- Yes
- No
The story of this vehicle starts with the Semovente Pegaso, a prototype project lead by ‘Direzione Generale AMAT’ in which several tests would be conducted on equipping the 8x8 Centauro chassis with a massive SPH gun known as the FH-70 da 155/36. To keep it short, the pegaso had great qualities but would overall be turned down due to safety risks which were found while testing was conducted. However that wouldn’t be the end of the story, at least for the gun that is. Years later after the Semovente Pegaso, after what seemed like an upcoming modernization of self propelled howitzers from other countries, such as China, France and Sweden, Italy would decide from the 23rd and 24th of September of 1995, that they would develop a prototype similar to what the semovente Pegaso aimed to achieve, which was an easily transportable, cheap, reliable SPH that could be deployed at a moments notice. It had what was known as the FH-70 da 155/36, a gun that was already installed on multiple different types of vehicles, and used widely around the globe inside multiple armies. The gun would have a range of 30km, and would have over 20 ready rounds for it to fire. According to my sources, 2 prototypes would be made in total, one of the main reasons this actually had a better chance of seeing production would be due to it costing only 1 fifth of the original projected price of the semovente Pegaso. (One million Italian lire instead of the 5 million of the semovente Pegaso, that itself is a major plus, as they somehow managed to make a vehicle that was supposed to be cheap, even cheaper.) Another major plus of this vehicle was that it was easily transportable, such as being able to be fitted inside of a Lockheed C-130J if needed, again pushing itself further into the role of it being able to be deployed quickly. It would weigh in total only 19 tons, for a vehicle of its type this is great. It terms of speed, it went 90km an hour, not bad for the role it had. Survivalbility wise, its nothing special, however for the crew it had an armored covering which would be able to take the majority of small arms fire, and any type of splinters from explosion from a certain range. Now with all this praise, why was this not put in service you may wonder? Well unfortunately, they found out that although useful, there wasn’t any immediate need for such a platform. This would mean that the continuation of this project would be pointless, and any and all testing would cease shortly after. Italy would end up years later with license produced Pzh 2000’s.
Armament
FH-70 da 155/36 (able to fire any nato standard 155mm round)
Specifications
Why it should be in game
I think it should be in game as it would be a fun meme style vehicle to be able to play around in, although it would be situational, as not every map will probs allow this vehicle to be played the best due to its sheer size and it not being able to get to places lighter and smaller vehicles would usually have access to. It would not be very survivable, and again mentioning its big size would basically be a massive glass cannon. However, if on the right map, and with the right conditions it would be really good as a sniping vehicle. It would get eaten alive when spotted so yeah. Perhaps giving it scouting would also improve its usefullness. Lastly its a pretty easy vehicle to add, due to the truck, and the cannon having a lot of information out there for the devs to model it.
Sources
Spoiler
Century of Italian armored cars by Nicola Pignato (majority of this suggestion was made thanks to this book)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complesso_Autoscarrabile_“APS_95”
complesso autoscarrabile APS95 - pag. 1
Astra Veicoli Industriali S.p.A. - www.astra-trucks.com
Error
Complesso Autoscarrabile "APS 95" - Esercito Italiano
scheda tecnica APS 95
FH70 - Wikipedia
Photos
Spoiler
