2S9 Sochor

Sochor
Faction	CSAT
Type	Self-Propelled Howitzer
Seats	3 seats: 1× Driver 1× Gunner 1× Commander
Item capacity	Max: 3000 kg 12× Weapons 128× Magazines 12× Backpacks
Top speed	71 km/h
Fuel capacity	75 L
Primary armament	Main: 1× Howitzer 155 mm
Secondary armament	Secondary: 1× Remote RCWS 12.7 mm HMG 1× Remote RCWS 40 mm GMG Defensive: 1× Smoke Generator
Variants	T-100 Varsuk
Games

The 2S9 Sochor is a self-propelled, heavy artillery vehicle that is used by both Mediterranean and Pacific CSAT forces in ArmA 3.

Overview

• Role:
  • Indirect fire support

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The 2S9 Sochor is a lightly armored self-propelled artillery piece used by the OPFOR army. It's based on the T-100 chassis and fires 155mm projectiles. The T-100 chassis interior has to be heavily modified to allow support for the 155mm cannon with auto-loader. The modification paid off and several Asian countries are now in the process of modernizing their heavy artillery division with the 2S9. Field Manual

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Design

Armed with a 155 mm howitzer cannon as its primary weapon, the 2S9 is a powerful gun-based fire support vehicle that is capable of firing a mixture of high-explosive, smoke, cluster, and even precision guided shells on targets at extreme distances.

The standard loadout of the 2S9 gives it 32 rounds of high-explosive (HE) shells for the main gun. In addition to the standard HE shells, 6 different sub-munition types are also available, forming a total of 24 more shells that can be loaded. These include:

• 2 rounds of infrared-guided (heat seeking) shells
• 6 rounds of scatter shells that can cover an area with anti-personnel (AP) mines
• 2 rounds of cluster shells that can saturate an area with a hail of explosive fragments
• 6 rounds of deployable white smoke shells that can cover the impact zone instantly in a thick cloud of smoke
• 2 rounds of laser-guided shells
• 6 rounds of scatter shells that can cover an area with anti-tank (AT) mines

For self-defence, the 2S9 also has an RCWS turret fitted on top that is armed with a dual-mount 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and 40 mm automatic grenade launcher.

The externally mounted RCWS comes pre-loaded with a single 200-round belt of 12.7 mm ammunition and has a single belt to reload from. The GMG on the other hand, feeds from a 96-round 40 mm high-explosive (HE) grenade belt and also has only a single belt to reload with.

2S9 carrying out a fire mission at nighttime.

The 2S9 shares the same chassis as its MBT parent, which grants it the heavy armour of an MBT while sharing the excellent manoeuvrability and speed of the T-100.

Although it shares the same advantages of the T-100 in terms of mobility, it also retains the same vulnerabilities as well. Such as having an exposed rear engine while lacking the heavy armour of its NATO counterpart. It also cannot adequately defend itself against enemy threats that get too close without having to resort to attacking in direct fire mode, so having friendly units providing escort is essential.

The 2S9 has a seating capacity of three personnel for a crew consisting of the driver, gunner and commander.

Camouflage

• Hex: Arid Hexacam camouflage pattern. Useful for forested, grass plains, and desert environments. Changes any applied camo nets to use a two-tone desert camouflage pattern.
• Green Hex: Tropical Hexacam pattern camouflage. This is used in heavily forested and tropic environments. Attached camo netting will use a two-tone woodland camouflage pattern

Components

• Camo Net (Hull): Drapes the entire hull with camouflage netting (the turret is not covered). Partially conceals covered sections from thermal sensors.
• Camo Net (Turret): Identical to Hull camo netting but for the turret only instead. Note that some components like the RWS or the commander's optics are not concealed.

Capabilities

It fires all 32 HE rounds in four minutes and 12 seconds, averaging at just under 8 seconds per shot. This makes its fire rate considerably slower than the Mk6 Mortar, although its damage and blast radius per shell is significantly greater.

The Sochor has five range modes available for firing:

• Close range: 826 to 2,415 metres (ETA 30-22 seconds)
• Medium range: 2,059 to 6,021 metres (ETA 48-35 seconds)
• Far range: 5,271 to 15,414 metres (ETA 78-56 seconds)
• Further range: 14,644 to 42,818 metres (ETA 130-96 seconds)
• Extreme range: 22,881 to ~67,112 metres (ETA 162-117 seconds)

Overlaps occur in the following ranges:

• 2,059-2,415 metres (Close and Medium)
• 5,271-6,021 metres (Medium and Far)
• 14,644-15,414 metres (Far and Further)
• 22,881-42,818 metres (Further and Extreme)

Unfortunately, this means that when simply using the built-in artillery computer, the 2S9 can only perform MRSI strikes in narrow nearby bands, or in the large band beyond ~23 km. It is also unable to have more than two volleys landing on the same target at the same time.

Note however that the built-in computer tends towards using low-angle trajectories. The Sochor is capable of firing at up to an 80 degree angle from flat ground. This means that it is technically capable of getting multiple volleys to land on the same target simultaneously, but it would require manual calculation of the appropriate trajectories, or the use of spreadsheets or third-party applications.

Manual Firing

By default, the turret can be manually raised and lowered with the page up and page down keys. For precision aiming, the rate of adjustment can be slowed by holding down the shift key (by default) while aiming up or down.

It is also possible to adjust range mode without the artillery computer, though this is more difficult. By default, using the F key will cycle through the different range modes, from Close range through to Extreme range and back to Close. It is also possible to bind a key to go from longer ranges to shorter ranges, though there is no default binding for it (Weapons > Previous weapon). Although there is no indicator without the artillery computer to determine which firing mode is currently active, it is possible to work it out by using the rangefinder to point at an object within Close range (826-2,415 metres) and cycling through the firing modes until the red X on the crosshair goes away, indicating you've returned to Close range.

Trivia

• While the Sochor is not specifically based on a real-world design, the idea of combining an artillery turret (which is also shared with the M4) with a tank chassis is similar to that of the real-life "2S35 Koalitsiya-SV".
  • As with the Sochor, the 2S35 utilises a self-propelled artillery gun mounted on a chassis derived from the "T-90" MBT.
  • Even though the range of the Sochor is further than the size of any of the official terrains, it is similar to the range of the real-life 2S35, with both being able to strike targets at a maximum distance of approximately 70 km.

Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV

See also

Variants

• T-100 Varsuk

Vehicles of comparable role and configuration

• M4 Scorcher (NATO counterpart)