Within the framework of the 12th Congress of the Military Party Committee of Vietnam, the new PTH-130 self-propelled howitzer was officially presented. This artillery system, designed and manufactured domestically, represents a significant technological advance for Vietnam’s national defense by incorporating high levels of automation and mobility, placing it on par with equivalent systems in service in other countries.
The development of the PTH-130 is the result of a project driven by the Vietnam Military Technical Academy, under the direction of Colonel, Associate Professor and PhD Pham Quoc Hoang, head of the Technology Center. The initiative, supervised by the Ministry of National Defense, aimed to research, design and manufacture a wheeled self-propelled artillery system with a 130 mm gun capable of operating efficiently across different types of terrain and tactical conditions.
The new PTH-130 system mounts the Soviet-origin 130 mm M46 gun on a Kamaz 6560 (8×8) chassis, combining proven firepower with a modern, highly mobile platform. This configuration significantly reduces deployment times and increases responsiveness to threats, while introducing a high degree of automation in the fire-control and aiming systems — a milestone for Vietnamese self-propelled artillery.
The project involved numerous units and institutes of the Military Technical Academy, including the Faculty of Mechanics, the Faculty of Ordnance, the Systems Integration Institute, the Institute of Dynamic Mechanics and the Missile and Control Engineering Institute. The multidisciplinary cooperation made it possible to develop a technologically advanced product that reflects the growing capability of Vietnam’s military-industrial complex to produce complex weapon systems autonomously.
It is worth remembering that at the National Achievements Exhibition, held in the Đông Anh commune (Hanoi), the Military Technical Academy had already presented an earlier version of this concept: the PTH130-K255B. In that model, the 130 mm M46 gun was mounted on a Soviet-made KrAZ-255B chassis, reaching a total weight of 23.3 tonnes. Its maximum range exceeded 27 kilometers, with a rate of fire between five and eight rounds per minute and a transition time from march to combat of under four minutes.
The development of the new PTH-130 not only reaffirms the country’s national research and military production capability, but also symbolizes Vietnam’s determination to move toward defense self-sufficiency. This achievement consolidates the role of the Military Technical Academy as a pillar of the country’s technological innovation and strengthens the Armed Forces’ modernization strategy, aligned with the operational needs of 21st-century artillery.
Image credits: TRAN VAN NHI.
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