2S42 “Lotos” 120mm Self-Propelled Gun

Judging by this photo I'd be more inclined to assume that it will be sent to a junkyard rather than mass production...

It is an airborne vehicle that is in many ways comparable to the 2S1 and indeed the 2S34 replacement.

It should be able to fire the 120mm Gran guided shell, but clearly it can also fire the 122mm Kitolov guided round previously used by the 2S1 and D-30 towed 122mm artillery pieces.

So basically it is in effect a combination of 2S1, 2S34, and Nona and Vena all wrapped into a tiny vehicle that can be air dropped... yeah, I understand why you hate it PD... looks like a good vehicle.

Fresh video of the Lotos:

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1293550556221337600

Crew seating looks as follows:

Driver: front of vehicle in the middle
Commander: front of vehicle, on the right of driver
Gunner: in turret

I like the aesthetics of this BMD-4 based vehicle. I just hate the looks of the muzzle brake. I hope they replace it with a better looking one.

George1 wrote:

TheArmenian wrote:Fresh video of the Lotos:

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1293550556221337600

Crew seating looks as follows:

Driver: front of vehicle in the middle
Commander: front of vehicle, on the right of driver
Gunner: in turret

I like the aesthetics of this BMD-4 based vehicle. I just hate the looks of the muzzle brake. I hope they replace it with a better looking one.

video is from June 2019

The video on top is from 2019.

Look at the 2nd video underneath. It was posted a few hours ago.

I seem to recall the Zauralets design was supposed to be a 152mm gun/mortar... which I always thought was kind of odd.

The 120mm gun/mortar made sense because it is already a mortar calibre so you have a 120mm rifled gun tube for firing 120mm mortar bombs, but you can also load 120mm shells with propellent bags like a howitzer to greater ranges.... the 120mm mortar has a range of about 7km while the 120mm HE shells fired with propellent bags has a range of up to 13km.

Because it is very close in calibre to the 122mm artillery gun it can use the 122mm Kitilov missile as well as the 120mm Gran guided missiles for 122mm and 120mm weapons respectively.

The 152mm gun mortar never seemed to make sense to me because there is no mortar in 152mm and 160mm mortar bombs would be way too big in calibre to be compatible so it would be adding two new calibres to the inventory.

Of course the shell weight of the 152mm shell for the gun mortar would be really big... the 120mm mortar bomb is about 16kgs which is a good weight, but the 160mm mortar bomb is about 40kgs and significantly more powerful as would the 152mm shell the system fired but the range would not be increased by a huge amount over the 120mm gun/mortar... probably to perhaps 15km... the main advance would be in shell weight.

They have said the power of the new rounds is increased to near 152mm rounds and range might be increased to 25km which is impressive for an airborne vehicle.

I would think Armata and Kurganets and Boomerang divisions might benefit from a mortar carrier and this turret would be interesting, though it is manned so it will perhaps be a variation of this maybe?

I like the aesthetics of this BMD-4 based vehicle. I just hate the looks of the muzzle brake. I hope they replace it with a better looking one.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... a good muzzle brake is much more value than a pretty one.

Those rounds (projectiles) are much longer and more streamlined than the older 120mm shells which were shorter and stubbier. I suspect the increased length of side wall will improve fragmentation as well as reduce drag in flight.

For close range targets reduced propellent bags are used to get a nice vertical shell on impact for more efficient use of fragments on target.

All in something you can drop from an air plane... this is very cool... and I think a better idea than the older 152mm Zauralets...

Nice.

Those prospective new 25km range rounds are described as active/reactive... which makes it sound like they may have some form of motor assistance... likely ramjet or perhaps base bleed/rocket assistance.

Perhaps the latter would achieve a range increase to 25km from the earlier 13kms already achieved with shells...

The 152mm new shells they are talking about are the 70km shells which is about double the older rounds from long barrel guns of 30km plus ranges.

They are also talking about 180km range 152mm shells which I would suspect are ramjet boosted rounds... I would just thing base bleed and rocket assisted technology would be good enough to achieve 25km ranges for the 120mm shell rounds.

The 120mm mortar bombs would be limited to 7km as usual but lots of targets can be engaged perfectly safely from 7km range so that is OK.

Definitely not a weapon any enemy would want to see dropped behind their front lines.

GarryB wrote:The 152mm new shells they are talking about are the 70km shells which is about double the older rounds from long barrel guns of 30km plus ranges.

Unguided so highly unlikely they will hit their target with precision. Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon like the Bhiho will intercept them so will APS. If guided, EW will intercept them.

I actually love the looks including the muzzle break.

And nah the anti aircraft weapon you mentioned is just a glorified stinger yeeter. Worst Korea gets too much ass kissing concerning its military equipment. Then the turks secretly buy license production and say they invented it.