Artillery Research Articles

A Nemzeti Hadseregtől a Magyar Királyi Honvédségig

In 1920, the National Army was vigorously developed. The Hungarian government considered it important to strengthen national defence against the military superiority of neighbouring states. The Red Army launched an attack on Poland and was already threatening Warsaw. The Hungarian government hoped that if it provided military assistance to the Poles, the Entente powers would ease the strict requirements of the planned peace treaty. The government hoped that during the operation it could reintegration a part of Slovakia, with the approval of the Entente, the Treaty of Trianon contained extremely severe military restrictions. A professional army of only 35,000 men, without heavy artillery, tanks, air force and air defence, could not have defended the country against an external attack. The prescribed downsizing caused a serious social problem. The restriction of production or purchase of weapons made Hungary vulnerable for a long time The Royal Hungarian Army, established in January 1922, tried to provide a small but effective defence force within the restrictions. However, in a hidden form, the government tried to maintain a larger number of personnel and a smaller amount of modern combat equipment.

АРТИЛЛЕРИЯ НОВОСИЛЯ В 1667–1696 ГГ. (ПО ДАННЫМ ГОДОВЫХ СМЕТ)

The purpose of the article is to analyze the artillery of Novosil between 1667 and 1696, according to annual estimates. Both general scientific and historical research methods are used. It is stressed that according to an-nual estimates the state of the artillery park of one of the cities of the Belgorod regiment «in the line» – Novo-sil is reconstructed for the first time. The dynamics of its changes during the last third of the 17th century is determined. The number of Novosil artillery systems in 1667, 1676, 1682, 1684 and 1696 is revealed and their classification is given. Variants of calibers and lengths of gun barrels and the number of each of the variants are revealed, as well as distinctive features of some guns such as: functions, characteristics and inscriptions on the barrels. In addition, the order of placement of artillery systems on towers and in the fortress is estab-lished. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the artillery park of Novosil in the last third of the 17th century underwent two changes in its composition: between 1676 and 1682 and between 1684 and 1985. However, despite this, throughout the period under study, the fortress was armed mainly with small-caliber artillery of various types.

Inventarul armamentului cetatii Deva in anul 1640

An inventory from 1640, published in this study, describes in detail the number of war instruments in the fortress of Deva. The inventory was made at the sale of the Deva estate by Lady Maria Széchy to Prince George I Rákóczy. So far only one such document was known, completed on 30 November 1640 and published by historian Endre Veress. However, the present inventory precedes it by one month, having been made by the archivists of the Alba Iulia Chapter house. The three men of the Transylvanian prince identified numerous pieces of artillery and other tools necessary for the defence of the fortification, but most of them were obsolete, sometimes a century old. Even if the weaponry was neither too modern nor too numerous, combined with the extraordinary position of the fortress it could still be an asset. The inventory of weapons of Deva offers us the possibility of investigating the military aspects of a Transylvanian fortress in the middle of the 17th century. Knowledge of military resources in that period is essential in understanding how the principality of Transylvania adapted to changes in tactics and weaponry in the early modern era.

О странностях левоэсеровского мятежа в Жиздринском уезде Калужской губернии 7–14 июля 1918 г.: источниковедческий аспект

