Italian OTO Melara Mod 56 Pack Howitzers in Ukraine
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2023
- A look at the use of a small number of OTO Melara Mod 56 105mm pack howitzers in Ukraine. It appears that Spain has provided a battery of 6 of the light guns which are in use with Ukraine's National Guard.
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Originally made to be as compact as possible for use in the Italian Alps.
It can also be easily dismantled in 12 packs, the heaviest of them weighting 132 kg, to be carried by mules.
@@neutronalchemist3241 or parachuted or man packed. The barrel has a harness that allows 6 men to split the load.
We had them in 7 para RHA.
Good for shoot and run toed by Uaz or Humwe.
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I was in the mountain artillery in 1993 in northern Italy and we used this gun. The "105/14 oto Melara was used also in the Falkland war. I remember that after one month of training we were really easily using this weapon which is very good to be used in the mountain. Marco
Looks like a perfect small thing for mountain units
When we crewed them in 67/689, they were referred toi as a 'pack howitzer'. They can be completely broken down and were designed by the Italians to be mule load portable if necessary.
Italy is mostly mountains, after all xD
Brace your self for the usual comments deriding it as "useless" despite the fact its been stacking bodies for decades in multiple theatres. Portable kit is of a premium right now and it ticks the boxes. 4:08
Any post ww1 gun coupled with drone targeting is a good gun
I am sure the folks on the receiving end wont see it as useless.
@@phunkracyYou could take a WWI QF 18 pounder into action today and you could still be effective with a drone spotter.
@@zoiders Yes it would work, but you'd have a towed gun weighing well over a ton with the range and effect on target of a modern 120mm mortar. There is such a thing as 'too obsolete' even in a war like this.
@@jic1 I crewed one of these Italian howitzers in SE Asia in 1967/68. We towed it with a long wheel base Land Rover with the 7 crew also onboard. No problem for today's 4WD to tow.
Nice video, but you forget three neat features of this piece:
1) Beeing a pack howitzer, it can be broken down in a serie of loads that can be moved by mule or trike/quad for long distance, and even by hand for short ones.
2) It has two setting, the normal one for indirect fire and the "low profile" one (as seen in the clip from Bangladesh) for direct/anti tank fire.
3) It's air droppable by parachute.
I crewed these with an Aussie arty battery in SE Asia in 1967/68. Then, we had a crew of 7, including a sergeant and were designated the L5. They were designed by the Italians to be broken down if needed to be mule packed. We never did this but we did break them down and haul them up cliffs for the hell of it. They could also be carried in the back of an M113 APC with a little maneuvering, as well as by chopper and even, again broken down, into small, outboard motor driven light assault boats. There are jack supports on both trails and when these are dropped, the gun is raised up off the ground. The wheel axles can then be disengaged, rotated, which moves the wheels into a lower ground clearance position, allowing the gun to have a very low profile. A special anti-tank sight is them fitted to the right-hand side of the gun and you have a very effective anti-tank gun. Overall, a nice little piece.
A mate of mine was a FO there back then. He bought one a few years ago. Because he could. Nice toy.
@@kiwigrunt330 Nice if he could carry out a fire mission every now and then. LOL.
I think I still remember the drills.
@@dreizdreiz9203 Not sure about that.
The Italian cannon was also used by New Zealand in Vietnam.
The US sent 72 105s, the UK 54, plus 18 old M101s from Lithuania. The US alone has sent over 500,000 105mm rounds to Ukraine. Oryx only lists a couple of the British L119s as being damaged so Ukraine is using them effectively in battle.
Despite what 105 haters have been saying, the light gun still has an important place in battle. You can bet thousands of Russian casualties have been the result of 105 fire.
I don't understand the 105 hate. Horses for courses: of course a 105mm is never going to hit like a 155mm and nor is it going to go as far when you stretch everything to the limit. On the other hand, a 155mm is never going to be as light, cheap and airdroppable as a 105mm. They compliment each other. Now as to specifics, the British Army replaced the OTO-Melara Mod 56 with the L118 because the former was judged to be fragile and unreliable, plus they wanted more range. Many other countries continue to use the Mod 56 however, and it's STILL lighter and smaller than the L118 or any 155, so again, horses for courses.
@@MrHws5mp
The L118 weighs about half of what the stripped down M777 does.
It's also designed to be very quick to set up, fire and limber. 105mm light field guns are still around and still very effective because of how flexible they are. Not sure if the UK or US sent them with the digital fire controls, but with those they are very precise weapons. Even without in the hands of skilled gunners like Ukraine has they are very accurate.
The range difference compared to the larger caliber weapons doesn't really matter when it will be very hard for a 152mm battery or Russian MLRS to react fast enough to catch a 105 crew before it's gone. And 17,000 yards is more than enough range for what the 105 is designed for. Close fire support for troops at the front.
