U-18 - Soviet heavy self-propelled artillery installation of the Great Patriotic War .
| U-18 | |
|---|---|
 Layout U-18 | |
| Classification | assault gun |
| Layout diagram | casemate , rear engine compartment, combat and front controls |
| Crew | 6 |
| Story | |
| Developer | KB-3 plant number 8 NKV |
| Years of production | 1942 |
| Years of operation | not exploited |
| Key Operators |  the USSR |
| Dimensions | |
| Body length mm | 6750 |
| Width mm | 3250 |
| Reservation | |
| Forehead, mm / city. | 75 |
| Forehead of the body (top), mm / city. | 75 + 20 |
| Forehead of the body (middle), mm / city. | 40 |
| Board of the case, mm / city. | 75 |
| Housing feed (middle), mm / city. | 60 (cylindrical) |
| Bottom mm | 30 mm |
| The mask of the gun , mm / city. | 100 (cylindrical) |
| Armament | |
| Caliber and brand of guns | 152.4 mm ML-20S ) arr. 1943 |
| Gun type | rifled howitzer gun |
| Firing range, km | 17.2 (highest) |
| Mobility | |
| Engine type | V-shaped 12- cylinder liquid-cooled diesel |
| Engine power, l from. | 600 |
| Cruising on the highway , km | 225 |
| Suspension type | individual torsion bar |
Content
- 1 History of creation
- 1.1 Prototypes: U-19; SU-152
- 2 Design Description
- 2.1 Engine
- 2.2 Transmission
- 2.3 Suspension
- 3 Armament
- 3.1 Gun
- 3.2 Tool specifications
- 3.3 Shells
- 3.4 Technical characteristics of shells
- 4 Application
- 5 Links
- 6 Literature
Creation History
On April 15, 1942, a meeting of the plenum of the Artillery Committee of the GAU KA was held , dedicated to the further development of self-propelled artillery. The meeting approved requirements for a self-propelled gun, which was supposed to be a replacement for the “bunker fighter” 212. The Ural Heavy Engineering Plant as part of L. I. Gorlitsky, N. V. Kurin, G. N. Rybin and K. N. Ilyin and KB-3 Machine-Building Plant named after M. I. Kalinin , headed by F. F. Petrov, the U-18 self-propelled gun was designed on the basis of the KV-7 equipped with a 152.4 mm howitzer ZIK-20 ( ML-20S )
Prototypes: U-19; SU-152
By order of the GAU, I had to hurriedly carry out the U-19 project, install a 203.2 mm howitzer on the KV tank chassis . 1931 B-4 weighing 12.7 tons. The dimensions of the self-propelled guns were impressive and the combat weight was 66 tons. Due to the excessive load on the undercarriage and the low maneuverability, the work on U-19 was curtailed.
U-18 began to be finalized at the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant on the instructions of the deputy tank industry J. Y. Kotin . The self-propelled guns were equipped with a 152-mm howitzer-gun of the 1937 model (ML-20) , and then on the KV-1s chassis. Self-propelled guns received the factory name KV-14 . On February 14, 1943, after successful tests, by the decree of GKO KV-14 (object 236) it was put into service and put into mass production under the index SU-152 .
Design Description
Engine
As the power plant in the U-18 self-propelled guns, it was supposed to use a diesel four-stroke V-shaped twelve-cylinder V-2K engine, which at the output could provide a power of 600 horsepower.
Transmission
The transmission of the U-18 heavy self-propelled artillery installation consisted of the following main units and assemblies:
- multi-disc main clutch, which worked on the principle of dry friction "steel ferodo";
- a five-speed tractor-type gearbox;
- two multi-disc side clutches operating on the principle of steel-to-steel friction;
- two final planetary gearboxes;
- floating belt type brakes.
Pendant
Suspension in the U-18 is classified by its type as torsion-free individual with internal depreciation for each of the 6 stamped double-pitch track rollers of small diameter for each side. For each track roller, against it, to the armored hull by welding, limiters of the travel of the suspension balancers were attached. The drive wheel, equipped with removable gear rims with a pinion gear, was applied to each side on the rear, and the guide sloths were in front. The upper branch of the caterpillar rested on three small cast supporting rollers, which were not rubberized with bandages.
Each caterpillar chain was assembled from 86-90 cast single-ridge type tracks with a width of 700 and a pitch of 160 millimeters.
Armament
Gun
Gun ZIS-20 (ML-20S) 152.4 mm howitzer gun. Soviet howitzer gun of the period of the Second World War. Serially produced from 1937 to 1946 and to this day is in service with many countries of the world. Also, the ISU-152 was armed with this gun.
Gun specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Caliber mm | 152.4 |
| Rate of fire, rounds / min | 3-4 |
| Sighting range, m: | up to 17 230 |
| Barrel length mm | 4240 |
Shells
The following shells are available for this gun:
- BR-540 - armor-piercing pointed-head chamber projectile.
- BR-540B - armor-piercing blunt-headed chamber projectile.
- BP-540 - cumulative projectile . Present only on ISU-152
- OF-540 - high-explosive fragmentation shell.
Projectile Specifications
| Shell | Type of | Weight kg | Initial speed, m / s | Fuse delay, m | Sensitivity fuse, mm | Explosive mass, g | The angle of the meeting at which the probability of a rebound is 100% | The angle of the meeting at which the probability of a rebound is 50% | The angle of the meeting at which the probability of a rebound is 0% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR-540 | BS | 49 | 600 | 1.2 | fifteen | 480 | 25 | thirty | 43 |
| BR-540B | BS | 49 | 600 | 1.2 | fifteen | 660 | 19 | 27 | 42 |
| BP-540 | The cop | 28 | 680 | - | 0.1 | 3840 | 17 | 21 | 28 |
| OF-540 | OFS | 44 | 655 | - | 0.01 | 5900 | 9 | 10 | eleven |
| Projectile name | Penetration, mm at a distance, m (normal) | Penetration, mm at a distance, m (angle of attack 30 °) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | one hundred | 500 | 1000 | 1500 | 2000 | 10 | one hundred | 500 | 1000 | 1500 | 2000 | |
| BR-540 | 167 | 165 | 152 | 137 | 124 | 111 | 60 | 59 | 55 | 49 | 44 | 40 |
| BR-540B | 150 | 148 | 142 | 135 | 128 | 122 | 61 | 61 | 58 | 55 | 52 | fifty |
| BP-540 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 124 | 124 | 124 | 124 | 124 | 124 |
| OF-540 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 74 |
Application
In March 1942, a model was built. Prototypes were not produced, did not participate in hostilities.
Links
Literature
Solyankin A.G., Pavlov M.V., Pavlov I.V., Zheltov I.G. Soviet heavy self-propelled artillery installations of 1941-1945. - M .: Exprint, 2005 .-- 48 p. - ISBN 5-94038-079-4 .
Svirin M.N. Self-propelled guns of Stalin. The history of the Soviet self-propelled guns 1919-1945. - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 .-- 384 p. - (War and we. Soviet tanks). —10,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-20527-1 , BBK 68.513 C24.