Vietnam Still Preserves M107 "King of the Battlefield" SPH

03 April 2020

175 mm M107 self-propelled gun "King of the battlefield" is in an outdoor exhibit at the Vietnam Military History Museum (photo : BaoDatViet)

It seems that the 175 mm M107 self-propelled gun has been completely removed from the service of the Vietnam People's Army but in reality it is not.

US-designed and manufactured long-range M107 self-propelled guns 175 mm designed for strategic strategic shelling at the rear (gas depot, train station, airport, command center) with large bullets with strong destructive power, it was nicknamed "King of Battlefield".

M107 has an overall length of 11,25 m; width 3.15 m; height 4.47 m; weight 28.2 tons. The M107 complex consists of a 175 mm M113 turret cannon mounted on the M158 crawler armored chassis. 

The gun has a rate of fire of only 1-2 rounds per minute, but with a range of up to 40 km, its 66.6 kg bullets have a radius of damage up to 50 m, nearly the equivalent of a small bomb.

M107 from rear view (photo : Soha)

The US Army had hoped that the M107 could overwhelm the 130 mm M46 cannon of the Vietnam Liberation Army.

Due to the weight of the ammunition is so large, the ammunition reserve in the vehicle only has 2 rounds required when the cannon fires must have the truckload of M548 ammunition attached. The reload is completely manual, once the fire is finished, the gun barrel must be lowered, loaded, then the gun barrel must be raised to fire so the rate of fire is very weak, completely lost before the shot of M46 (4 - 6 tablets / minute).

In addition, when deploying to shoot, the bucket of dirt in the back of the vehicle must be lowered into the ground to ensure that the cannon does not slip out after firing. The M107 cannon needs 13 people, including 5 people on artillery and 8 people on other crawler vehicles, which is too bulky.

Perhaps because there were not enough spare parts, these Battle King King self-propelled guns were no longer used by us but had to be stored (photo : BaoDatViet)

After 1975, the Vietnam People's Army obtained some M107 booty artillery. However, due to the poor life of the M113 cannon, only 700 to 1,200 shots (depending on the number and the dose of each shot), they rarely appeared or used for mass training.

Currently the main condition of these M107 King Battlefield cannons and is also easy to spot, especially in museums, the relatively small number of these weapons on the S-shaped Strip leads to the perception that they have been marginalized.

However, it is surprising that recently appeared the image shows that there is still a self-propelled legal complex M107 which is still maintained and preserved by the Vietnam People's Army in addition to other M48 tanks.

Based on the appearance, it can be seen that the technical status of the weapon is still quite good, if the ammunition reserve is still guaranteed, it can be "recalled" in case of need.

(BaoDatViet)