M84 Nora 152mm towed gun-howitzer

In the category of 39 caliber barrel length artillery weapons, NORA-A represented a weapon with respectable fire support achieving the maximum range of about 24 km with a muzzle velocity of V0= 810 m/s. The story of NORA does not end here. The 152 mm selfpropelled version NORA-B on the chassis of a modified, serial, terrain vehicle FAP 2832 was the first to be developed, and then the chassis on the vehicle KAMAZ was developed in cooperation with the company JUGOIMPORT-SDPR on demand for foreign customers.

Through the programs of modernization and enhancement of artillery firepower, based on the 155 mm M1 American howitzer and the 122 mm D30 Soviet howitzer, domestic versions of these howitzers were developed., Besides its work on the development of new weapons, the Institute followed the trends in modern artillery and worked on the conversion of the 130 mm M46 gun into the M46/86 converted gun. The mounting of 152 mm and 155 mm barrels onto the gun carriage of the M46 towed gun resulted in a very reliable and robust modern artillery system with respectable ballistic performances and significantly higher effectiveness.

Development of gun-howitzer M84 started in 1975. The Military Technical Institute (VTI) started developing the 152 mm M84 towed gun-howitzer with an extended range. Techno-economic analysis and proof of principle of weapon and hollow base projectile were finished during the first half of 1978. Basic requirements for the development of the 152mm gun-howitzer M84 were to design artillery piece which will avoid shortfalls of 155mm howitzer M65 and 152mm gun D-20, namely:

• range with unassisted projectile should be 24km (155mm howitzer M65 � 14,9km, and 152mm gun D-20 � 17,4km);
• design new extended range ammunition (28 to 30km);
• new weapon should be able to fire all types of old ammunition for 152mm gun D-20;
• weapon should have wider elevation range (from -5� to +65�);
• rate of fire should be 4 to 5 rds/min, achieved by development of new semi-automatic wedge-type breach mechanism (155mm howitzer ?65 has rate of fire of 1 to 2 rds/min).

In September of 1978, the decision was made to continue with development in the following directions:

• manufacture the prototypes of the weapon itself and projectiles with hollow base,
• manufacture the proof of priniciple of NORA-C, variant wih APU and certain level of automatization of the gun functions.

The prototype was finished in May 1980, when it went for final testing in TOC. Trials were completed in Februray of 1981. Findings were that prototype matched all tests, and that the design was modern and on the same level as other contemporary designs worldwide.

Gun and accompanying ammunition development phase was finished in 1984, when the complete artillery system was accepted for service with the then YPA under the name NORA-A. After that, it was turn for improvements with integration of pneumatic projectile rammer and new 152mm ballistics for even longer ranges, so weapons from the first lot had larger powder chamber. Artillery system with redesigned powder chamber and accompanying ammunition were accepted for service in 1989, with designation M84B1. Weapon with projectile rammer was accepted for service in 1988 as M84B2.