Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000)

Any questions, comments, or problems, please email me.

Pre-production PzH 2000 Photos by Clemens

German PzH 2000 Photos by Clemens     German Pzh 2000 Live Fire Demo by Marcel     German PzH 2000 Photos by Ruud

German PzH 2000 Walk Around by Ulrich Wrede     German PzH 2000 Photos by Vojtěch Míček

Dutch PzH 2000 Photos by Ruud     Dutch PzH 2000 Walk Around by Bjorn Dol

Desert Camo PzH2000 Photos by Elmar

Greek PzH 2000 Photos by Pierre

German PzH 2000 Walk Around by Gert     German PzH 2000 on Faun Transport Walk Around

Vehicle Information
This armored howitzer is one of the most powerful system in the world.  It just take 30 seconds to go from a driving situation to fire the first round! The first three round have left the muzzle in 9.2 seconds.  After the next 30 seconds the howitzer is ready to change the fire position. At this moment the German Bundeswehr have 185 pieces.  The Greek Army will get 24 pieces, the Dutch Army 57 and Italy 70 vehicles.  It is possible that Norway could get 18 PzH 2000 of former Dutch Army Howitzers.  In the future the Dutch Army will have just 2 mec. Inftr. Bde with 1 Arty Bn each.  But the contract for the delivery was signed at the time when the Netherlands had 3 mec. Inftr. Bde.  At this time the (NL) Arty Bn have just 2 Batteries and in the future each Bn will have 3 Batteries, so they have surplus PzH 2000.

Details
Crew: 5 soldiers - Cmdr., Driver, Gunner + 2 Soldiers (staged crew)

Combat Weight: 55.3 t (MLC 60)

L: 11.66 m
W: 3.58 m
H: 3.46 m

Ground clearance: 0.44 m

Range: ~ 450 km

Vertical obstacle crossing: 1 m
Trench crossing: 3 m
Fording: 1.5 m
Max. gradient: 50 %

Max. road speed: 60 km/h

Engine: MTU MT 881 Ka-500 (V 8 turbocharged diesel)
4 forward and 4 reverse gears
736 kW / 1005 hp

Main armament: 155 mm /L52 cal.

Secondary armament: Loaders MG 7.62 mm MG-3
2 x 4 smoke dischargers

Ammo: 60 x 155 mm rounds
Time for reloading: ~ 11 min.

ORBAT
Organizations of Battle

Here is the structure of a PzH 2000 Battalion

1 - HQ (Headquarters) Battery comprised the staff of the Battalion and the Combat Service Support (CSS).

3 - PzH 2000 Batteries, each with 6 units (total of 18 per battalion)

Since 1 April 2004 the German Bundeswehr have within the scope to take in the new structure "Heer der Zukunft" = "Army of future" a fifth battery.  It's called Fire Support-Battery (Feuerunterstützungsbatterie). The main tasks of the FSB is to find targets for the shooting Batteries. For that reason, they are equipped with surveillance-radars (M113) and artillery-observer-vehicles (Marder 1A3).

- Clemens Niesner