Hell on tip-toe: gone are the days when steamrolling heavy artillery was primarily intended to indiscriminately pour fire and steel over the enemy lines before one's own mechanized cavalry and infantry could roll in--at least in the Western World. A new trend has since developed.

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Howitzers

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Hell on tip-toe: gone are the days when steamrolling heavy artillery was primarily intended to indiscriminately pour fire and steel over the enemy lines before one's own mechanized cavalry and infantry could roll in--at least in the Western World. A new trend has since developed.

For quite a while the KMW-Rheinmetall PzH2000 is likely to remain the only Western post-Cold War heavy self-propelled howitzer to have been fielded and exported. Even the American revolutionary Crusader leviathan fell victim to the changing East-West picture and armies now have to be content with upgraded systems like the M109 or the AUF. Yet current conflicts show that the 'Queen of the Battlefield' is still needed, but probably more in the form of a Princess.

Recent years have seen the proliferation of lighter designs that, schematically, consist of existing barrels mounted on trucks. The advent was essentially made possible by the considerable technical advances achieved in truck design over the past ten to fifteen years. Inter-cooled turbo-charged diesels, new tyre designs, composite armouring, long-stroke suspensions and a high degree of commonality with commerci...

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