Thread by @Jeff21461

Time for a thread on the PzH2000, NATO’s self-propelled monster which I affectionately call the PanzerHouse 2000 (Get it, because it is big enough to live in).

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Our story begins in the early 1970’s. During this time the Bundeswehr fielded the US build M109G and M107 self-propelled guns. These 2 SPG had maximum engagement ranges of 18 and 32km respectively.

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The below 20km engagement range of the M109G was increasingly seen as a major shortcoming of the system. This was only made more obvious with the introduction of the FH-70. A towed 155mm gun with a 24-30km engagement range.

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Secondarily there was a seeming vast numerical difference between NATO forces and the Warsaw pact on the number of self-propelled tube artillery with large quantities of 2S1 and 2S3 flooding into East-Germany.

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The FH-70 was co-developed between the UK, Germany and Italy and it’s success spurred Germany on to pursue more collaborative artillery programs. This lead to the signing of an official declaration between Germany, the UK and Italy for the development of the PzH155-1/SP-70.

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The PzH155-1/SP-70 would use the proven gun from the FH-70 and would be mounted on a modified Leopard 1 chassis. During development Germany was responsible for the main weapons system, chassis and later on also the engine and ammunition.

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Italy would design the hydraulic components, the hull and the Auxiliary power unit (APU). The UK meanwhile was responsible for the turret, optical systems and initially the ammunition supply system.

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The first of 5 prototypes (phase A) would be delivered in 1973. All 5 would be ready for testing in 1976. These tests where carried out in the UK and Norway where the system achieved a sustained 6 RPM and a burst of 3 rounds in 10 seconds.

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The whole system was powered by an 1.000hp MTU MB871 diesel engine with a top speed of 68km/h. Despite these seemingly glowing results the PzH155-1/SP-70 was ultimately doomed to fail.

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Technical problems plagued the project sowing doubts that it could enter service withing the projects set deadlines. However work would go on as expected sales figures of the system deemed it worth the expense.

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It was anticipated that between the 3 participants a total of 711 systems would be required. Thus development continued on. Phase B and C where completed in the early 1980’s with 2 new prototypes build.

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The Phase B model can be identified by the 2 large recoil buffers attached to the gun cradle while the Phase C model got a fully redesigned turret.

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An additional 10 test units where planned to be build. Further modifications to the vehicles ammunition supply and turret where intended to deliver a final result in 1984.

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The vehicle would be ready for production in 1985 but then it all went wrong. More problems where discovered during testing and more work would be needed. The expected order also dropped from 711 to 424 units.

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Further controversy would come as the UK wanted to allow the export of the system to Saudi-Arabia which West-Germany strongly argued against. Export of the system could see the Leopard 1 chassis leaked to the soviets the Germans argued.

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The PzH155-1/SP-70 project would be officially cancelled in July of 1986. The UK would take the experience it gained to develop the AS-90 while Germany would take the lessons from the development process into their next endeavor.

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Only one year later in 1987 West-Germany would again try their hand at developing an SPG. This decision birthed the PzH2000 project. First there was talk of joining the US XM2001 Crusader program but this was decided against as the Crusader was seen as to ambitious.

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The program was deemed necessary due to the rapidly aging M109A3 GE A1 starting to become obsolete. To try and solve the main problems with previous programs anew approach would be tried.

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2 teams would be participate in the design competition. The “Southern Consistory” with Kuka, Porsche, Rheinmetall-Kraus-Maffei and the “Northern Consistory” with Mak-Kiel and Rheinmetall-Wegmann.

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Unlike in previous programs the army and WTD would be involved in the design process right from the start by providing wooden mock-ups, functional models and even developing feature sets.

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This approach would lead to shorter timelines on the introduction of improvements to the design but would also see some parts develop way ahead of schedule while others where far from ready for testing.

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The “Southern Consistory” would develop it’s contender on the back of the Leopard 2 chassis designated “Taurus” while the “Northern Consistory” stuck with a Leopard 1 chassis. Both teams would use the MTU 881 engine and Renk HSWL 284 gearbox.

