2A45 and 2A45M are the respective

GRAU The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

designations of the Sprut-A and Sprut-B (Russian for ''

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

'' or ''

kraken The kraken (, from , "the crookie") is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the Norwegian Sea off the coast of Norway. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may h ...

'')

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

125 mm

anti-tank gun An anti-tank gun is a form of artillery designed to destroy tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, normally from a static defensive position. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance ...

Development

The 2A45M was created in the late 1980s by the Petrov Design Bureau at Artillery Plant Number 9 (OKB-9), which was also responsible for the

122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30) The 122-mm howitzer D-30 (GRAU index 2A18) is a Soviet howitzer that first entered service in 1960. It is a robust piece that focuses on the essential features of a towed field gun suitable for all conditions. The D-30 has a maximum range of or ...

Description (Sprut-B)

A feature of the Sprut-B is its integrated engine, which can propel the gun on relatively flat surfaces (up to 15 degrees of slope) and at 14 km/h on roads. This gives the gun a measure of mobility on the battlefield. Changing gun position from travelling to firing takes 90 seconds; the reverse takes two minutes. Such guns are known in Russian as "self-moving" (самодвижущиеся) in contrast to self-propelled (самоходные), and outside of battle it is

towed Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. ...

by an

MT-LB The MT-LB (, literally "multi-purpose towing vehicle light armored") is a Soviet Union, Soviet multi-purpose, fully amphibious vehicle, amphibious, tracked Armoured fighting vehicle, armored fighting vehicle in use since the 1970s. It was also ...

. The gun has a crew of seven. An OP4M-48A direct fire sight is used in daylight, and a 1PN53-1

night-vision Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night vis ...

sight is used at night. For indirect fire, 2Ts33 iron sights are used, with a PG-1m panoramic sight. The gun can reliably engage targets two metres high at a distance of 2,000 metres. The barrel features a thermal sleeve to prevent temperature changes affecting the accuracy. The gun uses the same semi-fixed ammunition as the

T-64 The T-64 is a Soviet tank manufactured in Kharkiv, and designed by Alexander Morozov. The tank was introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served in tank divisions, while the T-62 supported i ...

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet Union, Soviet main battle tanks that entered production in 1973. The T-72 was a development based on the T-64 using thought and design of the previous Object 167M. About 25,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refu ...

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72 and changing the engine to a gas turbi ...

, and

T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank developed from, and designed to replace the T-72. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard p ...

tanks. With the addition of the 9S53 laser fire-control system, the gun can fire laser guided projectiles such as the

9M119 Svir The 9K120 ''Svir'', 9K119 ''Refleks'', 9K119M ''Refleks-M'' (NATO reporting name AT-11 ''Sniper'') are laser beam riding, guided anti-tank missile systems developed in the Soviet Union. Both are designed to be fired from smoothbore 125 mm tan ...

or 9K120 Refleks.

Ammunition

The gun uses the same ammunition as the D-81 series of guns used on the T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks.

Models

* 2A45 Sprut-A Stationary towed gun variant. * 2A45M Sprut-B Self-propelled towed gun variant that can move under its own power with the addition of wheels and a power unit.

Operators

Current operators

* * * : made under license, by

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, in the city of

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Former operators

* passed construction license to successor states *

References

* Hull, A.W., Markov, D.R., Zaloga, S.J. (1999). ''Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices 1945 to Present''. Darlington Productions. .
Military Parade

2A45M on manufacturer site
* Jane's Armour and Artillery 2002-2003

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sprut Anti-Tank Gun Anti-tank guns of the Soviet Union Cold War artillery of the Soviet Union 125 mm artillery Anti-tank guns of the Cold War Military equipment introduced in the 1980s