155-millimeter howitzers, the NATO weapon that keeps Ukraine on its feet

There is a weaponry in which Ukraine is superior to Russia.

It is not superior in number, but it is in effectiveness: the medium and long-range NATO artillery of the 155-millimeter caliber.

Without these howitzers, possibly Ukraine would have already lost the war.

Its importance is such that the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, assured on February 5 at a press conference that his greatest achievement in office had been to guarantee the supply of these weapons shortly after the invasion began, in February 2022. The problem is that the production of these guns and their ammunition in North America and Europe lags behind the needs at the front.

The cannon shots of the 155 mm howitzers anticipate the proximity of the zero line of the war.

In a perimeter more than 20 kilometers away from the front, such as that of the battles for Bakhmut or Vuhledar, the Ukrainian artillery brigades fire their projectiles at the Russian troops.

They quickly change the location of the guns to avoid being identified by the enemy.

Each of these weapons is protected as if the fate of the war depended on it.

In fact, a good part of the Ukrainian successes on the battlefield last year, such as the recapture of the Kharkov province or the liberation of half the Kherson province, were thanks to this weaponry.

It is the artillery that ensures the advance of the infantry.

But it is also being fundamental in defense work,

Ukraine has a shortage of ammunition, its civil and military authorities regularly insist.

60% of its arsenal of howitzers are Soviet units using 122 and 152-millimeter calibers, which are no longer produced on a large scale in Ukraine or Eastern Europe.

In addition, these pieces are old and many of them are in poor condition, so they can be a danger to the squads that operate them.

The remaining 30% in the arsenal, according to the December count by journalist and military analyst Volodímir Dacenko, are 155-millimeter caliber cannons, a homogenized diameter in NATO countries.

This third represents about 350 units and is the one that makes the difference because, although it is three times less in number than the pieces with which the invader fights, those of NATO are more effective in terms of precision.

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"With more long-range artillery, we would push the Russians back in Vuhledar," an officer from the 68th Separate Brigade of Hunters, one of the most respected formations in the Ukrainian army, assured EL PAÍS on Tuesday.

The Russian information channel on Telegram Gray Zone, one of the most cited on the situation among the invading troops, confirmed on February 13 that the difference in artillery precision was one of the reasons for the almost total destruction of the 155th Brigade of Naval Infantry in their recent attempt to take Vuhledar.

But Ukraine lacks cannons and ammunition, according to what this newspaper told on February 5 on the southern front in Zaporizhia, soldiers from the 65th Mechanized Infantry Brigade fighting on line zero, in the town of Orijiv: the French Caesar and French self-propelled howitzers the American M777s of his artillery had considerably reduced their fire, prioritizing the safest targets, convoys that their informants in the occupied zones warned of their departure along routes already drawn for the fire.

In addition, these soldiers indicated that part of the units that were in service on this part of the front have been assigned to the defense of Bakhmut.

An American M777 howitzer, on the Kharkov front in 2022. GLEB GARANICH (REUTERS)

radio :

in just eight days, Ukraine spends the equivalent of all the 155-mm projectiles that the United Kingdom has stored .

The United States, as reported by

would have already supplied a million of these projectiles, half of which come from the arsenals that Washington had ceded to Israel and South Korea.

Watling warned on February 15 on his social networks that NATO stocks last "a few more months."

CNN reported Friday that the US administration plans to increase production of 155-millimeter projectiles fivefold in the next year and a half.

Olha Husieva, an expert at the Kiel Institute for Security Policy, explained in a recent interview with EL PAÍS that the basic problem is that NATO was not prepared to attend a large-scale invasion like the one in Ukraine.

US M777 howitzers are Ukraine's main long-distance artillery support — firing up to 30 kilometers with guided missiles;

with normal ammunition, 24 kilometers.

kyiv has more than 150 units.

The Caesars are self-propelled guns of which France has supplied about twenty units and Denmark another twenty, according to the Ukrainian Military Center, a defense analysis medium.

The Caesars are one of Ukraine's favorite weapons because they can shoot 40 kilometers from their targets, a distance that increases the guarantees of not being intercepted.

The French Government also facilitated the export of howitzers of this TRF1 caliber.

The most modern among the NATO self-propelled howitzers supplied to Ukraine are the German PHZ 2000.

Berlin would have delivered 24 units;

Holland, eight, and Italy, half a dozen, according to the country's press.

Italy has also contributed an unknown number of FH70 howitzers.

Another relevant support for Ukraine is the M109 self-propelled guns, made in the United States, but with various adaptations in Europe.

States such as Norway, the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Italy would have transferred more than fifty units.

And there are countries from the East that have contributed 155-millimeter self-propelled guns of national production, such as the Polish Krab and the Slovakian Zuzana 2.

Control cabin of a Polish Krab self-propelled gun, in service on the Donetsk front. LIBKOS (AP)

These self-propelled weapons can weigh more than 45 tons and the barrel length exceeds eight meters, like the Krab.

In the case of non-self-propelled howitzers, the weight is less: they are around 4.2 tons of the M777.

The uniformity in the caliber allows the same ammunition to be used for all models, even for firing extremely precise guided missiles such as the Excalibur.

Beyond the Excalibur, the most lethal and precise firepower available to Ukraine are the Himars multi-launch missiles, which can be operated 80 kilometers from the target.

Russia has decided to take action on the matter by intensifying since this winter the use of Lancet bomb drones against artillery pieces, as confirmed last Wednesday to EL PAÍS by Yaroslav Chepurnoi, spokesman for the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade, one of the most successful in Ukraine. .

The defenses of these artillery pieces have been reinforced in recent weeks, according to multiple graphic testimonies shared on Telegram channels, with networks that prevent the direct impact of drones.

The importance of artillery is such that the first weapons that Ukraine has begun to produce on its territory during the war are 152 and 155-millimeter projectiles, still in the testing phase.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces began their transition to NATO standards in 2015.

In 2016 they began to design the 155-millimeter Bohdana self-propelled howitzer, of which there is currently only one active unit.

The Bohdana is a kind of national pride because it was decisive in the liberation last June of the island of Snakes, in the Black Sea, in front of the mouth of the Danube River.

The Bohdana, next to a Caesar piece, as reported this week by the daily

, was transported on floating platforms down the river until it reached 40 kilometers from the island.

Their cannonade destroyed the Russian positions and allowed the landing of the special forces of the Ukrainian Navy.

The recapture of the Isla de las Serpientes was essential to resume ship traffic on the Danube.

Reznikov promised that soon there will be new Bohdana fighting.

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