Russian 2S7 "Pion" 203mm Tracked Howitzer - Overview and Opinion

[Music] welcome back everyone it's madness thank you for joining me on this video today I really do appreciate so once again we are talking about self-propelled guns and artillery pieces and this is hands down one gigantic and highly impressive gun this is the two s7p on now I think I'm saying that right and I apologize if I'm not but that's the best we're gonna get for now now this is a vehicle that I've never even seen before until today and I came across it in a discord channel I'm apart of the cab show and you may be aware of it go check that out if you are a follower of that channel it's got some interesting discovered discussions and topics but it was posted just as a picture and it's like well that's an interesting vehicle and then I was like holy [ __ ] that thing is massive they say 203 millimeter howitzer this is a beast guys I'm not going to lie to you is absolutely massive self-propelled gun systems as you can see it's an automatic pretty much automatic loading system guys don't get upset but we talking about Auto loaders just kidding just kidding don't get upset uh-huh but yeah this this really is highly impressive so we're going to talk a little bit about it and go as we always do as an overview and they want to put my own opinion on it which I'm not gonna lie choose is pretty impressive because I just am stunned by this beast so let's go over this vehicle bit so first of all let's touch base on a little bit of its sort of history and how it came to be and how self barrel guns in general in Russia came to be first of all Soviet armoured doctrine was pretty much rewritten during World War two following the German invasion of the Soviet Union through Operation Barbarossa a large focus was eventually placed upon a mobile artillery support that involved rocket fire a lot of you probably know them as Kurdish assistance with towed artillery elements and beyond that mostly self-propelled guns this wartime experience considerably influenced designs that would appear after the war which saw the big guns and these vehicles became the norm in supporting major offensives the 2's 7rp on I'm trying my best to say that properly I think is peony or peon I'm trying I tried Google Translate and I was looking for Russians everyone I just couldn't find it I apologize I'm trying my this was taken into inventory in 1976 and design was centered around a massive 203 millimeter gun barrel which set off a trap chassis despite its Cold War roots this effective fire support vehicle remains in service to this day when recognized by the West NATO assign the designation of m1 975 model 1975 to the to s7 it carried the official Soviet Army designation of the so2 o3 as well when adopted by the service to s7 became the largest self-propelled artillery system and vehicle in service anywhere in the world with the arrival of the t-80 main battle tank the Soviet Army had an all modern track and we are chassis from which to spawn a line of associated vehicles from the - s7 was developed to support offensive actions involving tanks as well as infantry and other mobile assets for frontline service involving indirect fire and for those of you don't know why indirect fire means it basically means artillery fire shells coming from long distance location and landing on top of your horrible little head the - s7 became a forty six point five tonne this is a beast vehicle mating the 203 millimeter - a four four series howitzer atop the beautiful t-80 tank chassis which utilized a V 46 v12 turbocharged diesel fueled engine of around 840 horsepower and was fitted at the middle of the hull which is an interesting configuration for vehicle like this considering that is so long and it has such a wide wheelbase to have the vehicle's engine in the middle air is quite interesting to see how the drive line would actually get that sprocket from and I mean the drive line itself as you can see here it's just there's a lot of vehicle where road wheels going on there I think there's what we got seven and the idler on the sprocket and it's kind of got that old World War one track basis going along the kind of you know trapezoid kind of thing I think that's the right shape I can't remember um but yeah it's an interesting design feature and not too sure how well it would do off-road with such a wide you know long ground sort of angle that it will hit out there I'm not too sure I mean I wouldn't want to be taking this thing over knife edges because you probably first of all plan all-out 203 millimeter cannon into the ground and second of all it seems like it could really easily topple over and hopefully that you know 46 tons going to help try and keep it stopping and stuck in the mud the vehicle component retains its torsional bar system so pretty much old-school suspension systems for off-road travel and could reach speeds of roughly around 31 miles per hour with an operational Road range of about 400 miles now for a vehicle that weighs 46.5 tons 31 miles an hour is pretty impressive and most vehicles in militaries have to be designated to a certain distance what I mean by that guys is if an army or military designs a vehicle the vehicle should within