Names of Russian and Soviet drawn artillery systems

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The designation of Russian and Soviet rifled artillery systems consists of three essential parts - the specification of the caliber, the specification of the type or main purpose of the weapon and a unique feature to designate the variant. This system was introduced towards the end of the 19th century and is still used today, although the exact structure of the name has been subject to various changes.

Names from the end of the 19th century to around 1917

Originally, guns in Russia, as well as in some other countries - for example Great Britain - were named after the weight of the projectile (the shell) or the weight of the gun. In the latter case, the designation was not always clear, after the introduction of different types of ammunition for a gun, the former designation was not always applicable. Towards the end of the 19th century / beginning of the 20th century the designation system was simplified. In the first place came the caliber in inches (or the Russian linear measure of length), in the second place the type of weapon and in the third place the year of the takeover into the armament. The indication of the type could be supplemented by the intended use. An example of such a designation is the 6-дюймовая гаубица обр. 1909 г. 6-дюймовая stands for the caliber 6 inches, гаубица for howitzer and обр. 1909 г for version 1909. Translated accordingly, it is the 6-inch howitzer version 1909 . At the 6-дюймовая осадная пушка обр. 1910 г. The intended use was added, here пушка stands for cannon and осадная for siege, appropriately translated it is the 6-inch siege cannon version 1910 . In the literature, the abbreviation "M" with the following year was usually chosen for the year of taking over into the armament. The first example would then be listed as the 6-inch howitzer M1909 , the second example as the 6-inch siege cannon M1910 .

Names from around 1917 to the 1950s

After the transition to the metric system, the specification of the caliber was changed from inches to millimeters. The caliber was rounded to the nearest millimeter. The indication of the purpose was omitted if the original purpose was omitted. Since the siege artillery was obsolete after the end of the First World War, the designation of the guns, for example, did not include “siege”. The 6-дюймовая осадная пушка образца 1910 года became the 152-мм пушка обр. 1910 года (152-mm cannon version 1910 or 152-mm cannon M1910). In other cases the intended use was further indicated in the name. An example is the 76-мм дивизионная пушка обр. 1902 г. - 76 mm division cannon version 1902 or 76 mm division cannon M1902.

From the beginning of the 1930s, various guns were modernized. The year in which the modernized variant was taken over into the armament was added with two digits to the year in which the original version was taken over. The designation 152-мм гаубица обр. 1909/30 гг. therefore stands for the modernized version of the 152-мм гаубица обр, originally introduced in 1909, introduced in 1930. 1909 г.

Newly developed weapons were basically given two designations: the designation already cited based on the model caliber-type-year of introduction and a factory designation. The factory name consisted of up to three letters for the design office or the manufacturer and a project number. The decisive factor was the plant in which the weapon was developed; the later production facilities could differ from the development plant. The use of a hyphen to separate the two components of the company name was not mandatory, all possible spellings are used. The designation 122-мм гаубица обр. 1938 г. (122 mm howitzer version 1938) stands for the official designation, the designation M-30 is the factory designation of the same weapon. Examples of the manufacturer's designation are M for the Motowilicha factory , S for the central artillery design office, SiS for factory no. 92 “Josef Stalin”. The designation of the design office came first, the weapons from work no. 8 "Mikhail Kalinin" with the index K were an exception , here the designation of the design office was in second place. The 37-мм автоматическая зенитная пушка обр. 1939 г. therefore received the factory designation 61-К. In some cases, such as the 76-мм дивизионная пушка обр. 1942 г. The factory designation ЗиС-3 (SiS-3) replaced the official name in practice, in other cases such as that of the 45-мм противотанковая пушка обр. 1937 г. the factory name (53-K) was rather uncommon.

Names from the 1950s

From the beginning of the 1950s, the year of introduction in the designation for newly designed weapons was replaced by the factory designation. An example is the 57-мм зенитная автоматическая пушка С-60, introduced in 1950: the year of introduction 1950 is missing in the designation, but С-60 stands for the Central Artillery Design Office ( ЦАКБ ) NII-58 and the project index . However, weapon systems that were already in use retained their original designation. The 122-мм гаубица обр. 1938 г was continued as such or with the factory designation М-30, but not as 122-мм гаубица М-30.

The last change so far came with the introduction of the GRAU index . In the case of newly introduced guns, the corresponding index of the weapon took the place of the factory designation. An example is the 152-мм пушка 2А36 (152-mm gun 2A36), where 2A36 stands for the GRAY index of the weapon. The GRAU index in itself enables a clear identification of the weapon, but the caliber and type cannot be inferred from the GRAU index alone.

Designation in the NVA

In the National People's Army, the Russian names including the plant names were transferred accordingly. The 57-мм зенитная автоматическая пушка С-60 became the 57 mm Flak S-60 or S-60 for short . In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, spellings without a hyphen were common, and later it was also correctly transferred to Duden using a hyphen. An unambiguous identification was made according to the catalog K 050/3/016 Armament, which is also referred to as the number list , in the users of the missile and weapon technology service . However, since this catalog was kept confidential, these numbers were not used in public publications and unclassified regulations and training materials.

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