Russia's 2S7 Pion "Malka" 203mm Self-Propelled Gun Hammering Ukrainian Positions

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡The Ministry of Defense showed footage of the work of self-propelled guns "Malka" during special operation

2S7 Pion "Malka" 203mm Self-Propelled Gun Information 👇

The 2S7 Pion ("peony") or Malka is a Soviet self-propelled 203mm heavy artillery.

"2S7" is its GRAU designation.

It was identified for the first time in 1975 in the Soviet Army and so was called M-1975 by NATO (the 2S4 Tyulpan also received the M-1975 designation), whereas its official designation is SO-203 (2S7).

It uses originally designed chassis (partly based on T-72 and T-80 design) carrying an externally mounted 2A44 203 mm gun on the hull rear.

It takes the crew of seven men 5–6 minutes to setup and 3–5 minutes to dismantle.

It carries four 203 mm projectiles for immediate use.

It is capable of firing nuclear ammunition.

The gun has a range of 37,500 metres (23.3 mi), but this can be extended to 55,500 metres (34.5 mi) by using RAPs (Rocket Assisted Projectiles).

One interesting feature of the Pion is the firing alarm.

Because the blast of the weapon firing is so powerful—it can physically incapacitate an unprepared soldier or crew member near it from concussive force—the Pion is equipped with an audible firing alarm that emits a series of short warning tones for approximately five seconds prior to the charge being fired.

The 2S7 carries a crew of fourteen; seven are carried by the Pion and seven are with an auxiliary vehicle.

The system carries four rounds of ammunition; four more rounds are carried by the support vehicle.

Due to the long range, the crew can fire one or two rounds and leave position before the first round hits the enemy position over 40 km away.

This makes the 2S7 less susceptible to counter-battery fire, from an enemy with a counter-battery radar such as ARTHUR.