Australia has also sent 105mm guns and I suspect more countries have as well. I expect the 105mm calibre to be resurgent in this emerging era of great power completion.
China never stopped fitting it to new armoured and self-propelled. If there's a war in Asia, it'll use more than a few artillery pieces and consumption will be sky high.
Plus, the use their reverse engineered L7 gun in many light, agile mountain conquering tank. .
@@aymonfoxc1442 The argument has long been that the shorter range of the 105 makes it vulnerable to counter-battery fire therefore it is obsolete.
But if you look at Oryx which probably reports about 80% of losses, Ukraine has lost 61 M777s and 4 other western supplied 155mm towed gun. But only 2 105mm guns.
They're easier to get into position, easier to camo, quicker to fire and quicker to get out if return fire is detected.
The lesson of the Ukraine war is probably going to be that we need more light field guns not less.
@@dougcoombes8497 All good points. Plus, if the enemy attempts counter-battery fire, you're bigger guns can then respond. Hopefully, the smaller 105mm guns will already be on the move whilst the exchanges are taking place or at least, more heavily concealed and protected than a bigger gun could be.
The 105mm guns generally have a good fire-rate as well and 105mm artillery was designed to suppress infantry from its conception. We're certainly seeing the heavy use of infantry in Ukraine and with proper coordination (a quality that varies in places), I'm sure the 105mm is very effective at pinning enemy infantry in place to accommodate efforts to approach and eliminate them.
Even the logistics differences should bare fruitful outcomes. We can often produce more 105mm shells for a lower resource cost.
105mm guns are generally easier to maintain and with lighter, smaller shells they should be easier to keep supplied in a contested space (as more can be trucked and more can be delivered by small vehicles in the 'last mile' process). Bigger, more capable 155mm shells could then be conserved for counter-battery fire and targeting enemy armour (if necessary) which could be important given presence of drones and missiles targeting logistics.
An interesting thing to note about the OTO Melara Mod 56 are its unique hinged split trail legs which can be seen here either bent or straight. If I recall correctly, the hinged split trail legs enables the Mod 56 to perform both indirect and direct fire modes. When the trail legs are bent, the Mod 56 has enough ground clearance for high-elevation indirect fire. When the trail legs are straight, the Mod 56 has a lower profile to the ground for low-elevation direct fire (e.g. anti-tank).
Removing the shield further reduces the weight and makes it easier to shoot and scoot.
Absolutely.
Yo!!! Finally some Italian armaments!
Absolutely love it!
Australia used them in the Indonesian confrontation and in Vietnam up to 1968 or '69. We withdrew them from service in Vietnam though as the guns couldn't handle the high rates of fire that were required there and the heavier M2 / M101's were used. There were also US Army M109's. It was L5 pack howitzers and M109's that saved D Company 6 RAR at the battle of Long Tan where the company was outnumbered 23 to 1. Cpt Morrie Stanley the forward observer with the company who was New Zealand Army called in 3,500 rounds during the 3 hour battle from the 18 L5's. The guns were apparently pretty much buggered after that battle. One of the guns that was in service there fired 7393 rounds in less than 2 months and had to be rebuilt. They were retired from service in the early 1990's here.
Sneaky as you like. Those hawkeye things are also great. The hummer with the 105 on it that can be firing in like one minute. They would be ideal for assaults. Cheers.
No Hawkeye's for Ukraine yet sadly. There are some issues to sort out and production for Australian units that need to be achieved first. We should be making more Bushies for them though.
The longer this war went on the more parallel it shares with WW1 and its absolutely terrifying.
... the more parallels* it shared ...
I heard Putin would be happy with an honourable peace which would include devolved government for the Donbass which is 75% Russian and a treaty over the use of the Ukraine ports. Putting aside all the stuff about sovereignty it doesn't sound like a bad alternative to continuing war.
I heard the British chief of staff say last year for NATO to move into Poland and Czechoslovakia would make the Russians uneasy but moving into Ukraine was like poking the bear with a stick. If that's a professional's opinion why does the USA want to poke the bear with a stick? I know he's not a nice democrat but how many people and regimes round the world are.
Drones and highly advanced indirect fire have completely reset the capabilities of massed armor advances. What broke the trenches of ww1 was the mobility and protection afforded by tanks/spg supporting infantry.
Sometime in the last year I heard a senior British officer say the Russians destroyed a Ukrainian armoured infantry battalion in 20 minutes. I believe the French army has a chant, win lose or draw someone stop this **** war. Seems appropriate@@bhseigel
@@freebeerfordworkers The issue is that Ukraine at this moment is a failed state. If they sign peace with Russia today, they would most likely stay in Russian orbit. US love spreading "democracy" by big explosions but they are less effective at rebuilding. (although I heard Blackrock and such companies already own half of Ukraine) They did some rebuilding after WW2 but they were already fighting against communism. I am not sure there is the same incentive to invest in Ukraine that is not at war.
