2B1 Oka
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2B1 Oka, ( - ''"
Oka River The Oka (, ; ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, ...
"''), is a
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 ...
self-propelled heavy mortar. 2B1 is its
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 ...
designation. It was designed to deliver tactical nuclear payloads, however it was plagued by technical issues caused by the sheer size of the gun and the massive recoil during firing. With the advances in
tactical ballistic missile A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range (aeronautics), range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually mo ...
technology, development of the Oka was cancelled in 1960 before it could enter service.


Background

In 1954, the USSR began work on developing nuclear artillery. The program featured three different self-propelled guns based on the chassis of the
T-10 tank The T-10 (also known as Object 730 or IS-8) was a Soviet heavy tank of the Cold War, the final development of the IS tank series. During development, it was called Object 730. It was accepted into production in 1953 as the IS-8 (''Iosif Stal ...
: the 2A3 Kondensator gun, the 2B1 Oka 420 mm breech-loaded mortar, and the 420 mm S-103
recoilless rifle A Recoilless rifle (rifled), recoilless launcher (smoothbore), or simply recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated to "rr" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some fo ...
. While the development of the S-103 was abandoned in November 1956 after the barrel burst during the 93rd test firing, four Okas and four Kondensators were built in 1957.


Description

The Oka, originally known as the SM-58 was developed and built by the Barrikadny Plant in
Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...
. An experimental model was ready in 1957. Its chassis (Object 273), designed and built by the
Kirov Plant The Kirov Plant, Kirov factory or Leningrad Kirov plant (LKZ) () is a major Russian mechanical engineering and agricultural machinery manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was established in 1789, then moved to its present site in 1801 ...
in
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, was based on the chassis and components of the T-10M heavy tank with reinforced torsion bars and a system of suspension locks to provide firing stability. While the Oka chassis is superficially identical to the Kondensator, they have different cab arrangements. While the 2A3 features a large, but narrow tandem cab mounted above the right front track guard, the 2B1 has a large full width cab mounted at the front of the vehicle. According to Zaloga, the Soviets developed two tactical nuclear rounds for the Oka: the Transformator-AR and the Transformator-D, both based on the RDS-9 nuclear torpedo warhead. It weighed and had a maximum range of . Kinnear and Sewell note that some sources claim that the Oka could fire rounds up to . Like the 2A3, rate of fire of the 2B1 is low, limited to one round every five minutes. During field tests neither the Kondensator nor the Oka performed well: both vehicles were too wide to cross bridges or to transport through the Soviet railway system while their exceptionally long barrels also proved problematic during transport. The 2B1, designed to be fired with the barrel at high elevations didn't suffer the same problems from the extreme recoil as the 2A3 (which caused the entire vehicle to be pushed back several meters when its gun was fired), but it still placed enormous stress on the chassis, despite the installation of reinforced shock absorbers. The 2A3 and 2B1 technical problems combined with
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
's preference for missiles over heavy guns resulted in both designs being cancelled in 1960, before they could ever be put into service, although both vehicles were paraded through
Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...
in the late 1950s to leave an impression on foreign military attachés and the international press. The Soviet Army instead introduced into service
tactical ballistic missile A tactical ballistic missile (TBM), or battlefield range ballistic missile (BRBM), is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically, range (aeronautics), range is less than . Tactical ballistic missiles are usually mo ...
s, such as the 2K1 Mars and 2K6 Luna systems (known in the west as the FROG systems) and the
R-11 Zemlya The R-11 Zemlya (), GRAU index 8A61 was a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1b Scud-A. It was the first of several similar Soviet missiles to be given the reporting name Scud. Variant R-11M was acc ...
and
R-17 Elbrus The R-17 Elbrus (, named for Mount Elbrus), GRAU index 9K72 is a tactical ballistic missile, initially developed by the Soviet Union. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1C Scud-B. The R-17 is one of several Soviet missiles to carry the ...
(known in the west as the Scud) armed with nuclear warheads.


See also

* 2A3 Kondensator 2P *
List of the largest cannon by caliber This list contains all types of cannon through the ages listed in decreasing caliber size. For the purpose of this list, the development of large-calibre artillery can be divided into three periods, based on the kind of projectiles used, due to t ...


References


Bibliography

* *


External links

{{SovArtyColdWar Self-propelled artillery of the Soviet Union 420 mm artillery Kirov Plant products Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union