2S7 Pion

The 2S7 Pion ("peony") or Malka is a Soviet self-propelled gun. "2S7" is its GRAU designation.

It was identified for the first time in 1975 in the Soviet Army and so was called M-1975 by NATO (the 2S4 Tyulpan also received the M-1975 designation), whereas its official designation is SO-203 (2S7). Its design is based on a T-80 chassis carrying an externally mounted 2A44 203 mm gun on the hull rear.

It takes the crew of 7 men 5–6 minutes to come into action and 3–5 minutes to come out of action. It carries 4 203 mm projectiles for immediate use while the remainder is carried by another vehicle and it is capable of firing nuclear ammunition of the same caliber. The gun has a range of 37,500 m but the range can be extended to 55,500 m by using RAPs (Rocket Assisted Projectiles). The Pion has also been the most powerful conventional artillery piece since entering service in 1983. One interesting feature of the Pion is the firing alarm. Because the blast of the weapon firing is so powerful it can physically incapacitate an unprepared soldier or crew member near it from concussive force, the Pion is equipped with an audible firing alarm that emits a series of short warning tones for approximately 5 seconds prior to the charge being fired.

Variants

 * 2S7 Pion
 * 2S7M Mialka - An improved variant which entered service in 1983 that improved the gun's fire control systems, increased the rate of fire to 2.5 rounds per minute, and increased the ammunition load to 8 projectiles.
 * BTM-4 Trench Digger

Operators
Although no figures have been released, it is estimated that well over 1,000 have been built.
 * 🇦🇿 - 12; (3 acquired in 2008 and 9 acquired in 2009 )
 * 🇧🇾 - 36
 * 🇷🇺 - 37
 * 🇸🇰 - unknown number, at least one, used for testing
 * 🇺🇦 - 99
 * 🇺🇿 - 48
 * 🇺🇿 - 48

Former operators

 * - Passed on to successor states.
 * - Withdrawn from service in 1990
 * 🇵🇱 - Withdrawn from service in 2006.