The staying in Russian orbit is a peculiar thing. It reminds me of Czechoslovakia after WW1. We had large areas where Germans were in majority. Central government was trying to do the national Czech state so they were not very good to their own Germans. I believe that´s one of the reason Adolf had it so easy...
If looking at the map of Ukraine and where Russian language is or was dominant, it looks a bit similar. Central government of Ukraine is trying to play at the nation building and banning everything Russian... but they have or had plenty of people who don´t identify as purely Ukrainian. I wonder what is the end game here. A good old pogroms were a thing in the olden days but those usually don´t look good on TV. Not even the PR machine Ukraine has can cover everything that stinks about their story. One more old time war hero might break their back. (sorry for this train of thoughts)
Ukrainian logistics guys must be tearing their hair out!
From what i can tell logistics is handled by the unit. This is easier to do but requires more men.
its easier to supply your troops when you are on homeground
I prefer logistic issues over no equipment.
The way to avoid that is simply divying certain kit out to different regiments based upon geography and deployment. That way everyone is singing from the same song sheet in x location. Don't cross the streams to quote ghostbusters.
They have plenty of 105mm ammo. Parts could be an issue.
Beautiful
man I'm always so excited when you post. keep up the great work man!
1:48 got close to wrecking his hand :O
Probably got bruised by the contact
Mod 56 is mountain gun class weapon for dual role of direct & indirect fire but there is other weapon more lite with similar result like SPG-9
SPG-9 is really close range, and the 73mm shells are MUCH less powerful than 105mm ones. A 105m shell weights 15kg, a 73mm one, 5.3 kg.
Omg, I salute the ingenuity and adaptability this brings to mobile warfare, bravo! Reminiscent of of a snub nose magnum at a knife fight 😂
Light gun that packs a punch, great kit
The mountain howitzer saw action in the jungles of the Ecuador/Peru war in 1995, it can be dismatled and carried by mules to a new firing pisition
How long before this gets mounted on an MT-LB or BTR?
I used to have a 1/35 scale die-cast version of this gun back in the early Seventies. I *think* it might have been able to fire matchsticks but it's so long ago I cannot remember clearly. A gun with legs, so to speak!
my country Banglades made a SPG version of this with type 59 tank body ..but didnt put in service
Speaking of OTO Melara
An OTOMATIC would be great for drone defense
Also the OTO Melara SIDAM 25 would be.
It's a M113 hull with a turret armed with 4 × 25 mm Oerlikon KBA cannons and a thermal-laser sight-rangefinder-predictor.
Italy built 275 of them in the '80s, and they should currently be in reserve.
Can they be put on a turntable ? .
Looks like they were firing on a full charge.
Cute gun, would be perfect on a ultra lowprofile vehicle. Keeps he size small but gives agility
Did anyone else notice the flame emerging form the spent shell casing as it was removed from the breach in the historical footage? Is that normal??
Yup, some unburnt powder still remains inside the cartridge by the time of ejection. Nothing dangerous nor out of the ordinary.
Use coverr fire at the moment policy howitzer lead and unlead collision cover code 6 i can bouncer cover tank munition in order like Cluster fire 🥫
To date, has it been effective as an infantry support gun so far? Thanks.
I mean it’s been around for nearly 70 years.
It has a solid reputation with its other users, however I cannot find much info about its performance in Ukraine
Liked
your mod 56 is similar to the yugoslav M-48B-1 gun (mountain gun)
Since this is a "Pack Howitzer", does the horse or mule come as standard equipment with the gun, or do I have to pay extra at the dealership? 😁
Mules not included, as usual.
You are the pack animal.
*Batteries and mules not included
*Conditions may apply
They will likely make it better
The trigger system looks like you are just asking for a few broken fingers lol Seems like it would make more sense just to add 6" to the length and bend it out to the side toward the operator to help get their hand away from the barrel
You mean where is the gunners lanyard. Something that's seemingly fallen out of fashion in military circles these days.
Yeah, just stare at the one guy's hand as he fires, and the gun actually brushes his fingers aside as it recoils backwards. If this was a factory, the safety folks would lock the machine out. 😁
@@zoiders It can be fired with a lanyard. You just have to learn to keep your hand well away from the recoiling barrel and breach when you are 'pulling the tit'.
I don't know if you should be that close to the gun breech during firing.
Used by Argentina too... Malvinas/ Falklands war
can you do a vid on the fn fs f2000 in ukraine
Good gun this the old pac.
