The choice is between a Rocket Test Site (6.084 ICdays), 2 Tank Divisions, 3 Carriers, 6 Rifle Divisions, 6 Int/Ftr Wings, or 7 CAS wings... just to give you an idea...Great update, as always. From what I remember, rocket sites cost an arm and a leg, so a smart call to postpone it, in my opinion.
Thanks for this additional informationFrom what I can tell, that's pretty much the gist of it. There were also ballistic capped APHE shells, with improved long range performance, that apparently could penetrate 108 mm at 90 degrees from 3000 meters away. Anything lighter than Tiger Ausf. B could be penetrated from "long range", which I believe we can presume to mean at the very least 2 km and probably more like 2500 meters or more. Apparently it was mainly used for AT purposes, but the Soviets did like to use AT pieces as field guns when they weren't preoccupied with AT work, and apparently was quite successful in that too, given the mobility and quick rate of fire. Some sources actually indicate maximum range as 20 km (12.42 mi) for the BS-3 field gun, and 14,600 meters or 16,000 meters for the D-10 tank gun. Probably from Jane's pocket book of towed artillery, but I don't own that so this is all third-hand.
From what I read, the Soviets often used guns interchangeably for AT, direct fire and Howitzer purposes, regardless of what they were designed for. The SB-3 was quite a capable howitzer (the D-10T lacked the elevation for that role). The 152mm ML-20, especially in the shape of the Su-152, slaughtered tanks (even elephants) at short range, even without AP ammunition.
I should specify, I own none of the books cited, and I took the information of forums and wikipedia, who cited the mentioned books. Jane's pocket book of towed artillery was also cited somewhere, I think on wikipedia, but it wasn't referenced in the text, so it's quite probable that's where the numbers come from.
I love how the Fins combined a balanced order book of both Soviet and NATO weapons systems with this kind of madness. A T-55 turret as a coastal gun, epic.Also, very cool to see a Finnish book cited! We did use the D-10 as a coastal gun in the 60's, by taking the entire turret assembly (sans stabilizer) of a T-55 and slapping it on a coastal artillery bunker. We bought the turrets from the Soviets, and TBH I don't know what they thought we were going to do with them, but they didn't expect us to use them for THAT and were apparently quite surprised. They were eventually decommissioned in 2012.