Ukraine - Rocket and Artillery Modernization
By late 2022, the war in Ukraine resembled the Great War - largely static trench lines seprated by a hell-scape of no-man's land, suicidal charges across open terrain, and dueling artillery barrages overheard. Artillery battles made up the vast majority of fighting in the eastern Donbas region in the winter of 2022-23, as Ukrainian soldiers awaited deliveries of the ammunition and high-tech weaponry promised by the West. Amid freezing temperatures, the lack of materials was drawing out the war. In the Donbas the frontlines were mainly static, deadlocked in artillery war being fought with old and outdated weapons in freezing winter conditions. US and western allies had promised modern, precision artillery but Soviet-era material still makes up around three quarters of Ukraine’s arsenal.
The 2023 fight in Donbas was fundamentally different than the fight that occurred around Kyiv in March and April 2022. U.S. officials said repeatedly that Ukraine's successful effort to drive the Russians away from Kyiv required anti-armor and anti-air systems. The fighting in the Donbas was an artillery struggle, and that required far different systems.
Denmark will transfer all of its artillery to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said during a panel debate at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. According to her, despite production issues, Copenhagen and the EU in general have enough arms stockpiled to supply the country with the necessary weaponry. Kiev has increasingly complained of personnel and ammunition shortages on the front lines, appealing to its Western supporters for more financing and arms. However, Brussels is yet to finalize its next aid package, while the EU’s earlier pledge to provide Ukraine with one million artillery rounds by March this year has not been met.
“If you ask Ukrainians – they are asking us for ammunition now, artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery to Ukraine,” Frederiksen stated, adding that other EU member-states should follow suit. “I am sorry to say, friends, but there is still ammunition in stock in Europe. This is not only a question about production because we have weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defense, that we don’t have to use ourselves at the moment, that we should deliver to Ukraine,” she said.
Frederiksen noted that it would be ineffective to wait for the US aid package to come through to make decisions on supplies to Ukraine. US lawmakers failed to approve additional funding of around $60 billion for Kiev before going on winter break, and are expected to resume discussions on the package on February 28. “We have to speed up and scale up, no matter what will happen in the US. We as Europeans need to be able to protect ourselves, and to protect ourselves we need to deliver what is needed in Ukraine now. The responsibility for Europe has to be in Europe and we have to do more,” she stated.
Denmark is among the major suppliers of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It also spearheaded an effort to help Ukraine procure F-16 fighter jets and train its pilots to fly the warplanes last year, and is a member of the so-called ‘drone coalition’, a recently-formed group of countries that has pledged to give Kiev one million drones to fight Russia.
Rocket troops and artillery of the Army consist of formations of operational-tactical and tactical missiles, of formations and units of howitzer, cannon, jet-propelled and anti-tank artillery, of artillery reconnaissance, of mortar units and of units of anti-tank missiles. They are assigned to destroy human resources, tanks, artillery, anti-tanks enemy weapons, aircraft, objects of air defense and other important objects during the combat arms operations. Formations, units and elements of Rocket troops and artillery are equipped by: missile complexes of operational-tactical and tactical missiles; multi-launcher rocket systems, as Smerch, Uragan, Grad; Giacint, Pion, Akacia, Gvozdika howitzers; Shturm, Konkurs, Rapira anti-tank weapons.
A self-propelled howitzer is a heavy artillery system with a cannon on a tracked vehicle similar to a tank. With standard ammunition, the self-propelled howitzer can fire at distances of 30 kilometers. With so-called range-enhanced ammunition, even 40 kilometers are possible.
The National Artillery Development Strategy should aim at a complete departure from Soviet artillery systems through a gradual transition to NATO standards systems (primarily 155 mm howitzer artillery).
In early 2022 the ratio of cannon shots at that time was 1 to 10, and sometimes 1 to 20 in favor of Russia. This gave the "Rashists" reason to hope to destroy our army methodically. Ukraine largely exhausted its artillery reserves, not being able to update the required volumes of barrels and ammunition of Soviet standards. Modern artillery systems are offered by the Western market in quite a number of types. As regards tracked self-propelled vehicles, i.e. the most robust vehicles with high penetration through difficult terrain, which on the other hand is compensated by higher acquisition and operating costs and lower strategic mobility, there are mainly the German Panzerhaubitze 2000, developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall (most recently by Hungary; they are also in service in the Netherlands, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Lithuania), the French AMX-30 AuF1, which are being replaced in service by wheeled Caesars, the American M109, which are used in various versions by Denmark, Greece, Norway, Spain, Austria or Latvia, and in addition to the USA also in significant numbers by Israel, the British AS90, or interestingly, the recently introduced Polish AHS Krab, which combines the chassis of the South Korean K9 howitzer with the British AS-90M turret.
