Not all countries are able to produce or acquire military equipment with the required capabilities and characteristics in a timely manner. As a result, they have to look for alternative ways to update the fleet of combat vehicles. One of the obvious ways to modernize the army is to rebuild existing equipment, which is still suitable for further operation. It is this principle that underlies the new project of the AMX-13D30 Vulcano self-propelled artillery unit, being developed in Peru.
It should be recalled that the Peruvian ground forces cannot be called fully developed and modern. So, they are armed with only 24 self-propelled artillery guns. These are 12 French-made Canon de 155 mm Mle F3 Automoteur vehicles and the same number of American M109 self-propelled guns. Both types of armored vehicles carry 155 mm guns. At the same time, the army needs more self-propelled guns, and in addition, it needs systems of other calibers. To date, the Peruvian Ministry of Defense has managed to find an acceptable solution to this problem.
The proposed appearance of the AMX-13D30 ACS. Collage of Diseños Casanave Corporation S. A. C. / discasanave.com
Due to the limited financial capabilities of the country, the purchase of new samples of armored vehicles abroad is excluded. Manufacturing cars on our own from scratch is also not possible. For this reason, commanders and engineers decided to build new equipment using available samples already in service. This approach has already been used earlier and made it possible to improve the condition of the troops to a certain extent.
Peruvian specialists are going to build a promising model of self-propelled guns on the serial chassis of the light tank AMX-13, developed and produced in France, and the armament of such a machine will be the Soviet-made D-30 howitzer. Peru has such tanks and guns in sufficient numbers, and therefore the army can count on getting the desired number of self-propelled guns.
The new project is reportedly named AMX-13D30, which combines the designations of the two main components of the SPG. In addition, the car was named Vulcano - "Volcano".
The new project will be implemented in the framework of cooperation of several state and private enterprises. In addition to the Peruvian Ministry of Defense, represented by the Central Arsenal, the Diseños Casanave Corporation S. A. C. companies are involved in the project. (DICSAC) and FAME S. A. C. All of them will have to take on the implementation of certain tasks related to the replacement of existing components or the production of new ones. Participants in the AMX-13D30 project already have some experience in rebuilding AMX-13 light tanks into carriers of one or another weapon. It can be expected that this will somewhat simplify the production of Volcanoes.
In the recent past, Peru was armed with about one and a half hundred AMX-13 light tanks of French production. This technique has long ceased to suit the military, and therefore in recent years several projects for its alteration have been implemented, involving the replacement of weapons. As a result, to date, no more than 40-50 combat vehicles have retained their original configuration. All others, having lost their turrets with guns, became carriers of anti-tank missiles or other modern weapons.
The new AMX-13D30 project is based on the same principles as previous developments. The finished light tank must lose its native weapons and parts of the equipment, after which it will be equipped with a new "combat module". Probably, the existing chassis, simultaneously with the modernization, will undergo repairs and restore their technical readiness.
The principles of building a new combat vehicle. Collage of Diseños Casanave Corporation S. A. C. / discasanave.com
The self-propelled gun will "inherit" from the base tank a hull with relatively weak protection, which is guaranteed to withstand only small arms bullets. The thickness of the frontal part of the hull with homogeneous armor having a curved shape does not exceed 50 mm. The sides are protected by 15-20 mm steel. The minimum armor thickness on the roof and bottom is 10 mm. The AMX-13 tank received a specific layout, which will somewhat facilitate the construction of the ACS. The engine compartment of this machine is located in the front of the hull, behind it is the control compartment. The central and aft compartments are thus given over to the fighting compartment.
In the course of the proposed modernization, the chassis will have to retain the existing eight-cylinder SOFAM Model 8Gxb gasoline engine with a capacity of 250 hp. Also, manual transmission units will remain in their places. With their help, the engine torque is delivered to the front drive wheels.
The chassis has a tracked undercarriage with five medium diameter road wheels on each side. The rollers are mounted on an independent torsion bar suspension; the first and fifth balancers of each side are also associated with hydraulic shock absorbers. Larger drive wheels fit in the front of the body. Track tensioning mechanism and idler wheels are in the stern. The undercarriage includes a 350 mm wide steel track with an open metal hinge. The 85 track tracks can be fitted with rubber pads for road travel.
The Volcano project provides for the removal of the standard tower of the so-called. a swinging structure equipped with an insufficiently powerful weapon. It is also likely that a number of various equipment will be removed from the fighting compartment, which is no longer needed due to the replacement of weapons. The freed volumes and the existing shoulder straps of the tower are proposed to be used for the installation of a new open installation with the D-30 howitzer.
Directly on the chase, the authors of the project placed a support platform with vertical supports for mounting the gun. Since the breech of the D-30 gun is large, the self-propelled gun does not receive a wheelhouse. The protection of the artillerymen will be provided only with a standard gun shield mounted on the same supports with it. From the side, from behind and from above, the crew is not protected in any way. However, the machine is intended primarily for work in closed positions, and therefore less stringent protection requirements can be imposed on it.
Apparently, the companies participating in the project had to develop anew only a special platform for installing the weapon. On its supports, it is proposed to mount the entire swinging part of the D-30 assembly, removed from the native towed carriage. On the new installation, the gun will be able to aim horizontally in any direction. The elevation angles will probably not change much. Recall that the standard carriage allows you to aim the gun in the range from -7 ° to + 70 °.
It is planned to mount a swinging artillery unit on the new installation, including the barrel, breech and recoil devices. Thus, despite the new carrier, the D-30 howitzer retains a 38-caliber 122-mm rifled barrel, equipped with a developed muzzle brake. The wedge gate remains in place. The barrel is connected to a hydraulic recoil brake and a hydropneumatic recoil device. The cylinders of these devices are located above the barrel and are still covered by a recognizable casing. Aiming devices will also remain standard.
