152 MM TOWED GUN-HOWITZER M1955 (D-20)

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 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.

Contents

Ammunition

Wars

Operators

References

Ammunition

★ 'Frag-HE', 'OF-32' - range 17,400 meters

★ 'DPICM'

★ 'DPICM-BB'

★ 'Incendiary'

★ 'Expendable Jammer'

★ 'Chemical'

★ 'Flechette'

★ 'Semi-active laser-guided Krasnopol-M'

Wars

★ 2003 invasion of Iraq

★ Yugoslav wars

★ Iran-Iraq War

★ Gulf War

★ Soviet war in Afghanistan

★ Sino-Vietnamese War

★ Yom Kippur War

★ Vietnam War

★ Sino-Soviet border conflict

★ Six-Day War

★ Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

★ Sino-Indian War

Operators

★ Albania

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★

★

★ 18

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★ China - Type 66

★ Congo

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★ Czechoslovakia - passed on to successor states

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★ - Ex-East German. Known as '152 H 55'.

★ Hungary

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★ - Type 66s

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★ Moldova

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★ Romania

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★ Serbia

★ - passed on to successor states

★ - Type 66

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★ Turkmenistan

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★

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★ - passed on to successor states

References

★ ''Jane's Armour and Artillery 2005-2006''