Slovakia arms designer and manufacturer KONŠTRUKTA Defence are unveiling the prototype of SpGH BIA 155 mm self-propelled howitzer at DSEI exhibition in London with fully functional weapon system, which has already completed its first firings. In October the company will present SpGH BIA at IDEB 2023 in Bratislava. Subsequently, further firing trials will take place so that the SpGH BIA can be sent for military tests to the country of potential customer in 2024. Obviously, the company are interested in offering and introducing the SpGH BIA into the armament inventory of the Slovak Armed Forces as well. The SpGH BIA Project is a continuation of the SpGH ZUZANA and 1SpGH EVA product development line. The BIA development has been launched in 2021 on the base of requirements of business partners, while in the course of development the knowledge and experience from deployment of ZUZANA in Ukraine and international training in scope of forefront presence of NATO troops in Latvia have been applied.
The objective of the SpGH BIA Project development has been to join the advantages of 155 mm SpGHs ZUZANA 2 and EVA into compact and unique artillery system. The BIA Project leverages particular needs and requirements of the potential users we are closely communicating with:
– 155 mm armament with required technical parameters: firing range, rate of fire, ready-to-fire supply of ammunition
– high mobility and cross country manouverability
– lower mass
– crew protection
– automation of combat operation performance
Compared to SpGH ZUZANA 2, BIA is lighter, more mobile with higher mobility while maintaining the same firepower, and compared to 155 mm SpGH EVA, BIA carries a larger supply of ammunition, has higher crew protection and also automation of combat operations. Currently, the SpGH BIA utilizes the latest chassis series from the original chassis supplier for ZUZANA 2 howitzers, but based on requests from potential users, work is being done to place the 155 mm weapon system on a chassis from other manufacturers. KONŠTRUKTA-Defence will not specify potential new suppliers of chassis due to trade secrets, but the company can state that one of the manufacturers is a purely Slovak company. Generally, in BIA project, the company are interested in involving as many Slovak manufacturers as possible and thereby supporting the Slovak defence industries, however there are some components that are simply not produced on the territory of the Slovak Republic.
KONŠTRUKTA Defence, a successor company of KONŠTRUKTA Tren?ín, National Enterprise, founded in 1953, is primarily Design & Development company of land and air defence weapon systems, ammunition, command & fire control systems, electronic systems and also offers special modernizations of already existing solutions. Besides the HQ in Dubnica nad Vahom, the company have own special Testing Facility approved to provide accredited tests and services. The Special Testing Facility was built in 1957 and dispose by several firing lines, driving polygon, climatic chambers and lot more equipment to offer special services in both defence and civil industries and to fulfil requirements of customers. Last couple of years we have been successfully improving Production capabilities aimed on the core artillery business in particular the outstanding 155mm 52 cal. family of Self-propelled Artillery Systems ZUZANA 2, EVA 6×6 or 8×8 fitted with advanced FCS designed to be aligned with user’s requirements on integration of artillery C2 systems.
