The 85-mm antitank gun D-48 (russian: 85-мм противотанковая пушка Д-48) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
85-mm
calibre
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...
anti-tank gun used after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. It was designed as the replacement for the
100 mm field gun M1944 (BS-3). Distinguishing features of the D-48 include a very long
barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
and a pepper-pot
muzzle brake
A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted ...
. The D-48 was itself replaced in the 1960s by the
T-12 antitank gun
2A19 or T-12 was a revolutionary Soviet 100-mm anti-tank gun. It was the first (anti-) tank gun to adopt a smoothbore barrel, and to introduce modern armor piercing shot, like the APFSDS. It uses long projectiles that are more powerful than it ...
.
Overview
The gun was designed by the
F. F. Petrov
Fyodor Fyodorovich Petrov (russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Петров) (16 March 1902, Venyovsky District, Doktorovo, Tula Governorate – 19 August 1978) was a Soviet Union, Soviet artillery designer. References
1902 births
1978 ...
Design Bureau on the basis of the
D-44 85-mm divisional gun and production of the D-48 began in 1953 at the
No. 75 factory in
Yurga
Yurga (russian: Юрга́) is a town in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population:
History
It was founded in 1886. Work settlement status was granted to it in 1942; town status was granted ...
. The D-48 used the
breechblock from the BS-3 100-mm field gun in order to achieve a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute at maximum cadence.
The gun can transition from march to combat order in about two minutes.
The D-48N was a version with an APN 2-77 or 3-77
infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
imaging device fitted for night combat. A licensed version of the D-48 was produced in China as the Type 60.
The gun fires a high velocity
armor-piercing-capped-ballistic-cap tracer (APCBC-T) BR-372
Projectile
A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in ...
at 1040 meters per second and can penetrate 185mm of
armor
Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...
at a range of 1000 meters at an angle of obliquity of 90 degrees.
The 3BK-7 high explosive antitank (HEAT) projectile can penetrate 192mm of armor at an angle of obliquity of 60 degrees. The effective range of armor-piercing shells for the D-48 is 1,230 meters (HVAP-T) or 940 meters (HEAT). Additionally, the D-48 antitank gun is capable of firing a 9.66 kilogram OF-372 high explosive projectile to a direct fire range of 1,200 meters or an indirect fire range of 18.97 kilometers. The
Ammunition
Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...
for the D-48 was developed by necking down 100-mm ammunition in order to achieve higher muzzle velocities.
[Janes, p. 525.]
The gun is towed by a
URAL-375D
The Ural-375 is a general purpose 4.5 ton 6×6 truck, which has been produced at the Ural Automotive Plant in the Russian SFSR since 1961. The Ural-375 replaced the ZIL-157 as the standard Soviet Army truck in 1979. It was itself replaced by the ...
truck
[Janes, p. 526.] or an AT-P tractor with a maximum towing speed over asphalt roadway of about 60 km/h. The tires on the D-48 are those of the ZIS-5 truck.
Designs with auxiliary power units were also investigated but never developed beyond prototype stage.
Use by other nations
The D-48 has been exported to Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Congo, India, Iraq, North Korea, Mongolia, Mozambique, Romania, Somalia, Sudan, and Vietnam.
Citations
References
* Brassey's Encyclopedia of Land Forces and Warfare, Brassey's Inc., Washington D.C., 2000, .
* ''Die Landstreitkräfte der NVA'', Wilfried Kopenhagen, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttart, 2003, .
* ''Jane's Armour and Artillery 1981-1982'', Jane's Publishing Company Ltd, London, 1982.
* Shunkov V. N. - ''The Weapons of the Red Army'', Mn. Harvest, 1999 (Шунков В. Н. - ''Оружие Красной Армии.'' — Мн.: Харвест, 1999.) .
External links
Page in Russian on the D-48.{{SovArtyColdWar
85 mm artillery
Anti-tank guns of the Cold War
Anti-tank guns of the Soviet Union
Military equipment introduced in the 1950s