- Yes
- No
History:
After suffering defeats against Israel in 1967 and Jordan in 1970, Syria tried to rebuild its military into a more modern and effective force. In 1970, when Hafez Al-Assad took power, he would push for rapid military reform with Soviet support and reorganizing the army.
One of Syria’s biggest lessons was the importance of mobile artillery that could keep up with tanks during fast-moving battles, however, due to Syria lacking enough modern self-propelled guns from the Soviet Union, Syrian engineers would instead improvise, by combining outdated T-34 tanks with D-30 122mm howitzers.
The plan was for a modernization of the T-34-85 into a self-propeled gun which was overseen by the Syrian General Staff’s Transportation Directorate, with specialists from the Artillery and Armored Directorates participating in the designing and engineering. The tanks were converted at the Artillery school in Qatanaha and at the Armored School in Al-Qaboun. The D-30 gun was mounted ontop of the roof of the frontal hull, firing to the rear. This design required minimal modifications to the hull, saving time and money.
The first step for the modernization was the removal of the turret. With a radical design of the hull not being planned, however since the tanks weren’t new, the engines and transmissions were removed for inspection and repair. Five steel ammunition boxes were then installed on the sides of the hull.
Next, a lowerable working platform for the gun crew was mounted above the front armor plate, while for the hull roof, a steel platform was welded onto the front section above the sloped front armor plate. 36 centimeter high armor shields were constructed around the turret opening. The air intakes, radiator grilles and engine air intakes were covered with armor. The last steps of the modernization that were needed was to install the new engine and transmission, with ammunition storage and crew seats being installed inside the hull, with the gun being installed shortly after.
Armament:
D-30 122mm howitzer
The D-30 has a RPM of 5-6 and has an elevation of -7° to 70° degrees.
Normally, the D-30 was capable of a 360° degree field of fire in combat, however the T-34’s gun’s aiming arc was limited to 12°.
The vehicle itself was capable of carrying up to 120 rounds of ammunition, 80 inside the hull and 40 in ammunition boxes located on the sides.
Mobility:
The vehicle was powered by a V-2 series 12-cylinder diesel-fueled engine of 493 horsepower, and had a road speed of 55 kph or 34 mph.
Structure:
It had a crew of 7, and had a length of 6.3m/20.7 feet and was 3m/9.8 feet wide.
Sources:
https://vadimvswar.narod.ru/ALL_OUT/TiVOut9801/S1234/S1234001.htm
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