Press service of Rostech, a russian state arms corporation, has announced the transfer of the first batch of 2S43 Malva self-propelled artillery systems in 152mm caliber. The number of vehicles in this provision is not specified.
Malva is now the second type of "flowery" artillery series (all created within the Nabrosok R&D project) that has been presented to the russian army this year: early October russians also accepted the Floks 120mm mortar/artillery system, and one of them even got destroyed by a Ukrainian FPV drone the next day.
Read more: New russian 2S40 Floks Howitzer Just Delivered, Next Day First One Gets Hit in Ukraine (Video)
A few words on development history. Draft sketches of future 2S43 Malva appeared in 2019, then a prototype was showcased at the Armiya-2020 forum in the restricted-access part of the exhibition. Then, in May 2023, the director of the UralVagonZavod armor plant announced that 2S43 Malva had passed the tests from the russian defense ministry.
The artillery system is mounted on the BAZ-6010-027 Voshchina 8x8 truck. Top speed is 80 km/h (50 mph), the operational range is 1,100 km (according to Rostec), earlier data says 1,000 km. Combat weight is 32 tons, dimensions: 13 meters long, 2.75 m wide, 3.1 m high.
Malva's gun is 152mm 2A64, the same as Msta-S self-propelled or Msta-B towed howitzers have, barrel length is 47 calibers. Accordingly, the 2S43 Malva has the same range of fire "over 24 km," as mentioned in open source data, with HE shells, or up to 29 km when firing rocket-assisted ones.
The new system's closest rival, the French CAESAR howitzers, for comparison, has a 52-caliber-long barrel, and a range of fire of 40 km with extended range ERFB base bleed rounds or up to 55 km with rocket-assisted VLAPs. Though worth noting the gun has 155mm caliber.
Malva carries 30 shots in stock, rate of fire is declared to be 7 rpm but there are reasons to believe the parameter is lower in practice. The system uses a loading mechanism to put separate-loading rounds into the breech.
Once again, for comparison Caesar fires 6 shots per minute, German PzH 2000 can fire 10 rpm, Swedish Archer 8 rpm, Ukrainian 2S22 Bohdana 6 rpm.
Rostec also states that 2S43 Malva can open fire in the MRSI (Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact) mode, which is when several shells fired by the same howitzer at different trajectories reach the target simultaneously. There is no information about the results of this capability testing.
Another feature that was planned but is currently in "not confirmed" status is the upgrade to the fire control system.
Read more: Ukrainian PzH 2000 Breaks Record Having Fired 20,000 Rounds Already
