AHS Krab | |
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Type | Self-propelled artillery |
Place of origin | Poland |
Service history | |
Used by | Polish Land Forces Ukrainian Ground Forces |
Wars | Russo-Ukrainian War |
Production history | |
Designer | |
Designed | 1997–2016 |
Manufacturer | Huta Stalowa Wola |
Unit cost | US$11.45M (est) |
Produced | 2008–present |
Specifications | |
Mass | 48 t (47 long tons; 53 short tons) |
Length | 12.1 m (39 ft 8 in) |
Barrel length | 8.06 m (26 ft 5 in) L/52 |
Width | 3.63 m (11 ft 11 in) |
Height | 3 m (9 ft 10 in) to turret roof |
Crew | 5 |
Caliber | 155 mm (6.1 in) |
Breech | Sliding block |
Elevation | +70° (1244 mils)/-3.5° (-62 mils) |
Traverse | 360° (6400 mils) |
Rate of fire |
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Maximum firing range |
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Sights | WB Electronics Topaz FCS |
Armor | Max 16 mm (0.63 in) steel armour |
Main armament | 155 mm/52-calibre howitzer 40 rounds (29 turret, 11 hull) |
Secondary armament | WKM-B .50 BMG |
Engine | STX Engine/MTU Friedrichshafen MT881Ka-500 8-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine 750 kW (1,000 hp) |
Drive | Tracked |
Transmission | SNT Dynamics/Allison Transmission X1100-5A3 4 forward, 2 reverse |
Suspension | Mottrol/Horstman Hydropneumatic Suspension Unit (HSU) travel distance: ≤ 275 mm dead weight: 40 ~ 45 kN |
Operational range | 400 km (250 mi) |
Maximum speed |
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References | Janes[1] |
The AHS Krab (Polish for crab) is a 155 mm NATO-compatible self-propelled tracked gun-howitzer designed in Poland by Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW), by combining a heavily modified South Korean K9 Thunder chassis with a British BAE Systems AS-90M Braveheart turret with a 52-calibre gun produced by HSW and the Polish WB Electronics' Topaz artillery fire control system. "AHS" is not a part of the name, but Polish abbreviation of armatohaubica samobieżna - gun-howitzer, self-propelled.
The 2011 prototype version used Nexter Systems barrels and Polish UPG-NG chassis.
For the production variant, since 2016, Poland decided to base the self-propelled howitzer on a modified K9 chassis with an STX Engine-MTU Friedrichshafen engine and, since 2019, uses barrels made domestically in HSW (earlier, the barrels were delivered by Rheinmetall).[2]