98mm Mountain Howitzer

**~~gabriel~~** · 24 Feb 09,, 16:45

The Romanian weapon is mounted on a conventional split trail carriage with the rear half of each carriage folding upwards and forwards through about 180º to rest on the front part of the trail when travelling.
The trails are then closed together and a locking pin with towing eye attached is fitted. Under this, a small rubber-tyred roadwheel is mounted to make deployment of the weapon easier.
When deployed in the firing position, spades help to absorb the recoil although stakes can be driven into the ground through the rear part of each trail if required.
The carriage has conventional rubber tyres, the wheels of which are provided with towing eyes. Positioned on the forward part of the carriage are two handbrakes which are used when positioning the 98 mm Model 93 mountain howitzer.
Elevation is manual from -5 to +65º with traverse being manual from 25º left and right. The elevation and traverse controls are located on the left side of the carriage where the direct and indirect sights are located. The weapon is provided with a small shield.
The 98 mm ordnance is fitted with a multibaffle muzzle brake and typical rate of fire is 6 rds/min.
This weapon fires ammunition of the separate loading type, for example projectile and charge which is in a brass cartridge case. Two natures of high-explosive ammunition are fired, the OF-402 and the OF-403.
Both of these are packed three rounds to a case and are fitted with a nose-mounted fuze which can be set for impact, short delay and delayed functioning.
The only other known nature of ammunition is a fin-stabilised High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) type which is packed three to a case and fitted with a piezoelectric fuze.
If required, the weapon can be quickly disassembled into three loads each of which is carried on a carriage towed by a horse (or mule). Its normal towing vehicle is a DAC 444 (4 × 4) 2.5 tonne truck which carries the crew and ammunition.

Despite having this gun in my battalion in Oradea, i never took a picture of it.
Now i have been looking on the internet and i cannot find one single picture of it.
It looks like the oto melara 105 pack howitzer, Help anyone ?

**Dreadnought** · 19 Mar 09,, 15:30

What do you gentlemen make of the new (not really new but close) Swedish "Archer" program ie: mobile howitzer that can shoot and scoot. Apparently the Archer can elevate at extreme high angles, fire and then return to position for quick mobility out of the area. Will this change the need for modern howitzers in ground offensives?

**Officer of Engineers** · 19 Mar 09,, 15:34

Talked to a few gunners. Truck mounted guns are good in theory but in practice, a truck and towed gun would be a better combination.

**entropy** · 22 Mar 09,, 15:20

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

Talked to a few gunners. Truck mounted guns are good in theory but in practice, a truck and towed gun would be a better combination.

How useful are powered towed guns (Denel has one that could propel itself slowly)?

**Maxor** · 22 Mar 09,, 17:01

With OoE on the towed guns here as long as nothing stupid is done with the trucks. It is imperative that there is enough heavy equipment for everything. Now I am also something of a fan of self propeled guns being mounted on tracked chassis for following mechanized and armour brigades and providing inbedded support. It is once again very very very important to remember that even though your self propelled artillery has armour against small arms it is not a tank. It is for indirect fire mostly.

Towed artillery for your artillery within infantry formations and for your helicopter mobile units. I'd also use it for most of my independant formations, of arttilery that will be attached to any other units. For my armour formations and mechanized infantry formations the embeded artillery should be self propelled. Oddly enough I'd probably go with having by tubes between the two types be the same size simply so that I could make my logistics a bit simpler.