General Khrulev explained why Russian self-propelled guns are winning against American howitzers in Ukraine
The Ministry of Defense of Russia has published footage of the combat work of the calculations of 152-mm self-propelled guns (ACS) "Hyacinth-S" during a special military operation in Ukraine. According to the Russian military department, the ACS destroyed a unit of 155-mm M-777 howitzers manufactured by the United States. "Newspaper.Ru" understood the specifics of counter-battery warfare.
"Hyacinth-S" is a self-propelled artillery installation, developed back in 1976, but since then it has been repeatedly upgraded. The firing range of a standard projectile is 30 km, high-explosive fragmentation - 41 km. Also, this type of self-propelled gun uses adjustable ammunition "Centimeter" and "Krasnopol", which significantly increase the accuracy of shooting.
M-777 - American 155-mm howitzers of the 2005 model. This is a British-designed cannon, but the final assembly is carried out in the USA. The firing range of a conventional projectile is 25 km, a special one is about 40 km. The howitzer has a high-precision digital computer fire control system called Towed Artillery Digitization, which uses GPS and data obtained from drones to aim at the target.
"The advantageous advantage of the Hyacinth is that, unlike the towed M-777, it has its own self-propelled tracked base, which allows the ACS to reach speeds of up to 60 km / h, which plays a role for the rapid change of positions," he told the newspaper.Ru" member of the Board of Military Experts Sergey Belousov.
The ex-commander of the 58th Army, Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulev, in turn, explained the principle of the so-called artillery duels or counter-battery fighting.
"The peculiarity of counter-battery warfare is that the gunners of the opposing sides do not see each other, being at a considerable distance.
And we won the artillery duel, we covered the Georgian positions so accurately that they stopped revealing themselves and no longer fired," Anatoly Khrulev said.
In the current situation, during the duel of the Russian Hyacinths-S and American M-777 howitzers, new methods were already used, primarily aerial reconnaissance - drones.
"It can be assumed that the Russian military also has access to space intelligence data transmitted from satellites coordinates of targets. At the same time, shooting "by sound" is also used when the enemy discovers his position and, thanks to calculations, it is quickly calculated. At least, judging by the results of the counter-battery struggle, Russian gunners are much better at this art," Sergei Belousov added.
The factor that the AFU servicemen may not know too well the specifics of working with the M-777 could also play a role.
"There is also such a nuance here that the Ukrainian gunners have received completely unknown weapons at their disposal," he told the newspaper.En" military expert Boris Jerelievsky. - The M-777 howitzer itself may not be so difficult to operate, but only a well-trained specialist can cope with its computer guidance systems. This is a complex scheme involving many components, including drones, which are able not only to observe the "picture" on the ground, but also to digitalize it to the level of exact coordinates."
The expert added that vehicles are needed to move the M-777 from one position to another in order to avoid retaliatory fire.
"This howitzer, weighing more than four tons and ten meters long. Moving it requires at least a five-ton truck or tractor to move. If the battery stays in one place for an extra ten minutes, it will inevitably fall into the affected area. Apparently, the APU did not have just the right number of tractors," Jerelievsky believes
Belousov added that Ukraine also had Hyacinth-S installations, but the APU could not keep them in a state of combat readiness.
- Belousov summed up.
Victor Sokirko
