While the new self-propelled gun SH-15 only officially entered service with the Chinese People's Liberation Army this year, the model, which was presented for the first time during the IDEAS 2018 exhibition, has already won over the military authorities of Islamabad, who have just order 236 copies, in a constant effort to modernize the Pakistani armed forces. The amount or timing of the transaction were not disclosed.
Designed and manufactured by the NARINCO company, the SH-15 is very close to the CAESAR of the French company Nexter. Mounted on a 6×6 chassis powered by a 400 HP engine, it is equipped with a 155 mm cannon with a length of 52 calibers giving it a range of more than 50 km with projectiles with added propulsion (High- Explosive Extended-Range Full Bore Base-Bleed Rocket-Assisted or HE ERFB-BB-RA). It is armed by a crew of 4 to 5 people, giving it a rate of fire between 4 and 6 shells per minute. Like the CAESAR, it is designed to be able to strike and disappear quickly, so as not to be exposed to counter-battery fire. Thus, according to its designer, it takes less than a minute to go from a firing configuration to a movement configuration.
The artillery of the Pakistani armed forces is essentially based on 350 M109 Paladins of American origin acquired in the 90s, as well as around fifty 110 mm M203s. The rest of its pieces, more than 1200 pieces of 105, 122, 155 and 203 mm, are all towed. The entry into service of the SH-15 will give them a significant boost in mobility and firepower, especially since the Indian enemy only has less than 200 self-propelled artillery pieces.
This contract is also representative of the increasingly powerful bond between Islamabad and Beijing, particularly regarding aspects of military cooperation. In addition to the SH-15, Pakistani forces have also recently placed orders for VT-4 heavy battle tanks with 240 tanks ordered in 2019, JF-17 block III fighters for an order of 150 JF-17s and option for 100 additional examples, frigates Type 054A with 4 Type 054A frigates for $350 million each and Type 039 submarines including 8 AIP Type 039A submarines were ordered from Chinese defense industries for $5 billion in 2015.
The SH-15 is part of a set of artillery systems that have appeared in recent years and are very inspired by the French CAESAR, which demonstrated its operational capabilities in Iraq, Syria and Mali. Among them, we can cite the American Brutus, Japanese Type 19, Indian Viz,Israeli Atmos (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the British archer.