GC-45 Howitzer - Production

Production

Denel continued work on their version of the gun, and these were put into service in South Africa in 1982 as the G5. They started replacing a variety of older guns, such as locally-built World War II-era Ordnance QF 25 pounders. The G5's saw service against Cuban and FAPLA forces in the Angolan conflict, where they were used very effectively.

Noricum, the arms division of Voest-Alpine, purchased the design rights to the GC-45 after SRC moved to Europe. They made a number of detail changes to improve mass production, resulting in the GHN-45 (gun, howitzer, Noricum), which was offered in a variety of options like the APU and fire control systems. The first foreign sale was an order for eighteen guns with ammunition to the Royal Thai Navy for use by their Marine Corps. Other "aboveboard" customers included China, Singapore and Israel. All of these companies worked on local production under a variety of names, the Soltam 845P in Israel, ODE FH-88 from Singapore, and WA 021 in China.

Bull was soon contacted by Iraq, which was constantly being attacked by Iranian artillery during the Iran–Iraq War. Iraq placed a US$300 million contract for 110 guns from Noricum in Austria and 41,000 rounds subcontracted by SRC to PRB in Belgium. Deliveries were made in 1984 and 1985. The number of guns was eventually raised to 200. Iran and Iraq were under arms embargo at the time, so the guns were shipped to Jordan, and from there to Iraq. These sales led to the "Noricum affair" in 1990, when eighteen of Noricum's managers were placed on trial for illegal arms sales. A further 100 guns were manufactured in South Africa.

In Iraq the guns had a similar effect on the ongoing Iran–Iraq War as the G5 had in Angola, stopping any push by the Iranians deeper into Iraq. They became desperate to get more of these guns into the field as soon as possible, and requested that Bull improve deliveries any way he could. Bull then arranged a deal to deliver the G5, which fired the same ammunition as the GHN-45, from South Africa. By the time of the Gulf War, about 124 of these weapons had been added to the Iraqi long-range artillery, supplanting their older 130 mm M-46s and hodge-podge of other weapons. Bull and Saddam Hussein became partners in a number of future ventures. These ventures are generally believed to be the cause of Bull's assassination, for which the Israeli Mossad was prime suspect

During the Gulf War, however, the GHN-45s proved less effective than anticipated by either side. Air strikes had disrupted the Iraqi command and control facilities, and because most of their gun tractors had been withdrawn to serve with logistics units in an attempt to re-supply the front line troops, they were unable to withdraw when under fire. Immobile and unsupported, the majority of the guns were destroyed at their positions either by air strikes or Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) counter-battery fire.

Bull worked with NORICUM in Austria to produce a new-build version of the GC-45. The first foreign sales were 18 GC-45s with ammunition sold to the Royal Thai Navy for use by their Marine Corps. NORICUM later modified the design for easier mass production as the GHN-45.

The Chinese armed forces also used the NORICUM version, producing it as the Type 89 starting in 1986. They also mounted it on a locally-designed tracked chassis to produce the PLZ-45 (also known as the Type 88), along with an ammo-carrier based on the same chassis. The PLZ-45 did not enter service with the PLA due to costs, primarily because their existing artillery was all based on Soviet-standard 152 mm ammunition. However, two major batches of PLZ-45's were sold to the Kuwaiti Army in 1997 and 2001.