Russian forces entered the war in Ukraine in February 2022 with around 5,000 artillery and rocket launchers. Twenty-eight months later, they lost no less than 1,400 weapons and launchers in the Ukrainian action.
But combat losses are the only impediment for the Russian artillery corps. More than two years of intense fighting has depleted the barrels of many howitzers and also depleted Russia’s pre-war ammunition reserves.
Increasingly desperate for significant firepower and struggling to manufacture new artillery pieces and projectiles, the Kremlin has opened warehouses dating back to the beginning of the Cold War and obsolete weapons decades ago. And to arm them, Russia has turned to a new ally: North Korea. .
The M-46 howitzer dating from the 1950s is indicative of this new dynamic. The eight-barrel, 8. 5-ton cannon fires a 130-millimeter projectile up to 17 miles at a rate of five projectiles per minute. It is a sturdy weapon, but heavy, difficult to transport and requires a lot of work. Therefore, in the 1970s, the Soviet army replaced the M-46s with more effective 152-millimeter howitzers.
The heavy losses of those newer weapons – and the depletion of Russia’s pre-war stocks of cannons and artillery shells – have set the Kremlin back in time. About a year after the start of the war in Ukraine, the disadvantages of the M-46 were no longer disqualifying. At that time, the old artillery was chosen and not the artillery.
In 2022, there are 665 M-46s in reserve in Russia, according to @highmarsed, an analyst who reviews satellite photographs of Russian tank parks. As of February 2024, around 65 of them had been removed. And now the speed of the revival is accelerating.
A video that appeared on social media earlier this month shows M-46 in an activity bound for the front line. “They probably got rid of about some of the 130-millimeter M-46s from storage,” @highmarsed concluded last week. .
These are about 330 sturdy, if old and heavy, replacement howitzers for Russian forces lacking firepower in Ukraine. Russian factories no longer produce 130-millimeter projectiles, unlike North Korean factories. 46 firing North Korean projectiles.
The howitzer munitions are a product of closer military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, ties that have alarmed Kiev and Seoul and led the latter to tighten its monetary policy towards the former.
With its sturdy frame and decent range, the M-46 is useful as a “counterbattery” weapon, that is, as a howitzer to destroy other howitzers. This is the conclusion the US Central Intelligence Agency came to when it tested North and South Korea. artillery possessions in 2009. The CIA called the M-46 “the most effective counterbattery weapon in Korea. “
But the Russians would possibly struggle to transport and transport their heavy weapons along Ukraine’s 700-mile front line. The Russian military lost so many cars in Ukraine – not just tanks and armored personnel carriers, but also artillery trucks and tractors – that it began equipping frontline regiments and brigades with civilian off-road cars and off-road motorcycles.
Needless to say, a 1. 5-ton ATV cannot tow an 8. 5-ton M-46.
The other challenge for Russian gunners preparing to obtain 70-year-old M-46s is that they will count on foreign generosity for their ammunition. North Korea and Iran are the main brands of 130-millimeter shells.
To keep its new howitzers in action, Moscow will have to improve its relations with Pyongyang and Tehran.
Sources:
1. @highmarsed: https://x. com/HighMarsed/status/1753578879367713117; https://x. com/HighMarsed/status/1811887643363291142
2. Orix: https://www. oryxspioenkop. com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment. html
3. Central Intelligence Agency: https://www. cia. gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84S00553R000100070002-0. pdf
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