reason be able to meet the minimum required distance of any other vehicle in the military for instance in the British Army all vehicles must get to a standard distance without running out of fuel and obviously the Russian military has decided for this particular vehicle 400 miles is it minimum or maximum sorry movement rate which is pretty darn impressive there's a lot of room on that vehicle clearly for fuel the overall length of this vehicle was ten point five meters with a width of three point three eight meters and a height of three meters our protection was for only the crew and held in the hull in a forward mounted cab sporting with roof hatches and measured 10 millimeters in maximum thickness so clearly guys not really that much on there I mean it's not exactly vehicle it's going to be puddling across in the first spearhead this thing is going to be dug in entrenched as these guys are right now pummeling the enemy with heavy rounds which clearly it's doing very well at the standard operating crew numbered 14 7 were carried on the primary vehicle with the remainder brought along in an assist vehicle probably a truck and they would normally be you know driving along beside them all very close beside them protected by probably a PCs and armored fighting vehicles however only the driving and command positions located in the front cabin were actually protected for the crew this meant that the gunnery crew was completely exposed at the rear top of the hull and also at the mercy of the elements and nuclear biological and chemical warfare which thank God never had to be utilized the 203 millimeter to a 44 gun system with its integrated mounted and recoil Hardware was sat over the rear of the hull this weapon provided engagement ranges of out to 37.5 kilometers and support the use of rocket-assisted projectiles otherwise known as raps which drastically increased the ranges of outs of 47 kilometers giving the vehicle hefty punch for indirect fire service the mounting hardware allowed for an inherent traversal of 15 degrees to the right or left before the entire vehicle needs to be turned in the direction of the desired fire now this is going to be a huge hindrance guys because without having that 360 to traverse it is kind of limiting the vehicle for instance if it was to throw a track that vehicle is pretty much inherently stopped between 15 degrees left and right which is going to be pretty much useless a load assist mechanism was given to aid the reloading process involving the large shells of 203 millimeters which I certainly wouldn't want to be hand loading into this beast and the associated propellant charge components that also needed to be installed into the breech the 203 mm a projectile reloads were managed by an accompanying ammunition carrier reload vehicle commonly filled it with such units the two s 7 gun carry section stowed for ready to fire 203 millimeter projectiles on its hull the 2 s 7 designation marked original production models of 1976 and minor improvements produced the 2 s 7n mark in the following years the 2 s 7m or Malka was introduced during 1983 as a modernized variant with an updated fire control system an improved rate of fire up to 2.5 rounds per minute and an increased onboard storage of the 203 millimeter rounds from 4 to 8 the BT m4 mark was off to offshoot design of the 2's 7 and outfitted with a trench digging equipment to serve in the support role to the 2's 7th attachments the 2's 7 was eventually taken into the inventories of several Soviet eyes and supporting states including Angola Azerbaijan Belarus Czechoslovakia Georgia Poland Slovakia although in limited number Ukraine and Abeka Stan former Soviet into the new Russian army after the fall of the Soviet empire whilst others found in former states were reconstituted by local armies czechoslovakia utilized the vehicle series from 1984 to 1994 after which examples were sold off to angola polish examples were title in 2006 okay so I guess it's now my opinion on this vehicle well first of all guys what I will say is this thing is an absolute beast and very very impressive let's quickly go over the pros and the cons of this vehicle first of all the pros firepower 203 millimeters of firepower that is a lot of high explosives or any kind of munitions that we placed onto an enemy location from a great range we're talking about 35 to 45 kilometers of range and yes they are obviously rocket-assisted projectiles however even with those kind of munitions being used there is a lot of range to be putting onto a target with that kind of firepower massive Pro for this vehicle and another pro is its mobility I mean it's a track vehicle it's got hell of an engine to it a lot of horsepower there to get it where it needs to go and is able to get to positions that other wheeled vehicles and howitzers may not be able to get to but inherently with it being so difficult to get across knife edges difficult terrain because of its long length base so that is a con and in some respects it could be quite difficult to navigate tough terrain in this size of vehicle another pro what I would say is at least it's attempting to protect the third members of the crew which brings me onto the con is it's not protecting