The revolt of the Left SRs (Socialist-Revolutionaries) in Moscow in July 1918 was used by the Left SR organization of the Zhizdra uezd of the Kaluga gubernia, which was supportive of the program of its Central Committee, as a pretext to remove the communists from power. The SRs counted on the fact that they held all the decision-making positions in the uezd military commissariat and were in charge of weapons. Moreover, some of the local peasants, who were the main producers of marketable bread, saw in food dictatorship and in Poor Peasants Committees a direct threat to their economic activities. They viewed the SRs as their mouthpiece and defenders of their interests and therefore supported them in their political struggle against the Bolsheviks. Having learned about the events in Moscow by early morning of July 8, 1918, the Left SRs of Zhizdra gathered several hundred peasants in the town and handed them weapons. Until July 10, the armed peasants received allowance in the uezd military commissariat. The communists of Zhizdra, having established the approximate number of armed peasants by covert observation, fled the town and left their posts. We still do not know what happened next in Zhizdra on July 8-10. On the night of July 11, an armed detachment from Kaluga arrived to help the communists of Zhizdra, but found no one, neither armed peasants, nor their leaders. This suggests that the fugitives knew the date and time of the detachment arrival in advance. Almost immediately upon his arrival, detachment commander Saltykov issued an order, announcing the establishment of martial law in the town and uezd, starting July 11. The population was ordered to hand over their weapons by 4 p.m. the following day. The uezd military commissar Trunov, who had fled, was outlawed “for counter-revolutionary actions” and was to be seized. It is worth mentioning that all this happened on the eve of the Uezd Congress of Soviets, which was to be held on July 12. The Left SRs planned to conduct and head the congress; by July 11, 25 delegates had arrived. On that day, the Zhizdra communists, no longer threatened, held a meeting and decided to thwart the congress and offered the executive committee to hold in its stead a meeting in order to inform about political events in Moscow and their local repercussions. On the same day, members of the communist faction overtook all key positions in the Uezd Executive Committee previously held by the Left SRs. As the Zikeevo volost refused to hand over weapons in peasants’ possession, Saltykov received an additional deterrent artillery gun and a group of Latvian riflemen. Having intimidated the population, the detachment entered the village of Zikeevo on July 13. There the chairman of the volost council handed over to Saltykov only 24 rifles, but promised to collect the remaining weapons and transport them to Zhizdra on the following day, July 14. Whether Saltykov received the weapons is unknown. Searches in Zhizdra on July 14 had no result. The reports of Saltykov and Evstafiev shed no light on Bolsheviks collecting weapons previously distributed by the Left SRs. Therefore, the author has good reasons to believe that not all weapons distributed to peasants by the Left SRs were collected.

Krążownik ciężki – problemy klasyfikacyjne. Część 2: Okręty o klasyfikacji spornej

This article is the second in a series of six texts devoted to classification problems in the group of artillery ships such as heavy cruisers. In the first one, we dealt with the genesis of the heavy cruiser and formulated its definition, necessary for making reliable scientific analyzes. In this section, we confronted this definition with ships with a disputed classification. The following will discuss the fleets of this class of ships from all ten countries that have them, and their global characteristics. Of the 26 ships with a disputed classification in terms of their potential assignment to the category of heavy cruisers, 16 ships should be granted this status, and 10 ships should not, for various reasons. The main disqualifying factors were: the outdated layout of the main artillery towers (Blücher, Effingham, Frobisher, Hawkins, Raleigh, Vindictive), too few main artillery guns (Frobisher, Krasnyj Kavkaz, Hawkins, Vindictive), too small caliber of the main artillery (Effingham, Vindictive), too large caliber of the main artillery (Admiral Scheer, Admiral Graf Spee, Blücher, Lützow). As for the disputed heavy cruisers, which we have maintained in this study on the basis of substantive criteria, the only factor raised against the legitimacy of such a step was the possession of the main armament in the form of guns with a caliber not exceeding 200 mm, as all the other conditions for belonging to this class of ships have been met. The issue of caliber, however, is firmly anchored in naval armaments limitation treaties, in which a total of 6 of the world’s largest maritime powers participated (Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Italy and Germany), which together have the overwhelming majority of the world’s naval fleet in general and heavy cruisers in particular. In this situation, the arguments in favor of increasing its minimum limit from 156 to 201 mm should be assessed as insufficient. As a result, we recog- nize that the units discussed in this paper: Almirante Brown, Aoba, Ashigara, Furutaka, Haguro, Kaganovič, Kako, Kalinin, Kinugasa, Kirov, Maksim Gor’kij, Molotov, Myōkō, Nachi, Veinticinco de Mayo and Vorošilov belong to the heavy cruiser class.

The World Is Not Just Diversified, It Is Atomized

The world is not just diversified. In fact, it is atomized according to interests, ideas, or agendas; it needs maximum flexibility in responding to increasingly broad-ranging challenges. This makes it very difficult to maintain cohesion. It can only be done with the help of heavy artillery, figuratively and, unfortunately, literally.

