Towed Guns and Truck Howitzers: Artillery Choices from the D-30 to the Malva

The D-30, formally the 122 mm howitzer 2A18, entered Soviet service in 1960. Its three-leg mounting lets the gun traverse a full 360 degrees, and it reaches 15.3 kilometers with standard ammunition or 21.9 with rocket-assisted rounds. More than 60 countries field it, and its barrel was reused on the 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, which makes it the starting point for the towed and self-propelled lines that follow.

The 2S3 Akatsiya, a 152.4 mm self-propelled gun, was developed from 1967 as a Soviet response to the American M109 and entered service in 1971. Its D-22 howitzer reaches 18.5 kilometers, or 24 with rocket-assisted rounds. Russia still holds more than 700 in service, so it shows how long a tracked Cold War design can stay in the line.

The 2S7 Pion is a self-propelled 203 mm cannon that entered service in 1976, built from a Kirov Factory chassis and a Titan-Barrikady gun and mount. It weighs about 46,500 kilograms, needs a crew of fourteen and can reach 47.5 kilometers with rocket-assisted projectiles. It marks the heavy end of Soviet artillery, trading mobility and economy for range.

The FH70, the field howitzer for the 1970s, was a joint British, West German and Italian project built by VSEL, Rheinmetall and OTO Melara. This towed 155 mm gun entered service in 1978, and Japan Steel Works built 480 under license. It is the Western counterpart to the D-30 on this path, a shared NATO design instead of a single national one.

The 2S9 Nona is a self-propelled and air-droppable 120 mm mortar on an aluminum-hulled BTR-D airborne chassis, in service from 1981. At 8.7 tonnes with a crew of four, it reaches 8.8 kilometers with conventional rounds or 12.8 with extended-range ammunition. Unlike the heavy guns around it, it was designed to go where airborne troops go.

The M119 is the American licensed version of the British L119 light gun, a 105 mm towed piece built at Rock Island Arsenal. It entered service in December 1989, can be airlifted by helicopter or dropped by parachute, and production ran through 2013. The United States Army held about 821 as of January 2025, evidence that a light towed gun still has a place in a modern army.

The 155 mm SpGH Zuzana is a Slovak self-propelled gun that evolved from the earlier 152 mm DANA and entered service in 1998. It sits on a modified Tatra 8x8 truck chassis, uses a 45-calibre gun with an automatic loader and fires any NATO-standard 155 mm ammunition. It is the first self-propelled gun on this path to use a wheeled truck chassis in place of a tracked hull.

ATMOS, the Autonomous Truck Mounted howitzer System, is a 155 mm, 52-calibre gun made by Soltam Systems of Israel, now part of Elbit Systems. It entered service in 2001 on a fast truck platform with computerized navigation and targeting, and its barrel is selectable between 39 and 52 calibres. It has been sold to many smaller armies, including Azerbaijan, Denmark, the Philippines and Thailand.

The 2S22 Bohdana is a Ukrainian 155 mm NATO-standard wheeled howitzer built by the Kramatorsk Heavy Duty Machine Tool Plant, with its prototype on a KrAZ-6322 truck chassis. It entered service in 2022 and has seen wide combat use in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, firing five rounds per minute to 42 kilometers, or 60 with rocket-assisted projectiles. Production has passed 600 units.

The 2S43 Malva is a 152 mm Russian self-propelled gun on an 8x8 wheeled chassis, designed by TsNII Burevestnik and built by Uraltransmash. At 32 tonnes with a crew of five, its 2A64 cannon reaches 24.5 kilometers, or more than 50 with the Krasnopol-M2 guided round. It entered service in 2023, showing that Russia too has moved from tracks toward wheels, fifty years after the Akatsiya.