Image source: topwar.ru
A new batch of M-777 howitzers delivered by the Americans to Ukraine turned out to be without a GPS system, although the first guns came with a positioning system, although without a digital fire control system. This is reported by Ukrainian Internet resources referring to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
On the "new" M-777 howitzers delivered to Ukraine, there is no GPS system that allows you to combine howitzers into a single circuit with drones and radar counter-battery warfare. In addition, GPS, together with BIUS, allowed the guns to use guided projectiles. The absence of a positioning system on howitzers was explained by the Ukrainian military allegedly by the Americans' fears that "secret GPS" would fall into the hands of the Russian military.
- said a source in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
In fact, this is not the case, the "super-secret" GPS system has been studied for a long time and is not of great value. The positioning system simply installed on the howitzers allows them to be detected by Russian means of detection and to strike at them. Heavy artillery losses in the Donbas forced the Americans to remove GPS, finally turning howitzers into a conventional gun. Earlier it was reported that the towed M777A2 howitzers are delivered to Ukraine in a simplified version that does not have an electronic component - a digital fire control system that increases the effectiveness of howitzers by a multiple.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the M-777 is already being criticized with might and main, calling these howitzers too "gentle" and not adapted to long-term operation. As stated by Brigadier General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladimir Karpenko, after each fire contact, a third of the howitzers needs repair.