МАТЕМАТИЧНА МОДЕЛЬ ПОЛЬОТУ СНАРЯДА ЯК МОДИФІКОВАНА МОДЕЛЬ МАТЕРІАЛЬНОЇ ТОЧКИ У ЯВНІЙ ФОРМІ

A promising direction for improving the accuracy and operational efficiency of firing artillery systems is the development of ballistic computers that implement procedures for determining settings using the solution of a system of differential equations (mathematical model) that describe the movement of a projectile in the air. The main problem in the development of mathematical models is the possibility of determining with a given accuracy the coefficients of aerodynamic forces (moments) that are in the right-hand sides of differential equations. An urgent issue in this direction is the study of the possibility of restoring the coefficients of aerodynamic forces (moments) by solving the inverse problem of external ballistics using mathematical models of projectile flight. The movement of projectiles is usually described using one of three mathematical models, which differ from each other in the main level of complexity and, accordingly, the level of adequacy to the real process of projectile movement in the air. Therefore, the complexity of recovery procedures is determined by the number of coefficients of aerodynamic forces (moments) and differential equations included in mathematical models. A modified model of a material point is presented as a mathematical model of projectile flight in which all aerodynamic forces are taken into account, the orientation of the projectile is characterized by taking into account the nutation angle, and the kinetic energy of the rotational movement is taken into account through the angular velocity of the projectile around its axis of symmetry. It is shown that the modified material point model is determined by adding an implicit ordinary differential equation - an equation that describes the nutational oscillations of the projectile, which depend on the acceleration of its flight. Procedures for converting the system of differential equations of the modified material point model to an explicit form are disclosed, which allows them to be solved on the basis of standard numerical methods.

Design and Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Directed Artillery Prototype for Defense Application

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) technology is one of the fastest growing technologies nowadays and is deployed in various fields. UAVs are used in many domains such as surveillance, precision agriculture, mapping and surveying, militaries etc. UAVs can move fast, it can enable the user to look past walls and fences, and it provides a large aerial view of the area where the drone flies. UAVs can also be used to harness information from dangerous places to prevent human casualties. These advantages of UAVs allow us to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in many fields. This paper proposes a prototype of an automatic artillery system that can get GPS coordinates of a target location based on the intelligence provided by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which spots the location of the target easily. The artillery system can be used to eject a projectile and make it fall on the target position. This system has applications like riot control in urban cities. It can also be used by police or military personnel to take control over terrorist infested areas without manually entering into the region of terror. This UAV directed artillery system is a very viable, cost efficient and effective when compared to conventional methods to control riots and counter terrorists. This system enhances peace in cities and ensures safety and security of the people.

Changes in the criminal legislation since the beginning of the military aggression of the russia in 2014 and military actions from february 2022 in Ukraine

With reference to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, from April 14, 2014 to the beginning of September 2022, from 42 to 44 thousand people were injured or killed in the fighting in Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk regions). Since February 2022, between 13,100 and 13,300 people have died as a result of the war. Of them, 3,375 are civilians, approximately 4,150 are Ukrainian military personnel, and approximately 5,700 are militants. In addition, 29,500–33,500 people have been injured since the beginning of hostilities in Donbas. Of them, 7,000 to 9,000 civilians, 9,700 to 10,700 Ukrainian military personnel, and 12,700 to 13,700 militants. Thus, civilians account for 25-26% of the total number of dead. This ratio also applies to injuries. However, it is worth noting that this ratio has changed significantly over the years: from 33-34% in 2014 to 4-5% in 2019-2022.
 In the UN, among the statistics of the deaths of military personnel, there are also cases not directly related to military operations. In particular, as a result of careless handling of weapons, traffic accidents, illnesses during service in the conflict zone, murders and suicides, which make up about 30% of the total number.
 Additionally, in 2019 and 2020, up to 40% of military deaths in a conflict zone are due to disease, homicide, suicide, traffic accidents, and other non-combat related causes. However, these cases are not included in the specified ratio.
 From February 24, 2022, when the armed attack of the Russian Federation on Ukraine began, until midnight (local time) on August 20, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 10,308 victims among the country's civilian population: 4,597 dead and 5,711 wounded," the message reads.
 According to the UN, among the dead: 1,775 men, 1,186 women, 128 girls and 144 boys, as well as 41 children and 1,323 adults, whose gender is still unknown. Injured: 1159 men, 810 women, 127 girls and 168 boys, as well as 176 children and 3271 adults, whose gender is unknown. As noted in the UN, most people died from explosive weapons with a wide area of ​​​​defeat - heavy artillery, rocket systems of salvo fire, rockets and airstrikes.
 Since February of this year, law enforcement officers have discovered 1,332 bodies of civilians killed by the Russian occupiers in the Kyiv region. Commenting on these events, the head of the police of the Kyiv region Andriy Nebitov noted that, unfortunately, the bodies of the killed people are still there, most of them were killed with small arms, or automatic weapons, or snipers, or even the last burial discovered in August 2022 - 7 people were executed. The victims were shot both in the knees and the head. All identified killed persons turned out to be civilians. The police of the Kyiv region have already registered more than 3,000 criminal proceedings, crimes committed by the Russian military.