The Ukrainian military very quickly mastered HIMARS and demonstrated the ability to destroy the targets of the Russian army even far in the rear. This American long-range high-precision weapon made a certain turning point in the war in favor of Ukraine, because it allowed Ukrainian soldiers to strike at greater distances than the Russia’s artillery is capable of operating. Moreover, by destroying the enemy’s ammunition warehouses, the AFU significantly complicated the supply of the enemy’s artillery and made it impossible for Russia’s forces to effectively use the means of destruction.
Many Western countries were supporting Ukraine in the Russian war of aggression by supplying arms. A problem for Kiev, however, is that these are not always fully available - because they have to be maintained . And that happens, according to the “Wall Street Journal” [Dec. 10, 2022], in some cases hundreds of kilometers from the front.
The reason for this: Because of the complexity of the weapons or for reasons of secrecy, some of the maintenance has to take place on NATO territory. Heavy artillery was hit the hardest. For example, when howitzers - such as the German Panzerhaubitze 2000, the British M777 and the French Caesar - fail, they have to be serviced outside Ukraine 90 percent of the time, the newspaper writes, citing Ukrainian officers and Western officials.
In the first phase of the campaign, the Russian artillery directly supported the Battalion Tactical Groups. Since their use met with relatively little success, in the second phase the Russian armed forces used their artillery according to a different doctrine: the artillery captures the terrain, which the infantry then occupies. The artillery firepower affects soldiers and civilians indiscriminately, the high rate of fire of 60,000 grenades and rockets per day not only causes high military losses, but also civilian infrastructure, cultural assets and civilians.
The Ukrainian artillery, on the other hand, is forced to use a different method of fighting simply because of their numerical inferiority. It depends on good target identification and target prioritization. To this end, it has developed its own artillery system - using freely available hardware and software such as "Starlink" and including the development of its own app. At least she can achieve some successes, for example by destroying enemy ammunition depots and command facilities in the hinterland.
The Ukrainian army had clear problems with weapons to carry out a successful defense. These problems can be solved in a short period of time. Otherwise, the advance of the Russian army would have to be restrained not by fire, but by losses.
The Russian army hunted down the artillery systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with kamikaze drones. The lack of anti-aircraft machine guns and cannons leads to a decrease in the ability of the Armed Forces to destroy the enemy's artillery. The Russian army gains fire superiority.
The lack of the required number of machine guns and mortars in the combat formations of the Armed Forces allows the Russian army to effectively use the tactics of small infantry groups and break through the defense.
In January 2023 Ukraine's security service neutralized the FSB agent network as a result of a multi-stage special operation in the Poltava region. Representatives of the special services of the aggressor country tried to obtain information about the critical infrastructure facilities of the region and the units of the Defense Forces involved in their protection.
The attackers "hunted" for combat positions of the S-300 air defense systems and warehouses with missile and artillery weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They also tried to identify the locations of the HIMARS missile systems and the M777 long-range howitzers.
In the case of detection of Ukrainian military facilities, Russian agents planned to destroy them by arson and then detonation of ammunition. In the case of available information about a significant accumulation of military equipment and clear geographical coordinates - to transfer data for liquidation due to a missile attack by the troops of the Russian Federation.
For the destruction of samples of foreign and Ukrainian weapons, the Russian curators promised their henchmen from 20,000 dollars. The money was to be received on specially opened bank cards immediately after the successful completion of enemy tasks. The members of the enemy's intelligence network in Kremenchuk turned out to be two immigrants from the east of Ukraine who were recruited by Dmytro Zipir, a representative of the so-called "MDB DNR".
Ukrainian service members have no problems with mastering Western artillery systems, and the defense forces have more weapon types than NATO does. "We already have more weapon types than NATO does. This does pose certain logistical challenges but there is no weapon system that we cannot use or maintain, improve. Ukraine has unique people. There are no problems with learning, mastering [Western] artillery systems," Brigadier General Serhii Baranov, Head of the Main Directorate of Missile Forces and Artillery and Unmanned Systems of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told KYIV NOT KIEV online project in an interview, Ukrinform reported 03 November 2023.
The Brigadier General noted that both experienced artillerists and recently mobilized fighters were allowed to participate in training on foreign artillery systems. In his opinion, the term of service is not essential for mastering a certain type of weapon. "Certainly, those with prior experience may find it easier to learn a new model because the fundamental physical principles governing projectile flight remain the same. Therefore, individuals with experience will likely adapt more easily. However, in terms of the learning period, I don't see any significant issues. New recruits, mobilized soldiers can learn this without problems. The key factor is their willingness. Everything else comes through during training and practice," he explained.
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