G5 / GH-N45 guns المدفعية جنوب افريقيا / النمساوي

[hayder]

The "Gerald Bull" long range artillery pieces and their decisive roles in many battles of the Iraqi army.

[raaft]

GHN-45 was originally a US-designed howitzer calibre 155mm, designated GC-45. It was designed by Gerald Bull’s Space Research Corporation in the 1970s. In period 1977-1982, Denel of South Africa launched production of a modified variant designated G-5, which was self-propelled (though, only in form of a small ‘tractor’, not in nowadays usual, ‘armoured vehicle/tank’ form).

GHN-45 was designation of the variant manufactured in Austria by the company Noricum (Voest-Alpine). Noricum sold significant numbers to Thailand, China (as PLL01; they later developed their own variant, named PLZ-45, installed on a tracked chassis), Singapore and Israel. In 1984, 110 were made for Iraq, together with 41,000 shells for them (these were manufactured in Belgium). Iraqis subsequently placed another order for about 90 GHN-45s in Austria, and another 100 in South Africa.

Later on (in 1987-1988) Iraq purchased 124 G-5s from South Africa, plus several Belgium-made FGH-203s – which is a 203mm variant developed by Bull on Iraqi order (Bull was sentenced in the USA for the sale of GC-45 to South Africa, and then moved to Belgium, in the early 1980s). This had a range of 50,000m.

AFAIK, only 110 GHN-45s were delivered to Iran, together with about 41,000 shells – all via Libya, but only in 1987.