Study on the influence of artillery recoil on the lateral stability of patrol boat

To solve the problem of lateral instability of a high-speed law enforcement patrol boat caused by the recoil of artillery fire, this paper adopts the method based on EFD (Experiment Fluid Dynamics), the dynamic stability of a high-speed patrol boat model under the impact of an external force is simulated by a percussive test. First, the model of the patrol boat is tested by dragging on the surface of still water, and then the percussive test is carried out with different centers of gravity height, different external impulses, and different speeds, the influence of the above factors on the transverse stability of patrol boat is studied. The results show that the higher the height of the center of gravity, the higher the external impulse and the lower the speed, the worse the transverse stability of the model will be. The results show that the EFD method is feasible, which is of great significance to the shape optimization design of high-speed craft and the selection of artillery systems.

“The Army of Exempts”: Medical Examinations and the Challenges of Mobilization in Civil War Connecticut

“The Army of Exempts”: Medical Examinations and the Challenges of Mobilization in Civil War Connecticut

The armament and military equipment transfer for summer and winter periods of operation, its peculiarities

The research paper considers the military unit officials work sequence on maintenance and organization of seasonal service, in the system of unified comprehensive service. There are determined unit commander order points for the seasonal service and defined the main activities of the transfer. The armament and military equipment preparation for summer (winter) service is divided onto three phases with indication performing work at each stage, as well as description of officials responsibilities at different stages of seasonal service. The table shows the running and firing hours for the planning technical service of artillery system combined with works of the seasonal service. The research paper specifies the units and aggregates typical failures at high and low temperatures, as well as ways of solution.

The war in Ukraine through the prism of foreign media

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Putin launched a large-scale unprovoked war against Ukraine, destroying Ukrainian cities and towns using artillery systems of volley fire, air strikes and missile attacks. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defense units and the entire people of Ukraine rose up to fight against the barbaric invaders.
 The article examines the statements and assessments of well-known Western politicians, military, scientists and analysts on the barbaric nature of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the nature, course and possible options for further development and end of hostilities, world community's sanctions against the aggressor. Based on foreign media reports, it has been proven that the plan of Russian dictator Putin, aimed at the so-called "demilitarization" and "denazification" failed in the early days of the war. It is substantiated that in the future, without achieving their goal, the Russian invaders will try to wipe out peaceful cities and villages, destroy civilian population, infrastructure, and unleash the genocide of the Ukrainian nation. It is convincingly proved that Ukraine will win.

Mathematical model of working processes of hydraulic brake of retrainable parts of artillery gun

The approach proposed in the article allowed the authors to conduct a comprehensive study of the hydrodynamic working process of the brake of the retractable parts with simultaneous observation of changes in the dynamic and kinematic characteristics of the center of mass of the retractable parts. In this case, the need to solve the forward and reverse problems of the run is eliminated. Based on the method of small deviations, the authors proposed a theoretical approach to substantiate the maximum allowable deviations of the brake characteristics, which allows to form the relationship of the brake process of retractable parts with the stability of the gun, as well as refi ned methods of restoring language of stability of the gun with the specifi ed characteristic.

Служебная записка инженера-конструктора М.И. Кошкина о ходе работ по созданию новых артиллерийских систем в конструкторском бюро Кировского завода (из фондов Центрального государственного архива историко-политических документов Санкт-Петербурга)

