If you use the terms of Darwinism, humanity initially, from the first day of its existence, began to undergo natural selection. In each tribe there was the best hunter, among the people - the leader, in the village - the farmer, and in the city - the best potter. This is no exception in the modern era, just the interests have become corporate, the most evil bandit is protected in court by the best lawyer, the most "hot" news about a celebrity - from the best journalist, and the most idiotic socio-economic formation - from the most odious politician. The spirit of competitiveness, or, if you like, competitiveness, is inherent in a person, as if he were in his genotype. By and large, a person does not care that his neighbor's repairs are worse, but still nice, damn it! The military industry belongs to the same category, I believe, it is just that world domination may be at stake here. All the more interesting are the consequences of the theory of "grotesque gigantism", the followers of which, I am sure, are in every nation.
The Tsar Cannon, the German Dora siege weapon, the Soviet B-4m howitzer, the American M 107 self-propelled gun … These products of the human mind evoke strange associations. They were created at a time when representatives of one or another nation were thinking about world domination. The 170mm M1989 Koksan ultra-long-range guns of North Korean production also belong to this series of supergiants. This modernized artillery gun had its own prototype, which was given the code name M1978.
The history of the appearance of the M1978
In the history of the appearance of M 1978, everything happened quite conditionally, starting from the discovery of the first evidence of its existence. Western "scribblers", looking through the chronicle of the revolutionary parade in Pyongyang in 1978, noticed a strange structure with an unnaturally long barrel.
True, American journalists still did not know that at the beginning of the same year, American military aerial reconnaissance detected the movement of these fire systems in the area of the city of Koksan and gave them a symbol by the place and year of the serif - M1978 "Koksan", because they simply did not have any other information. disposed. Much later, a year later, through its technical and intelligence sources, the US DIA collected some data on this system.
Product М1978 "Koksan"
The information received regarding this artillery gun turned out to be very scanty, and somewhere was supplemented by assumptions by analogy with other super-powerful caliber fire weapons.
For the chassis of this gun, a base from the North Korean version of the Type-59 tank made in China was used, which was "copied" from the Soviet T-54 medium tank. Another assumption is that an outdated Chinese armored vehicle was taken as the platform for the gun. In any case, this is a 170 mm self-propelled howitzer class self-propelled gun installed in an open turret on a tank chassis.
In the modification of this monster of the 1989 model (the name М1989 "Koksan"), a transportable ammunition load in the amount of 12 shots was already provided. The base of the prototype and modification was equipped with a diesel engine, which reached a speed of 40 km / h on the highway with a fuel reserve of 300 km. The gun had a firing range of conventional projectiles up to 40 km, with active-reactive ammunition - up to 60 km. Rate of fire: 1-2 shots / 5 min.
Combat use of M1978 and M1989
As we remember, the result of the civil won in Korea was the division of the country into the southern part (South Korea with the capital in Seoul) and the northern (DPRK with the capital in Pyongyang). A demilitarized zone was formed between them, beyond which the deployment of military formations was allowed. So, the M1978 and M1989 products were put into battle order by the DPRK command with 36 ACS batteries each, and mainly along the demilitarized zone. The systems, as a rule, were fortified in engineering terms and camouflaged in concrete bunkers. True, fortunately, until today not a single shot has been fired from them, although their presence in this area terrifies the South Korean population.
Operational and design flaws of the ACS
At the turn of the 90s of the XX century, this artillery system became obsolete, and a tendency to normalize relations between the Korean North and South began to take shape. Meanwhile, problems have accumulated with the maintenance of the old chassis, which was initially low, heavy and uncomfortable. In addition, the military was not satisfied with some aspects of the artillery unit - the lack of transportable ammunition, the frequent failure of the recoil parts of the gun due to the monstrous recoil force, etc. schedule.
Iran-Iraqi conflict
Meanwhile, the "fratricidal" Iranian-Iraqi war between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East did not stop, and both sides lacked equipment and weapons. The decommissioned North Korean equipment found itself in the Middle East theater of operations, both from Iran and Iraq. Perhaps this was the only case of a truly combat use of "Koksan" in combat operations. Towards the end of the war, the Iraqis fired from these guns. Iran's oil development from the Al-Fao Peninsula, and four years later it was Kuwait's turn.
The presence of "Koksans" by the enemy became a cold shower for the Iraqis. Their artillery divisions, which had previously dominated the theater of operations, began to suffer losses in personnel and equipment. The fighting in the Middle East revealed the real shortcomings of this howitzer in combat use: it is a low rate of fire and a small resource of the barrel of an artillery unit.
Conclusion
The time of supersystems has passed, the time has come for a different resolution of international conflicts, but such weapons as "Koksan" will remain a vivid reminder of individual episodes of military history.
170-mm self-propelled gun М1989 manufactured by the DPRK. Pyongyang, 15.04.2012 (c) TankNet