all the crew and that's quite sad to know that really only the command and the driver are being given that protection nobody else is to suffer the wrath of whatever else can be put upon them another con for me is I'm quite skeptical about the drivetrain there's a lot of wheels going on there and a lot of maintenance that would have to be placed on this vehicle which is gonna cause a lot of issues down the road if you know you're driving this thing all over the place I mean it's a heavy vehicle weighs about 48 tons you put 48 tons and you know that many road wheels across terrain off-road and on-road you're talking about a lot of maintenance now you have a nice big crew which is a nice approach to have of seven crew members but for a vehicle of this size it just seems a little overkill which brings me onto kind of I guess my next con I think this vehicle has a lot of potential still on the modern battlefield clearly it has the firepower to engage fixed positions from range however I think in today's modern conflicts counterbattery artillery fire is really going to put this vehicle off its edge a little bit you know it takes quite a while to set up these large caliber weapon systems and I think if anything the biggest calm to this vehicle is it its impossibility to do 360-degree fire and a shoot and scoop maneuver with that only 15 degrees left to right Traverse M it's really giving it a very difficult and you know environment to engage from the fact of the matter is that self-propelled guns really should at these nowadays should be able to eat shoot and scoop fire around and disappear again and be able to engage from a 360-degree range as we see with most modern self-propelled guns nowadays obviously the Russians and most countries around the world have learnt from this they've realized that you know counterbattery artillery fire is going to be crucial in winning conflicts and try and prevent rounds coming back onto you you need to be able to put a round downrange and get out of there sadly this vehicle just isn't able to really do that I mean it has to put its blades down has to dig itself in a little bit I mean just elevating that huge mammoth of a 203 mm e2 cannon in itself is going to take a bit of time and loading that big beast of a shell although helped by the auto loader which in this particular instance helps a lot it's still taking quite a while so yeah I think for me that's its biggest con is it's just not that mobile and being able to provide that fire pack quickly and move again and but if these vehicles were placed into a heavy hold down position and being able to provide long-range fire support to fixed positions that they could kind of provide that counter battery fire for their forces then it would make sense but I really don't think in the grand scheme of things this vehicle is going to see a long-term future because there's just too many systems in place that are now countering this vehicle and that firepower because they'll be found rather quickly by a you know counter-battery artillery radar and unfortunately whether it be an air strike or another artillery strike will air take out these be a pleased they can move it you know get to new location over although guides I really do think this victim still has a lot of potential on the battlefield like I said get into a hold down position and provide that that firepower clearly this vehicle has in bucket loads and and overall I think I kind of fell in love with this vehicle just for the mere fact it is an absolute beast I love that gun I'm also really interested by the self loading mechanism the way it loads is very interesting considering it has a crew of seven it really only looks like it takes two or three guys to put that massive around a bag charge in there which is pretty impressive so overall guys I really do love this vehicle and I'm gonna do some more research on it and see if I can you know find out some more interesting details I really hope you enjoyed today's video guys I would really appreciate if you could leave a like and if you did enjoy the video leave me a comment let me know what you think if you are new to my channel please feel free to subscribe and I would also really appreciate if you could share around on social media and Facebook and such I also do have a patreon account guys so if anyone does have the urge or the willingness to donate to alter my channel I would really appreciate but it is not expected or necessary in any way shape or form just something to think about anyway guys I really do appreciate you stopping by today take care have a great day all the best [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 573,760

Rating: 4.8692012 out of 5

Keywords: 2S7 Pion, Russian military 2S7 Pion, 203mm Tracked Self-Propelled Howitzer, 2S7 Pion artillery, 2S7 203mm gun, 2S7 firing, russian 2s7 firing, russian military artillery, russian firepower demonstration, russian artillery firepower, 2S7 Pion fire, 2S7 Malka, 2S7 GRAU, Soviet self-propelled gun, M-1975, 2S4 Tyulpan, SO-203, 2A44 203 mm gun, 203mm artillery, Rocket Assisted Projectile, 2S7 Pion 203mm gun, matsimus gaming, Self-Propelled Howitzer

Id: qj1rDA5EaNw

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2016