NORINCO PLZ-83 (Type 83)

History

The influence of Soviet hardware can be clearly seen in the modern Chinese military - officially known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Many of its current systems can be traced directly or indirectly to Soviet-era equipment, and examples such as the Type 83 self-propelled howitzer are no exception. The Type 83 originated from the Soviet 2S3 "Akatsiya" SPH tracked vehicle, which entered service with the Soviet Army in 1971 and ceased production in 1993. It has a two-cylinder diesel engine and torsion bar suspension.

It is piloted by a crew of four and is part of a long-range Chinese armored regiment. The design has since been replaced by the more modern PLZ-05 in Chinese inventory.

The Type 83 is designed to fully comply with modern SPH standards. The turret is mounted to the rear of the vehicle, so the driver's position is front left and the power pack is to his right. The turret has sloped sides for some ballistic protection, while its large 152mm main gun protrudes from the front plate. The weapon is equipped with a dual-baffle muzzle brake at the front and an integrated recoil system at the rear. The loader usually consists of a crew of four, including a driver, a commander and a full-time gunner.

A hatch was located on the roofline of the turret for access to the exterior, and a hinged rectangular access door was visible on the sidewall of the turret. The hull structure itself is very flat with well sloping glacis panels.

The Type 83 is powered by a 520-horsepower WR4B-12V150LB 12-cylinder liquid-cooled diesel engine, enabling the vehicle to reach road speeds of up to 35 mph and a range of up to 280 miles. The track wheel arrangement uses six twin-tire wheels on one side of the hull, with the front and rearmost wheel units well-spaced from the innermost pair - a design seen on several Soviet-era tracked vehicles feature.

The drive sprocket is at the front, the chain idler is at the rear, and the three chain idlers are used above the wheelset.

Behind the 152mm main armament is a 12.7mm heavy machine gun mounted on a pivot in the commander's hatch. This weapon can be used for localized air defense, but can also be used to target lightly armored vehicles and infantry massings trying to overtake SPH positions. The machine gun and main gun carry 650 x 12.7mm ammunition and 30 x 152mm shells respectively.

The crew also carried a small number of personal weapons, including a 7.62mm machine gun and a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon, in response to the need to protect the vehicle at close range.

Development of the Type 83 began in the second half of the 1970s, with a pilot vehicle arriving in the early 1980s. The proven Type 66 152mm towed howitzer was chosen as the main gun for the Type 83, with a range of up to 17,230 meters. Along with the artillery and recoil system is its semi-automatic action, which can achieve a rate of fire of four rounds per minute. After testing, serial production was ordered in 1983, and the car was first shown to observers in 1984.

Although the PLA chose to procure only about 78 Type 83s in total as part of an operational battlefield, production ended after 1990 - partly due to the continued development of more modern SPH systems of Chinese origin (eventually based on Soviet tanks) 83) War Doctrine of the 1960s). The official successor to the Type 83 eventually became the in-house PLZ-05 SPH, which entered service in 2008 and is detailed elsewhere on this website.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

for everyone else in our database)

Armor

30 x 152mm bullet

650 x 12.7mm ammo

Changes