ-05A is the adoption of seven pairs of weight-bearing wheels. This is the first 7 pairs of wheels in China’s main battle weaponry. This not only shows that the body of the PLZ-05B has been lengthened compared to the PLZ-05A, but also that the overall combat weight has been greatly increased.
Take the very famous 7-wheel self-propelled howitzer German PHZ-2000 as an example. Its total combat weight reaches 55 tons. If a full set of additional armor is installed, it can even reach 60 tons. Taking into account that it uses the chassis of the Leopard 1 main battle tank, and the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer uses the heavy infantry fighting vehicle chassis, and considering the technical advantages of more than 20 years, the combat weight of the PLZ-05B should be above 50 tons, much heavier than the 45 tons of PLZ-05A.
The PLZ-05A chassis has the problem of low utilization of space in the combat compartment, especially the space under the turret basket and on both sides is not fully and effectively used, and most of the space in the tail compartment of the chassis is occupied by the auxiliary power system, resulting in the large chassis only stores 5 sets of spare ammunition, and the 30-round capacity of the whole gun is obviously too small. The PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer has greatly improved the utilization of chassis space through reasonable optimization of the layout, coupled with a more compact power system and a larger vehicle, its ammunition capacity will be close to 60 rounds, reaching the level of PHZ-2000, and its firepower sustainability will be greatly enhanced.
Another upgrade of the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer is its significantly larger turret. Judging from the picture, the caliber and barrel length of the PLZ-05B gun have not changed. The only reason for the enlarged turret is that the PLZ-05B will most likely be China’s first self-propelled howitzer with an unmanned turret.
With the unmanned turret adopted, the automatic loading machine and ammunition of the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer are directly installed in the turret, thus achieving complete isolation from the crew. The viability of members is greatly guaranteed. The disadvantage of this is that the turret will be very huge, but this is not much of a disadvantage for a self-propelled howitzer in the rear for long-range fire support.
The use of unmanned turrets not only improves the survivability of members, but also means that China has made a huge breakthrough in the automatic loading of large-caliber howitzers. The high rate of fire and reliability of the automatic loading machine have reached a high level.
The automatic loading machine of PLZ-05A is only equivalent to the automation level of the western second-generation self-propelled howitzer’s loading mechanism. The structural design is not compact, the ammunition compartment has a limited amount of ammunition, and the maximum rate of fire is only 7 rounds/min, and even with fully automatic loading of equal modular and launch charges, the rate of fire can only reach 10 rounds/minute.
In contrast, the automatic ammunition loading system used by the Russian Soyuz-SV self-propelled howitzer has a maximum rate of fire of 16 rounds per minute, and can fire at the maximum rate of fire at any direction and elevation angle. It is expected that the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer will most likely adopt Soyuz-SV technology to achieve a similar rate of fire.
The emergence of the PLZ-05B self-propelled howitzer has made up for the shortcomings of the PLZ-05A. It is a truly comprehensive self-propelled howitzer with no shortcomings. Its performance has reached the world’s leading level and will become the most important fire support weapon for the Chinese army in the next 20 years.
