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From: emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Soviet "Tanks" in Newsweek -- really SP howitzers?
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Date: 10 Apr 90 02:02:21 GMT
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From: emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery)
>From: wesommer@athena.mit.edu (William Sommerfeld)
>Might these have been self-propelled howitzers (along with some
>auxiliary vehicles/ammo haulers?)

Award yourself a prize!  I think you're right, and I think they're the
2S1 122mm SP Howitzer.  The 2S1 is close to a clone of our M109A1 in
terms of SP design, and has their battle-proven cannon from the D-30.

What was interesting about that is that I understood that the 2S1 was
mostly confined to the Level-1 units in East Germany.  According to
Isby (2nd ed), there are 2 Level-2 Tank Divisions in the Baltic
Military District, and either the 2S1 has been fielded to these (Level
2) Tank Divisions, or they've been moved there from a Level-1 unit
somewhere.  

(For those of you not familiar with Soviet doctrine, they have 3
Levels of unit readiness.  Level-1 is "go to war", and is the level
of units in East Germany, for instance.  Level 2 is about 80% fill,
and Level 3 is cadre, about 20% fill, of both men and equipment.)

					dave emery
					CPT, FA, NHARNG
					emery@aries.mitre.org
p.s.  I wonder how many people in my Guard unit would get the ID
right?