Tank AMX-13 with a 105 mm gun. Photo Wikimedia Commons
In the basic towed version, the D-30 howitzer is transported with the barrel forward using the so-called.pivot beam installed under the muzzle brake. The self-propelled gun does not need such a device, and it can be removed. However, in some of the available images of the AMX-13D30 ACS, made by photomontage, the beam remains in place. This can be explained by the mistake of the authors of the demonstration materials.
In the aft part of the tank hull, freed up for a new gun mount, stowages for 122-mm separate loading rounds will be placed. No automation means are offered, and therefore the calculation will have to manually raise the shells and casings to the breech and then load them into it. It can be assumed that this will not have a negative effect on the rate of fire, and it will remain at the level of 7-8 rounds per minute, as in the D-30 in the original towed version.
Naturally, the howitzer will be able to use all compatible 122-mm rounds for various purposes with the ability to change the propellant charge. Depending on the assigned combat mission, the crew will be able to shoot high-explosive, anti-tank, smoke, etc. shells. Range stats will not change. The maximum firing range will be 15.3 km, like the towed sample.
Most of the devices and instruments of the base chassis will remain the same, but some new products are envisaged. So, according to the customer, the self-propelled gun should be able to move at night. To do this, it is proposed to install a TVN-5 night vision device on the hatch above the driver's workplace. In addition, it was proposed to use a modern VHF radio station R-030U. Night vision devices and communication equipment are purchased by the Peruvian army from Ukraine.
There is reason to believe that the dismantling of the swinging turret of the tank with the subsequent installation of a new artillery installation will not have a significant effect on the dimensions and weight of the vehicle. Thus, the length of the AMX-13D30 self-propelled gun along the hull will not exceed 4.9 m with a width of about 2.5 m. The height, taking into account the gun shield (in its transport position), should not be more than 2.5-2.7 m the weight of the AMX-13 tank was 14, 5 tons. A similar parameter of the new self-propelled gun should be at the same level.
The same should be the case with mobility. The base tank accelerated to 60 km / h, the cruising range was 400 km. ACS AMX-13D30 will receive the same power plant with clear consequences for driving performance. Also, she, probably, too, will not be able to cross water obstacles by swimming, and will have to move only along shallow fords.
According to known data, the companies participating in the Vulcano project have completed the design of self-propelled guns and are ready to start producing such equipment. On March 8, the Peruvian Ministry of Defense signed a new contract with DICSAC and FAME S. A. C. This document defines all the conditions, terms and cost of future work.
122 mm D-30 howitzer in combat position. Photo Vitalykuzmin.net
Soon at the Diseños Casanave Corporation S. A. C. the first AMX-13 light tanks will arrive, which will have to lose some of their native equipment and receive new equipment. DICSAC is the main developer and executor of the project. FAME S. A. C. and the Central Arsenal of the Peruvian army, in turn, will have to work as subcontractors and suppliers of individual devices.
According to known data, now the Peruvian army has no more than fifty AMX-13 armored vehicles in the original configuration of light tanks. These machines are no longer of interest in their current form, and therefore they can be rebuilt according to the Vulcan project. The number of D-30 cannons-howitzers is noticeably less - there are only 36 of them. Thus, the maximum possible number of the latest self-propelled guns becomes clear. Using the available stocks of equipment, the Peruvian military and engineers will be able to build no more than 36 AMX-13D30 self-propelled guns.
The number of new type of self-propelled guns planned for assembly is not too large. However, if we take into account the current state of the self-propelled artillery of Peru, the situation begins to look different. The assembly of Vulcano vehicles will increase the fleet of self-propelled artillery guns by two and a half times. In addition to quantitative advantages, there will also be qualitative ones. So far, the army has only 155-mm guns on tracked chassis, which limits the flexibility of using artillery. In the near future, they will be supplemented with systems with a caliber of 122 mm, and this will expand the range of tasks to be solved.
As a result of the implementation of the AMX-13D30 Vulcano project, the number of self-propelled artillery in the Peruvian army will increase in the most noticeable way. Nevertheless, even after that, self-propelled units will not be able to bypass the towed systems in terms of their number. Without tracked or wheeled carriers, there will still be several hundred guns of different classes and calibers. However, in this case, one should expect a certain increase in the combat effectiveness of the ground forces.
It should be noted that the new project "Volcano" is a continuation of a kind of family of new technology based on an old tank, which is no longer suitable for solving initial problems. Over the years, the vast majority of the outdated AMX-13 tanks have been rebuilt into carriers of modern weapons. At the same time, so far it was only about anti-tank missile systems. Now this conventional family will be replenished with a combat vehicle with powerful barrel armament.
As you can see, not the richest state in Latin America is in no hurry to write off and send for remelting machines that are no longer needed. On the contrary, it repairs them and returns them to service in a new quality. Obviously, a tank chassis with missiles or a howitzer - despite all the required costs - is much more useful than a pile of scrap metal. As for the characteristic shortcomings of the outdated chassis, they are compensated by the specifics of its use in the new role. For example, the risks associated with insufficiently powerful armor are neutralized through the use of weapons with a long range of fire.
According to the published information, the construction of the new AMX-13D30 Vulcano ACS should start in the very near future. Over the course of several years, the Peruvian army will receive dozens of such vehicles and is likely to completely cover the current needs for self-propelled artillery, while increasing the firepower of the ground forces. What is especially important, it will be possible to carry out such a modernization of the fleet of equipment with minimal costs. Contractor companies will have to manufacture only individual units from scratch, which will simplify and speed up the execution of an existing order.