That's cute
Great vid as always !
Ah yes, the 'Average' Howitzer...
This pack gun is of limited use. In the Malvinas with a very small number of only 3 pieces, it did a moderate job against British parachute regiments in Goose Green. On the small hills near Puerto Argentino did fare a little better (2 sqn x 12 pieces each), but its firepower was somewhat indiferent, inadequate. The 155mm CITER was far better gun and formidable by comparison. Has a short range of 9 Km, and incapable firepower, and very prone to break under stress and heavy fire missions. It's not a match for any of the russian artillery pieces available there.
It certainly isn't but they seem to be finding a support role for it. Wouldn't want to be on the end of counter battery fire though.
@@TheArmourersBench The positive role of this pack gun its easy of use. At Malvinas, even conscript artillerymen were able to use it effectively on support roles. Night fire missions were the norm back then. The OTO Melara design its not heavy duty. All the pieces were disabled due heavy fire rates. watch?v=qfBitOj_9Gs
The trigger looks so dangerous, why so short ?
It's likely just missing a lanyard. Gunners wear a lanyard as a piece of personal dress.
It's made to be pulled with a lanyard, but, as always, when gunners become comfortable, they start pulling it bare-hand.
In Spain were used them in light units and mountain forces until we recieved the L117/118 and disbanded the artillery units of the mountain troops. We then used some of them to bolster our artillery units in Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish cities in Africa, bordering Morocco). As far as I know, there are still in service there along with the much bigger Santa Barbara 155/52. Nifty things those guns. My first Coy Commander was a soldier in an artillery battery that operated the mod 58, they called them "picha corta" (short dick).
Hacía años que no oía el mote
@@andresmartinezramos7513 en que unidad estabas?
@@MrTony1995 Yo no, pero mi padre estuvo de artillero en el Ferral
_Something important to know, for all who are interested in history and/or support Ukraine:_
_Rus' ought not to be confused with modern “Russia”, which derives its name from the Rus' but historically is a completely different state, which almost all its existence was at war with the Rus'._
_Just like the Holy Roman Empire was actually Germany, “Russia” is actually Muscovy, despite their best attempts to convince everybody otherwise._
_Its name “Russia" received only in the 18th century, when Peter I simply changed Muscovy’s name into the “All Russian Empire” (Russia originates from Rosia, name used by the Greek Orthodox Clergy in regards to Rus')_
_Under the reign of Cathrine II Muscovites where even punished for continuing to identify as Muscovites, and were forced to call themselves Russian._
_Lands that Russia (Muscovy) claims were part of the original Rus', but actually weren't, are Novgorod, Suzdal, and Ryazan, since in historical texts of XI-XII centuries they are mentioned as separate entities from Rus'. They can be considered parts of extended Rus', although their culture was distinct from main Rus'._
_In 1493, Muscovite duke Ivan III appointed himself to be the Great Ruler of All Rus'. No other kings acknowledged that. From that point on Muscovy started to make false claims on Rus' ownership._
_“Russia” is an offshoot of Ukraine and not the other way round, despite what Soviet and Russian (Muscovite) historians have been trying to say for years. A Slavicised Finnic, then later, Mongolized offshoot. Kyiv was a developed cultured capital when Moscow was just another swamp village._
_Germany used to call itself the Holy Roman Empire, that didn’t mean they became the Romans, and all of a sudden had a right to claim whole of Italy and its history, but yet, that’s exactly what Russia (Muscovy) did in regards to Rus'-Ukraine, which is a horrible injustice!_
Logistics used and used howitzers need armor and weapon operations in which you use many one target three howitzers to one target three shell's fired infantry cover fore not lead role
policy holder lead and unlead howitzer military and destroy camp Ukraine
I’m sure it’s very useful but I wouldn’t want to crew one
Looks like a drone magnet
Everything is a drone magnet.
Does it have canister rounds to fire into Russian faces ?
its a 105 so I think some of those Vietnam era flechette rounds are around somehwere
I think if you are firing one of those than you are in a dip shit
If it doesn't, I suppose they could make some with empty cases, wadding and buckshot.
@@jic1 I think air burst rounds will be cheaper
@@Red-238 More effective probably, I doubt they'd be cheaper than something you could likely assemble in a shed from commonly available materials. Remember, those 105mm cartridges are semi-fixed, which means that they are designed to be easily disassembled and modified by the user for the purposes of varying the charge.
Is like Ikea you can built it at home 😀
Thats a great howitzer amazing for supporting infantary, one of the best in the world i dont now why Italy never develop a 76mm howitzer with a 70 calibre barrel and the HVM 60mm cannon develop with IMI one of the best calibers for rapid fire power and mobility i know is the lack of military investment in Europe by woke politicians