Production History and Development
The idea for a self-propelled howitzer within the SAF was developed in the early 1990s, with the aim of providing better fire support to the armour brigades in the Combined Arms Divisions. This new weapon system would require the ability to keep pace with the high tempo of armoured operations, while providing the range, firepower and accuracy that the artillery is renowned for. The 155mm self-propelled howitzer was seen as the obvious choice.
The decision to develop the Primus was made after a market survey in 1995 and 1996 of some of the world's best self-propelled guns from the United States (M109 Paladin), Britain (AS90 Braveheart), Japan (Type 75) and Russia (2S3M1) found them either too heavy or too wide for local terrain. They were known to have a lot of firepower, were highly mobile and very survivable but they were also very heavy, mostly in the range of 50 tons, and the SAF needed something lighter. The SAF needed the Primus to weigh less than 30 tons and be no wider than 3 metres, for it to move across bridges and through the local vegetation. Hence the decision was made to develop a completely new self-propelled howitzer.
Leveraging on its experience with designing, developing and producing various towed artillery systems (the FH-88 and FH-2000) for the SAF, ST Kinetics, together with DSTA began the development of the Primus in earnest in 1996.
By April 2000, the first working prototype was rolled out, using a vehicle chassis adapted from a United Defense armoured chassis (the Universal Combat Vehicle Platform; UCVP) which includes components from the US M109 Paladin howitzer, M2 Bradley IFV & M8-AGS. The next 2 years saw the system undergo a series of comprehensive tests to ensure that the Primus was able to withstand the rigours that were required of it. As land in Singapore is scarce, firing tests were first done at the Waiouru Army Camp live-firing range in New Zealand as part of Exercise Thunder Warrior in February 2004. The guns have also participated in Exercise Wallaby at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia.
In September 2002, the Primus was officially certified to have met the SAF’s stringent criteria, and then being formally adopted into the SAF. Since then, this Artillery platform is utilised by the 21st Battalion Singapore Artillery as their primary weapon system for training and operation purposes.
Read more about this topic: SSPH Primus
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