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Tuesday, 13 August 2013

I have been to ... the Artillery Museum, St Petersburg: Post-war Weaponry

Rockets have formed a major part of the Soviet and Russian arsenals since the end of the Second World War, and the Artillery Museum has an extensive collection of them.

2P26 anti-tank weapon system (AT-1 Snapper anti-tank missile mounted on a modified UAZ-69 light truck)



2P27 anti-tank weapon system (AT-1 Snapper anti-tank missiles mounted on a BRDM-1 chassis)


2P32 anti-tank weapon system (AT-2 Swatter ant-tank missiles mounted on a BRDM-1 chassis)


9K11 Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger) anti-tank missile


3R2 Mars (FROG-2) tactical missile mounted on a tracked chassis based on that of the PT-76 light tank
FROG = Free Rocket Over Ground



3R1 Filin (FROG-1) tactical missile mounted on a tracked chassis based on that of the JS heavy tank
FROG = Free Rocket Over Ground



BM-25 rocket launcher mounted on a KrAZ-214 truck



BM-24 rocket launcher mounted on a truck


BM-14 rocket launcher mounted on a truck


BM-21 Grad rocket launcher mounted on a Ural-375D truck


2A11 Krug (SA-4 Ganef) anti-aircraft missile (background)
2K12 Kub (SA-6 Gainful) anti-aircraft missile (foreground)



9K31 Strela-1 (SA-9 Gaskin) anti-aircraft missile


9K35 Strela-10 (SA-10 Gopher) anti-aircraft missile


Early Russian ballistic missile engines
These were designed by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the leading Russian rocket engineer and bear a very close resemblance to the rocket engines fitted to the German V2 rocket.


The Museum also has a very large collection of conventional artillery, much of which is displayed outside the Museum.

2S3 Akatsiya 152mm self-propelled howitzer





2S7 Pion 203mm self-propelled gun



2S1 Gvozdika 122mm self-propelled howitzer


M1955 (D-74) 122mm howitzer


2A36 Giatsint-B 152mm gun



6 comments:

  1. Thanks Bob. Curious how unadorned the paint job are, no bridging weights, ID marks, divisional flashes at all.

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  2. Conrad Kinch,

    The vehicles were totally bare of any markings, and I suspect that this is a hang-over from the Cold War era.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. Great series on the museum Bob.

    Those BM21s give me the willies. As young infantry radio operators we were told a battery of them was posted to each the Soviet radio detection unit. Hold the talk switch down a bit too long and it would be like your 100m grid square was lifted up, turned over and dropped from 1000 feet.

    Probably just a bogeyman story to keep us in line but it worked. ;)

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  4. Pat G,

    Thanks for your very kind comment.

    Even if it is not true, it is certainly a scary story!

    With a six-vehicle battery where each vehicle fires 40(!) rockets, the thought of being on the receiving end of that salvo would scare anyone witless ... and it would move a lot a real estate around as well!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  5. More fantastic stuff. The 2S7 Pion is a monster.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pete,

    It looked even bigger close up!

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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