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While trials showed that the Leopard 2 chassis was better suited to be the carrier vehicle the choice was made to continue with the Northern proposal as they had managed to better solve the ammunition handling question.

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A contract would be awarded to Wegmann (Today part of KNDS de) for the construction of 4 PzH2000 prototypes. These where build and delivered between 1991 and 1993 and would be dubbed PT01 trough PT04.

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The construction of the hulls would be sub-contracted to MaK-Kiel while Wegmann made the turrets, ammunition handling system and assembly. As early as 1993 02 would be send out to WTD41 in Trier for mobility trials while 01 would conduct firing trails with WTD91 in Meppen.

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The IPS build-in test system was also tested at WTD41 while the navigation system was tested at WTD81. A series of troop trails would follow and last from November 1994 to March 1995. These where carried out by the 95th Armour Artillery Training battalion in Munster.

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PT01 and 2 would take part in these troop trials. Soldiers where given a 4 week course on the use of the system by Wegmann (which is less then the Ukrainian troops received for PzH2000). One key factor being tested here was the FUWES/ADLER digital artillery command system.

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Live fire exercises would be part of the troop trails and here the system performed better then expected. A 3 round burst would be fired in 9,2 seconds and 20 rounds of sustained fire would be completed in 2 and a halve minutes.

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From April to October of 1995 the 2 prototypes would be transferred to the Army School of Technology in Aachen. Here the vehicles were assessed on their logistical and sustainment requirement.

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Another major part of the program where the so called “Blockgarantie” which would guarantee in-time cost-effective spare parts supply for the PzH2000. Meanwhile PT03 and 04 where undergoing Arctic trials in Shilo Canada from November 1994 to February 1995.

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After the Arctic trials PT03 and 04 would perform desert trials from May to August 1995 in Arizona, USA. Here the 2 vehicles would perform live fire trails at the Yuma proving grounds firing a total of 1.480 rounds.

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During all these trials the vehicles fired a combined total of 17.400 shells and drove about 30.000km. A final test report would be created from these tests with the decision made to start production of the vehicle in 1998.

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Pre-production would be started in 1996 and last to 1997 meaning that only a few months remained after the trials to make improvements to the design before the production line for it would be set up.

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More then once was the entire program almost cancelled with many experts considering the program requirements, timetable and budget to be an impossible task. Previous programs had always had more time to work out the bugs before adoption they argued.

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However on the 14th of March an order was signed for the first batch of 185 vehicles. These would be build by the now merged Kraus-Maffei Wegmann starting in 1997. In early 1998 the first unit would come of the production line for final factory trials.

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The Bundeswehr received their first PzH2000 on the 1st of July 1998. The PanzerArtilerieBataillon 345 from Kusel would be the first to be equipped with the new guns.

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One problem that was never solved for the PzH was finding a suitable name for the system. The committees were flooded with suggestions but at the end of the day no name would end up being chosen for the system.

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Some examples of proposed names include; Adler, Bison, Blitz, Buffel, Bulldogge, Condor, Echse, Grizzley, Herkules, Jupiter, Kobra, Tarantul, Titan, Waran, Wotan and Russel.

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Now let us talk about the vehicle itself. The PzH2000 comes with a 155mm/L52 gun that is 9,12m long. It achieves a engagement range of 30km with a L15A1 projectile but can reach 40+km with RH 40 DM131 using the MTLS modular propellant system.

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The PZH features a 60 shell internal magazine in the full and a magazine for 288 charges In the turret. The automated shells handling allows 2 soldiers to reload all 60 rounds in just 12 minutes. Even Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany can do it 😊

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https://twitter.com/Makeiev/status/1679804164749115393?s=20

However the system does not have a way to recognize which shells are being loaded requiring that this information be given to the systems computer manually. This would then allow the crew to select which type of shells they would like to load next.

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The system itself allows a well trained crew to achieve a 3 round burst in 8-9 seconds or a sustained fire rate of 20 rounds which would be fired in 1 minute 47 seconds. Video from WTD91 filmed in 1997 demonstrating the rate of fire.


