Status: 18.12.2023, 20:41 PM
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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This often backfires: Russian artillerymen fire a 152-mm towed howitzer at Ukrainian forces; often enough the shells explode in their own position – the guns are worn out, the shells inferior. © RIA Novosti/ IMAGO
The barrels worn out, the ammunition inferior: Russia's gunners are flying their own guns around their ears. Kim Jong-un may be to blame.
Moscow – Russia's artillerymen fear not only the impact of foreign shells in the Ukraine war, but rather the firing of their own – and death by their own fire. In the meantime, their own guns are increasingly flying around their ears. According to various media reports, artillery shells are exploding in the gun barrels more and more frequently.
North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un is the most diligent ally of dictator Vladimir Putin and his inexhaustible source of ammunition – but the goods delivered are not worth the powder, as DefenseExpress recently reported: The Russian artillerymen, for example, complain about the "systematic dispersion within range" of their shells. This means that the projectiles are will-o'-the-wisp through the air, which means that more ammunition has to be used to perform a typical task. And it seems to be coming in abundance.
War in Ukraine: Russia increasingly receives ammunition from North Korea
The British think tank Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) is now talking about a rolling Orient Express: "Dozens of high-resolution satellite images from recent months reveal that Russia has begun transporting ammunition from North Korea on a significant scale. This means the opening of a new supply line with significant consequences for the Ukraine war and international security in East Asia." These claims were based on satellite images published from intelligence documents – on which American analysts claim to have identified containers with military contrabands. In November, it was even explicitly reported in various media that North Korea wanted to ammunition Russia with one million shells.
That seems to be the least that is needed. As a result of worthless ammunition, the higher consumption leads to faster weapon wear, which reduces the accuracy of the bullet even further and increases ammunition consumption even more. However, a greater effort to achieve effect also means a longer time to shoot in, and a longer stay in the same position exposes the artillerymen to the danger of a counterattack. In order to shoot more accurately, the Russians might have to move closer to their opponents, which would be a welcome invitation for them and could ultimately mean a death sentence for the Russians. Time means living in a firing position, as Jack Watling of RUSI explains, using the example of Russian artillery.
Self-inflicted losses: Russian shells lethal for own crews
According to his expertise, the Russians have now developed the ability to return fire to Ukrainian artillery positions within just two minutes of their first shot. Previously, the Russian soldiers had needed five to 20 minutes to retaliate. Apparently, this was not done by introducing new systems, but only because the Russians would have streamlined the process flow by giving the firing artillery forces direct access to the necessary target location capabilities.
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Watling: "This development shows how important the mobile-guided use (shoot and scoot) of one's own fire support by means of artillery and mortars is so that they survive in battle. For this reason, future artillery systems must be enabled to further reduce the time spent in the firing position, i.e. the time between the first shot and leaving the firing position." In short, with low-quality shells from old pipes, the Russian artillerymen shorten their lives on their own.
DefenseExpress had already written about burst gun barrels on the part of the Russians in the spring of 2023, i.e. after a year of the Ukraine war, long before foreign ammunition had flowed into the country and to the front. The reason was probably the high running wear. In addition, defects occur in worn barrels, causing shells to explode before leaving the gun. This is an even more expected result, writes DefenseExpress, considering that Russia took dozens of old and dusty Soviet-era weapons from warehouses, which were stored without a roof and care.
Renaissance of the cannon: Putin bets on total destruction of Ukraine
The old iron is experiencing an unexpected new boom in Ukraine - artillery is suddenly playing a key role again on the several hundred kilometre-long sections of the front, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung concludes: "Artillery is also the Russians' preferred weapon for their campaign of destruction against densely populated areas, which is shown in all its horror, especially in Mariupol. This seems to be aimed at wiping out the infrastructure necessary for the survival of the population." Or as the German reservist magazine loyally writes: "Artillery is back as the queen of battles. A role it held in Europe from the Napoleonic campaigns until the end of the Cold War."
Since North Korea has been preparing for a conventional war for decades, the oversupply there is hitting the current Russian demand. "According to analysts, Russia is primarily interested in artillery ammunition: North Korea has shells compatible with Russian guns with calibers of 152 mm and 122 mm," writes Frederic Spohr for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Kim Jong-un is apparently using his proximity to Russia and China to also consolidate his position vis-à-vis U.S.-backed South Korea. His current statements confirm his previous confrontational course and are another flexing of muscles.
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It was only in July that North Korea's ruler publicly demonstrated his strength. He expects economic profit from the alliance and a dominant position in Korea. At the same time, he had announced that he would accelerate the weapons production of his military industry, as the British Guardian reported.
Apparently, Vladimir Putin exorcised the devil with the Beelzebub by appointing Kim as "purveyor to the court", because probably the low-quality North Korean shells have exacerbated the systematic problems of Russian artillery weapons of inferior quality: the farther they have to shoot, the more difficult it becomes for the Russians to handle their guns, because worn barrels and low-precision ammunition require, that, statistically, the troops fire more shells to destroy a target; but this will wear out the barrels even more. This leads to a vicious circle and a race between quantity and quality, which calls into question Russia's ability to replace old weapons with weapons from its reserves quickly enough to keep the situation at the front partially under control.
However, wear and tear and negligence are not an exclusively Russian problem. Just like the Russian weapons, regardless of age and condition, Western weapons are merely paper tigers with no "front-line experience". As early as July last year, relatively shortly after the German self-propelled howitzer 2000 entered service in Ukraine, the German prestige showed its first quirks, as was reported. After intense fire, the guns are said to have displayed error messages. According to information from Der Spiegel, the Bundeswehr assumed that the problems were related to the high rate of fire with which the Ukrainian armed forces use the guns in the fight against the Russian invaders; the loading mechanism of the howitzer would be put under enormous strain as a result. For the German troops, 100 rounds per day are already considered high-intensity operations. Apparently, the Ukrainians fired significantly more shells.
Der Spiegel also reports that the Russians are now verbalizing everything they still have in stock and that the quota of failures is increasing accordingly. The news magazine refers to unverifiable statements by an anonymous insider, who speaks of ammunition on the battlefield that is sometimes 40 years old – with a high stress factor for the gun crews. "In other words, you load the ammunition, cross your fingers and hope that it can be fired or that it will explode on impact." (Karsten Hinzmann)