2S35 Koalitsiya-SV 152mm

Microwave ignition is one massive leap closer to the gunnery holy grail that is guns that don't cook off - on their own or through enemy action.

That alone is worth more than looking into, nevermind the massive ballistic improvements offered by full control of the ignition sequence or the improved resource life - useful for long engagements.

Is there a practical difference between the two? Microwave is just one implementation of ETC as far as I understand it.

Whatever koalitsiya achieved, K9 thunder did better 10 years before, and is actually in service. It also has the VULCANO round, which has gps+inetrial guidance, 70-80km range and launches a terminal heat seaking gudiance EFP.

Lets wait till it enters combat and proves itself before we claim any superiority, remember all the European guns were supposed to be amazing state of the art and put the Russian guns to shame... but only with the correct ammo and only if you fire less than 100 rounds a day or they break down.

The difference is that instead of mechanical - chemical ignition, you have microwaves emission that cooks off a whole charge at once.

The irony is that with small arms if your charge is too small you have to put wadding in it to stop the flash running the length of the cartridge case and igniting the entire charge at once, which tends to blow up rifles or guns normally.

If this new gun can handle the pressure of the entire charge being set off at once rather than burning from one end to the other then that suggests it reaches peak chamber pressure very rapidly and maintains it while the projectile is in the barrel, which explains why it manages such good range performance.

What's more, the system is considered to be compatible with all standard 152mm ammunition in storage.

My understanding of that was that the new gun can fire all the older shells designed for the various different guns but it would use the new propellant rather than the old propellant.

Igniting all the propellant charge at once means peak pressure is reached immediately and the pressure would presumably remain high while the shell remained in the barrel so its acceleration along the barrel would be maximised, meaning the best possible muzzle velocity would be achieved and the best range achieved with that shell.