The S-23 was a heavy gun developed by Soviet military industry during the early-Cold War period and exported to allies across the Soviet sphere of influence. The massive, 180mm towed gun system relied on a sixteen man crew for efficient operation and was towed by an AT-T heavy-tracked mover vehicle - also carrying the gunnery crew their supplies as well as ammunition stocks. As expected, the projectiles were of large dimension and extremely heavy due to their caliber, the HE (High-Explosive) version weighing 185.4 lb while the concrete-piercing version was 215.4 lb.
The gun could also fire a 0.2kt nuclear projectile if need be.
A typical Soviet Army heavy artillery brigade of the period would showcase about 12 of the S-23 weapons which provided a staggering amount of on-call, target-area fire when operated in conjunction with 130mm and 155mm field howitzers in the division.
The S-23 system showcased a 28.10 foot gun tube. To reduce the overall length, the barrel could be locked to the trailing double wheel carriage which also aided in road transportation of the unit. The carriage was a standard "split arm" type and was completed with two twin rubber-tired roadwheels, one axle set to the front and a dolly to the rear.
Rate-of-fire (RoF) was about one round-per-minute and one round per two minutes when attempting sustained fire actions. The effective range of an HE projectile was out to 30,400 meters (33,245 yards) while a Rocket-Assisted Projectile (RAP) could reach well within 43,800 meters (47,900 yards).
The series was widely exported with operators in ranging from Cuba and Egypt to Syrian and Yemen. The gun was produced in the thousands.
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Cuba; Egypt; Ethiopia; India; Iraq; Libya; Mongolia; North Korea; Somalia; Soviet Union; Syria; Yemen