Introduction. The publication is devoted to an urgent topic: the history of the creation of artillery weapons systems in the pre-war USSR (1930s). Until recently, in Soviet and Russian historiography, the work of design bureaus of those years was judged by the memoirs of Colonel-General and designer of artillery weapons Vasiliy Grabin and his employees, who on the eve of the war won the fight for the right to transfer new artillery guns to mass production. Grabins main competitor, Ivan Makhanov, was remembered only as “a talented engineer who was unjustly convicted and perished in Stalins dungeons”. Materials. In the process of preparing for the publication of Makhanovs memoirs one of the authors of this article, Andrei Riabkov, identified among the recently declassified documents and prepared for publication a memo from design engineer Mikhail Koshkin, which contains a thorough analysis of the progress of creating new artillery systems at the Kirov plant. This note allows us to critically comprehend the memoirs of both Makhanov and Grabin. Analysis. Ivan Makhanov was prone to technical risk, but due to the lack of managerial experience and the desire to take on “everything”, he rarely managed to bring his ideas to implementation in reliably working structures. Results. By the end of the 30s of the twentieth century, he acquired the necessary knowledge and experience, several tools of his development were put into a series, but the arrest and imprisonment of Makhanov and some of his subordinates in the ITL on charges of “conscious sabotage and espionage” ultimately put an end to these developments. The published document can also be used in a special biographical study to assess the human qualities of Mikhail Koshkin.

Desert Insurgency: Archaeology, T. E. Lawrence, and the Arab Revolt

Desert Insurgency: Archaeology, T. E. Lawrence, and the Arab Revolt

ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ТА ЛОГІСТИЧНЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ПРОЦЕСІВ СТВОРЕННЯ ВИСОКОТОЧНОЇ ЗБРОЇ В УМОВАХ ЕКОНОМІКИ ВОЄННОГО ЧАСУ

The purpose of the article is to define the prospects and priorities of the Ukrainian economy in the conditions of the war and the ways to implement them. It was noted that the key factor for achieving a turning point on the battlefield is the supply of a sufficient number of high-precision weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which requires appropriate logistics support. The abilities of the Ukrainian economy for the rapid development and establishment of serial production of high-precision weapons have been studied. Based on the analysis of the current capabilities of the Ukrainian economy, the most promising types of weapons for production have been identified, namely, artillery systems and precision-guided munitions for them, some types of unmanned aerial vehicles, high-precision operational-tactical missile systems based on cruise and ballistic missiles. Possible ways of organizing such production are analyzed. It has been proven that the most effective way to create such production is to establish joint production with the closest Eastern European partners, in particular with Poland, as well as Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The advantages and potential risks of such cooperation are investigated, and possible sources of financing for the production of weapons are assessed.

Развитие средств борьбы с бронетехникой на переднем крае обороны. Первая половина 1930-х гг. По материалам советской военной печати

In the article on the materials of the military press of the first half of the 1930s. the author analyzes the change in views on the fight against armored vehicles in the specified period. The author considers the main addition and alternatives to anti-tank guns, which were popular with military theorists considering the issues of countering armored vehicles at a distance of up to a kilometer. In the course of his work, the author considers proposals on the tactical and technical aspects of using various types of grenades against armored vehicles, mines, bi-calibre artillery system, heavy machine guns, automatic guns received from both foreign and domestic experts. As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that in the USSR in the first half of the 1930s. the military leadership quickly came to the conclusion that anti-tank guns were needed to fight tanks, and grenades and mines could play a very limited role in the fight against armored vehicles. While outside the USSR, heavy machine guns, automatic guns, field artillery guns continued to be considered as anti-tank weapons. Thus, we can say that in the USSR the conceptual awareness of the vector of counteraction to armored vehicles occurred earlier than in Germany, France, the British Empire, the United States of America and Poland.

Исследование триботехнических характеристик подшипников скольжения артиллерийских орудий

Исследование триботехнических характеристик подшипников скольжения артиллерийских орудий

О дате модернизации Аккерманской крепости Франсуа Кауффером

One of the most famous periods in the construction history of the Akkerman Fortress is associated with the name of the French engineer in the Turkish service — François Kauffer. As a result of his activities, the medieval stronghold significantly changed its appearance in the last decade of the 18th century, adapting to the tasks of conducting a modern siege war with the help of heavy powder artillery. The dating of these large-scale works in Ackerman remained under question. Some new documentary sources with their detailed information made such dating possible. Kauffer fixed his presence in the fortress with an autograph on the wall of the citadel tower. Apparently, the modernization took place here in the spring and summer of 1796. Equally, the end of the works was marked by the tughra of the ruling Sultan Selim III, installed on the facade of the main gate. The date on Selim III’s tarih and the one in Kauffer’s autograph is 1796.