The M84 is the result of work done on the M46 and the US M114. Nora SPA is essentially a M84 mated to a truck.
Don't get me wrong, Nora would be excellent to up-gun the existing type 59s in service; but as the primary modern howitzer for the next 50 years? No Thanks. Using different ammo isn't something new to the Nora, nor is the range. Denel outguns it - that too with a higher rate of fire. Denel also provides a full range of products: tracked, wheeled, trucked, and apu. Simply i like the lineage of the Denel gun (Gerard Bull's GC45) vs that of the Nora.
The Aleksandar is like i (and you) said an automated Nora B52 similar to the Swedish Archer. A very good feature. But the gun remains the same.
Nora M-84 has nothing to do with
M-46. It is a program started in 1975 in order to get better gun than
M-65 that was based on US
M-114 and was graded as unsatisfactory by Yugoslavia Peoples Army and was already produced in SFRY(Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) in small series. New gun
NORA(short for - New artillery weapon - in Serbian) program had many other goals like to be better than
D-20 but in same time to use ammo for D-20 and etc. I repeat Nora M-84 has nothing to do with M-46. Later when M-84 was already since 1984 in production and use in 1986 MTI(
Military Technical Institute in Belgrade) developed a set for modernization of existing M-46 called
M-46/86 in two calibers:155 and 152mm one for domestic use and one for export. That set was finally developed in 1986 and has been modernized since then. Latest version of M-46 set in 155mm caliber has designation
M46/10 and was developed in 2010 it comes with many improvements and comes with new charges and modern FCS
.
Don't you get me wrong but if you knew anything about NORA and artillery development in Yugoslavia and now in Serbia you would knew that Gerard Bull was employee of Yugoslavia Peoples Army in 80's as specialist consultant for development of new artillery weapons and he assisted partially in
M-46/86 program.
Later in 80's trough many Yugoslavia armament deals with Iraq(we sold them
D-30J license,
Orkan M-87 and there was many more industry military cooperation including export of constructing documentation for 400mm 120km rocket etc.) he was introduced by Yugoslavian officers directly to Saddam Hussein and started selling his constructions and actively working in Iraq in order to develop super-gun and to improve Iraq Scud missile.
Nora-B was self — propelled 152mm gun M-84 with 45 caliber barrel that used FAP-2832 truck with manual loading and it was first version of TMG that used commercial truck chassis for a gun with such caliber and had scope and shot concept in mind.
Nora B52 is a new developed weapon in 155mm caliber and has little to do with Nora-B except part of a name.
Gun
MGS-25 has larger chamber and only big thing(not counting cables, hydraulic pipes, valves, switches, most part of FCS software and other smaller parts that has in common) the same with Nora B-52 is caliber 155mm and possibility to use same Kamaz truck chassis. MGS-25 has fully automated features including new auto-loader, new automatic reloading mechanism, new bigger chamber, new barrel, better FCS that use all new automated features etc.
Archer does not have automatic reloading and lacks many other features compared to MGS-25 and it was only in 2013 introduced with technical improvements that was common on Nora B-52 since 2008 as a working model. Working prototypes of Archer was delivered first time in 2014 and it was plagued with technical problems that delayed further deliveries.
Archer is not fully automated and not on pair with latest version of Nora-B52 in terms of automation and FCS.
And when we talk about history, technology and tradition in artillery you should know that in '80 Military Technical Institute in Belgrade was developing rail-gun and successfully tested two working prototypes. And now is 2017 and how many countries have achieved anything similar as of today?
As I sad before in terms of artillery Serbia is one of leading countries in world. You cannot find better deals in terms of money/performance and we could develop for money many solutions even to complete new designs according your needs as we had done for many other customers around world.
You already for example use
M-56 105mm gun developed in Military Technical Institute in Belgrade and we have introduced new model
M-56A1 of that gun with 33 caliber and possibility to be mounted of truck called
M-09 Soko 105mm self-propelled gun. We are now developing a new light version of 105mm gun.
G6-52 with same ammo and in same firing condition would probably have equal range like
NORA B-52, but it still lacks automation level of NORA B-52.
G-52 extended range is probably similar with ranges of MGS-25 with same ammo but it is a lot worse in terms of automation compared to MGS-25.
T5-52 is a copy of NORA-B SP concept from 1984 with low level of automation mostly in electronics field(automatic laying and navigation system, new telecommunication, muzzle velocity radar and gun management computer). If we add this electronic to Nora-B concept from 1984 you get "modern" T5-52. Nora B-52 K0 first version produced in 2007 for Myanmar had more automatic features than this Denel version except automatic laying that is introduced in B-52 Nora K1.
How many soldiers and how big logistic you need to supply for example 18 battery of 6 MGS-25 or Nora B-52 K-I and how many for same number of G6-52 or T5-52? That is one question aside weapons characteristic in terms of rate of fire and range that is very important.
And one more but not less important thing that is not connected with any specific type of weapon. You should carefully chose country you cooperate. In terms of dealing with South Africa they are known as not reliable partner when it come to military cooperation. They depend largely on US Congress and other countries to give them go ahead for many deals. Serbia is reliable partner in all military cooperation since ever, even if you are struck by sanction we would honor our part of deal.