152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

D-20

Type	Towed howitzer
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
Used by	Soviet Union and numerous others
Wars	Vietnam War, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Soviet war in Afghanistan and numerous others
Production history
Designer	Petrov Artillery Design Bureau
Designed	Circa 1947
Manufacturer	Artillery Plant Number 9, Yekaterinburg
Specifications
Weight	5,700 kg
Length	8.69 m
Barrel length	5.195 m
Width	2.35 m
Height	1.93 m
Crew	8

Caliber	152 mm
Breech	Vertical semi-automatic sliding wedge
Recoil	hydraulic buffer and hydropneumatic recuperator
Carriage	Split trail
Elevation	-5° to 63°
Traverse	58°
Rate of fire	5-6 shots/min (burst) 1 shot/min (sustained)
Muzzle velocity	650 m/s (typical)
Effective range	17.4 km
Maximum range	24 km (rocket assisted projectile)
Sights	PG1M indirect sight and OP4M direct fire sight

The 152 mm howitzer M1954, also known as the D-20 is a manually loaded, towed 152 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet during the 1950s. It was first observed by the west in 1955 and was therefore known as the M1955. There is also a Chinese copy, called Type 66.

The D-20 gun-howitzer was developed shortly after the end of WW2 by the F. Petrov Design Bureau and it was intended to replace the pre-war 152 mm ML-20 howitzer (M1937).

The barrel length of the gun is 25 calibers. The D-20 was the first 152-mm cannon system to incorporate a semiautomatic vertical-sliding-wedge breech block

The gun was also used for the self-propelled 2S3 Akatsiya.

The D-20 is in operation in at least 13 countries and has been license manufactured in the People's Republic of China as the Type 66 (or the improved version Type 66-1). Its self-propelled version known as Type 83 was first introduced in the mid-1980s.

Yugoslavia also produced a further developed gun called the M84 NORA-A.