Gun-howitzer M84 NORA

After producing domestic howitzer H155 mm M65 based on the US M114 155 mm howitzer, Yugoslav People's Army was not satisfied with the maximum range of that gun and current artillery weapons at disposal. Decisions were made to start domestic production of new large caliber guns. In same time construction documentation of 152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20) with few D-20 guns was bought from the Soviet Union. Dissatisfied with a range of both US 155mm and Soviet 152mm gun and after analyzing both US 155mm and Soviet Union 152mm guns and considering the lack of desired features, a number of specifications were defined with characteristics that new domestic gun-howitzer should have:

- range with unassisted projectile of 24 km (155mm howitzer M65 had range 14,9 km, and 152mm gun D-20 had range of 17,4 km)

- design new extended range ammunition (28 to 34.5 km)

- new weapon should be able to fire all types of old ammunition for 152mm gun D-20

- weapon should have wider elevation range (from -5° to +65°)

- rate of fire should be minimum 4, achieved by development of new semi-automatic wedge-type breach mechanism (155mm howitzer М65 has rate of fire of only 1 to 2 rpm).

It was planned that during the whole development phase of new artillery weapons three versions of NORA should be made:

• NORA-A gun — howitzer 152mm with 39 caliber barrel
• NORA-B self — propelled 152mm gun with 45 caliber barrel based on FAP-2832 as carrier for more see Nora B-52
• NORA-C Auxiliary power unit 152mm gun — howitzer 152mm with 45 caliber barrel — parts of this project was planned to be used with new 203mm gun code named KOLOS with max range of more than 50 km that was not realized due to lack of funds.

Work on NORA project began in 1975, and in May 1980 first prototype of NORA-A was sent to Technical Testing Center. In 1984 development was finished and NORA-A designated as M-84 NORA was accepted by Yugoslav People's Army. In 1989 M-84 powder chamber was redesigned and mass of gun was reduced with and new designation was adopted as M-84B1. The M-84B2 version is fitted with a pneumatic loader which is operational at all gun elevations, with the capacity of over 30 work cycles from one standard compressed air tank mounted on one of the trails.

Development of NORA-C was abandoned in 1991 and NORA-B had almost similar fate. But after 2001 decision was made to continue NORA-B project and development was reactivated and after few years in 2006 and with many new improvements and modifications a new self-propelled gun was developed known as Nora B-52. Today latest version of Nora B-52 has little similarities with the original NORA-B project as new self-propelled artillery gun system is much more modern and automated.

On basis of NORA M-84 development conversion was set for up-gunning Soviet 130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46) to bigger caliber and new gun was developed for that purposes. In 1986 it was accepted by Yugoslav People's Army under designation M-46/86 in 152mm caliber and in same time it was developed one more version for export as M46/86 with 155mm gun caliber.[3]

Two more versions of Nora M-84 was developed after 2008 known as:

• 155 mm / 39 CAL. NORA-A1 LIGHT GUN-HOWITZER [4]
• M08 152mm / 45 cal. towed gun [5]

There are a few variants of Nora artillery systems now in use or offered for sales or export:

152mm Nora is capable to fire M84/GG projectile [7] with a range of 34.5 km and all other ammunition developed for D-20 gun and Nora gun. Nora guns in the caliber of 155mm are capable to fire all domestic and foreign counterpart ammunition developed for 155mm guns within pressure allowed in chamber and barrel. The illumination round for Nora gun 152mm is designated M88.

Nora gun-howitzer is transported by FAP-2026 or Kamaz 43118 6x6 cross-country trucks. From traveling into combat position and vice versa it takes about 3–5 minutes. A crew of 9 is needed to operate it successfully in combat within designed parameters.

Serbian Army Nora 152mm howitzer

 Bosnia

• Bosnian Army is equipped with 17 M-84 152mm Nora.

 Croatia

• Croatian Army is equipped with 21 M-84 152mm Nora

 Serbia

• The Serbian Army is equipped with 52 M-84 152mm Nora, most of them are in Mixed Artillery Brigade with some in reserve.

• FH70
• 152 mm howitzer 2A65

Serbian Army FAP 2026BS/AV 6x6 trucks towing M-84 Nora-A 152 mm gun-howitzers during the military parade "March of the Victorious" on the occasion of marking 100 years since the beginning of the Great War and 70 years since the liberation of the capital in the Second World War.

• Video about Nora in combat action during 1999. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNrybl88Ud0