The Russian defense manufacturer Uraltransmash (a subsidiary of Uralvagonzavod Group) has completed the delivery of upgraded 2S3M Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers to Belarusian Defense Ministry. The artillery system and the recoil mechanism have been repaired, and the engine and the hull of the self-propelled guns have been modernized. The upgraded 2S3M Akatsiya is designed to destroy and suppress artillery, mortars and other armored equipment. The upgraded howitzers have been delivered under the contract for 2020-2021 with the Belarusian Defense Ministry.
The SO-152 is a Soviet 152.4 mm self-propelled gun developed in 1968. It was a response to the American 155 mm M109. The fighting vehicle also received the additional designation Akatsiya, which is Russian for acacia. The Akatsiya is armed with a 152.4 mm howitzer based on the Soviet 152.4 mm D-20 howitzer. The artillery system was developed at the design bureau No. 9 of Sverdlovsk. The factory designation of the howitzer is D-22 and the GRAU designation, 2A33. The chassis was developed by Uraltransmash.
Equipped with a mechanized drum-type stowage for 12 rounds, the amount of hatches in rear armored plates of the hull and the turret was reduced, the configuration of those hatches was changed, antenna of R-123 radio set was transferred on a turret top. Ammunition was increased from 40 to 46 rounds (usually consists of 42 OF-540 and OF-25 HE-Frag projectiles, and of 4 BP-540 HEAT-FS projectiles). Much more powerful OF-29 HE-Frag projectiles and OF-38 Krasnopol laser-guided rocket-assisted projectiles were developed for SO-152M.
Uraltransmash (The Ural Plant of Transport Engineering) is a company based in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Currently it is a subsidiary of Uralvagonzavod. The company is one of the oldest enterprises in the Ural: its history is more than two hundred years old. Uraltransmash is Russia’s primary producer of self-propelled artillery. In the second half of 1941, collectives of evacuated enterprises from Moscow, Podolsk and Stalingrad were housed in the buildings of the plant. The installation of new equipment began and soon the first light tank T-60 went to the front from the plant. Since then, the plant has developed or modernized about forty types of military equipment.
