OTO Melara developed the Palmaria howitzer mainly for export and used here many components also for export Panzers OF-40 .
OTO Melara Palmaria
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Palmaria tower on a Argentine TAM
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Main Features
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Crew
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5 men
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Long
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11,47 m
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Width
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2,35 m
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Height
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2,87 m
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Mass
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47 t
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Armor and armament
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Main armament
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1 × 155-mm howitzer
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Secondary armament
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1 × 7.62-mm MG
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Mobility
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Drive
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8 Zylinder Diesel Engine
559 kW (750 PS)
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Top speed
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60 km / h
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Power / weight
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11,9 kW/t
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Range
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400 km
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Technical Description
The Palmaria is a fully enclosed, heavily armored howitzer. The chassis and running gear is based on the OF-40. The tower had to be completely reworked to accommodate the heavy howitzer can. Of Palmaria is designed so that only small changes had to be made to the vehicle more difficult terrain and climatic conditions to adapt. Here OTO Melara aimed above all at the market in the Middle East, where the United Arab Emirates had already introduced the OF-40. This has the advantage for the buyer that many components can be easily replaced.Palmaria is an extremely agile and fast car. There is also a high-road because the chassis was taken from a quick battle tanks. An unusual feature is the auxiliary engine for the tower. This allows for a faster rotation of the tower and saves the actual drive motor fuel. In this howitzer an automatic loading system was used, which every 15 seconds allows for firing.Palmaria is able to fire a large selection of different ammunition. These include:
- high explosive shells
- highly explosive / Splitter
- Daughter ammunition
- RAP bullets
- Anti-tank mines
