Basic Information
The FH-77BW “Archer” self-propelled howitzer, developed by the Swedish Bofors company, is mainly used to annihilate and suppress the enemy’s vital forces and technical weapons and destroy important military targets, engineering facilities, and transportation hubs. The combat weight is 30 tons, the maximum speed is 75 kilometers per hour, and the maximum travel distance is 500 kilometers.
It consists of two parts, the chassis, and the turret, with 3 crew members. The battle preparation time is 30 seconds; the artillery has a caliber of 155 mm, carries 40 rounds of ammunition, and has 20 rounds of ammunition in a fully automatic magazine. It can launch grenades, armor-piercing shells, flares, Smoke bombs, guided artillery shells, and end-sensitive bombs have a firing rate of 3 rounds/12 seconds, and a maximum firing rate of 12 rounds/minute, depending on the type of bomb, the firing range is 27-64 kilometers. Equipped with advanced fire control system, inertial navigation system, automatic loading system and muzzle velocity radar, loading, aiming and shooting are all completed by remote control, and can directly aim at targets within 2000 meters.
One is the fast rate of fire and high hit accuracy. The “Archer” howitzer has an advanced fire control system, inertial navigation system and muzzle velocity measurement radar system, which can communicate with the tactical-level automatic command system. It has a very strong ability to acquire and process information. It has automatic data transmission and persistent and precise positioning, Automatic artillery aiming and automatic re-aiming after shooting can realize fully autonomous combat.
Under the control of the vehicle-mounted fire control system, the artillery can make five shells hit the target almost simultaneously within 3 seconds by changing the launch elevation angle and increasing or decreasing the dose of propellant, which improves the damage rate to the target; 20 in the automatic magazine The ready-to-fire shells can be fired in 2.5 minutes, which can be called the “fast gunner” in today’s artillery family.
The second is that there are many types of ammunition and strong lethality. The “Archer” howitzer can fire all types of NATO standard 155mm shells and launch special shells such as 155mm “Mira” extended-range illumination shells and Type 007 extended-range smoke shells according to operational needs. The most deadly thing is that it can also launch “Excalibur” guided shells and “Bonis” terminal-sensitive shells. It has the ability to attack the top of armored targets and the ability to strike deep targets accurately and can achieve point-to-point attacks. According to the damaging effect on the battlefield, the lethality of one “archer” is equivalent to 4 to 6 traditional artillery pieces, and the lethal effect is very significant.
The third is fast response and good survivability. The “Archer” howitzer adopts the “Volvo” 6×6 all-terrain off-road load-wheel chassis, with a maximum road speed of 75 km/h and a cross-country speed of 45 km/h, capable of rapid maneuvering and rapid deployment under different terrain conditions. In order to improve the anti-mine and anti-improvised explosive device damage capability of the vehicle, evacuation armor is installed on the bottom of the vehicle body, and the TNT explosive device with an equivalent weight of less than 6 kg will not cause serious damage to the vehicle body and artillery.
After receiving the shooting order, the marching and combat state transitions are automatically realized without the crew leaving the cockpit. The battle start time is 30 seconds, and the withdrawal time is 25 seconds, which can easily realize the “hit and run” combat concept, the battlefield survivability is very strong.