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On top of this fire rate the system is also capable of a 5 round MRSI where it fires 5 shells at different trajectory’s allowing them to all land on target at about the same time. (here demonstrated by a RCH155 as it was the best graphic I could find)

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The PzH2000 would come in at 55,8 tons (MLC60) and would be powered by the 8 cylinder MTU 881 Ka-500 engine that would be paired with the Rank HSWL 284 C gearbox. This allows the vehicle to reach speeds up to 62km/h but such speeds are rarely achieved.

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In terms of protection the vehicle is rated against 14.5mm machine gun fire from all sides as well as shrapnel from 155mm shells. Additionally addon armor like Hedgehog can be mounted to the roof for protection against cluster munitions.

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Export; Italy would be the first export customer of the PzH2000. In 2000 they would order a total of 70 PzH2000 of which 68 would be build locally in Italy by OTO-Melara. These guns received the designation PzH2000I and where delivered between 2007 and 2010.

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A year later in 2001 Greece would sign for 24 units that would be designated PzH2000HEL. Delivery would take place between 2003 and 2004. These models received Night vision sights by Theon for the driver and the WISPR digital radio system.

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In 2002 the Netherlands would after and open tender between PzH2000, AS-90, M109A6 and G6-52 end up ordering 57 PzH2000. This number would however be reduced to 39 guns after a reorganization of the Dutch military.

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All Dutch units where delivered between 2004 and 2007. But in late 2007 a further reduction in the Dutch artillery force saw the number of active guns reduced to 24 PzH2000NL with the remaining 15 units going into storage.

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Qatar would order 24 PzH2000 in 2013 along side their order for 62 Leopard 2A7Q. These would later be fitted with the Sigma 30 GPS system.

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Croatia would buy 15 second hand PzH2000 from Germany in 2015. Delivery was completed by 2019. 3 of these where to serve as spare parts donors.

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Lithuania just like Croatia was able to buy surplus PzH2000 from Germany in 2015. A total of 21 units would be transferred to them by 2022.

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Hungary would end up being the current last country to purchase new PzH2000 with an order for 24 units in 2018. Delivery of these PzH200HU is underway as of me writing this thread.

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Sweden, Finland, Norway, Australia and Turkey would all trial the PzH2000 but none of them would end up ordering the system.

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Ukraine has received a total of ~28 PzH2000 since the start of the 2022 Russian invasion. Ukraine would put these guns into the hardest fighting they have seen so far but not without controversy.

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The PzH2000 is a lot more maintenance intensive and far more sensitive than the Soviet guns Ukraine was used to. The relatively short training window of 40 days would exacerbate this problem as crews where not fully trained on how to maintain their vehicles.

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Shortly after a repair center for the PzH2000 would be setup in Lithuania where more then a dozen units have received repairs so far including the single PzH2000 damaged by enemy fire.

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Meanwhile Ukrainian crews when interviewed are very pleased with the performance of the system despite its “sensitive” nature.



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https://twitter.com/deaidua/status/1705293021321810400?s=20

Ukraine would receive 14 from Germany, 8 from the Netherland and up to 6 from Italy. To this day only one of these has received damage from Russian fire. There was an approval for a 100 unit sale to Ukraine around August 2022 but that ended up going nowhere.

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Sources used;
Tankograd - Militarefahrzeug Spezial N 5025 Panzerhaubitze 2000 written by Clemens Niesner




army-technology.com/news/newsqatar…
defaiya.com/news/Internati…
mil.in.ua/en/news/the-re…

Thank you all for reading all the way through and I hope to see you again on future threads.

@sidebart @Trotes936897 From the way the article describes it and the time in which it was released I am assuming that they are talking about either "Armor" and artillery software package or an early version of "Delta" which is Ukraine's home grown battle management system.

@AntoniWalkowski @dariuszwit1 The shortened 40 day training cycle is partly to blame as well as Ukrainian artillery crews needing to adapt to a more maintenance intensive platform then they have been used to up to that point. One such adaption was scraping the mud from their boots before entering the vehicle.

Addendum, Romania has just announced the final 3 contenders of thier tracked howitzer tender. The PzH2000 is included among the finalists.

https://twitter.com/AndreiS49747209/status/1706543824309289027?t=kPu6qJLtHLHjriyNDFyGfg&s=19