Soviet Nuclear Mortar

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Self-propelled weapon “Condesator-2P” is a heavy system with mass of 64 tons, able to fire a 570 kg shell at the distance of 25,6 km. It was never serialy produced, only four units were made in total. It was first shown on Red Square of Moscow in 1957 and made a furore. Some foreign reporters supposed the machine was fake and was shown to create a threatening impression. But the system of 406 mm calibre was more than real.

The self-propelled gun was created in 1954, it was intended to destroy large military and industrial objects of an enemy at the distance over twenty five kilometres with practice and nuclear shells. Just in case there were created three types of super weapons: gun, mortar and recoiless weapon with the calibre much larger than ones of the American guns. In fact so large calibre appeared because Soviet nuclear engineers just could not create compact munition.

Horizontal aiming of the gun was performed by means of turning of all the tracked weapon, accurate aiming was carried out with help of a special electric motor through the steering drive. Vertical aiming was provided by the direct lift hoist. Shell weight was equal to 570 kg, maximum firing range – 25,6 km.