Russia continues to improve one of the main novelties of the Ukrainian special operation – high-precision weapons of destruction. Among them, the Krasnopol artillery shell stands out in particular. What is interesting about this ammunition and what makes it a fundamentally new tool on the battlefield?
Russian artillery ammunition "Krasnopol" modification M2 acquired new qualities. According to RIA Novosti with reference to the magazine "Military Thought", the upgraded guided projectiles were able to select targets during volley firing.
In particular, it is reported that during the tests, simultaneous volley firing of these guided projectiles from two guns was carried out simultaneously at a group target consisting of a decommissioned tank and a target shield. Each projectile was guided individually – and as a result, both ammunition almost simultaneously hit nearby targets. Thus, artillery ammunition is approaching in its capabilities to high-precision missile weapons.
Tests of this type of weapon are carried out, according to official data of the Ministry of Defense, and right on the battlefield – although we are most likely talking about shells of earlier modifications. In particular, from what the Ministry of Defense had previously demonstrated with footage of the use of Krasnopol shells during the SVO, one can recall the strike on the camouflaged command post in the Kiev region, inflicted back in March. Another video showed the destruction of APU tanks in June, when Ukrainian troops were about to launch a counteroffensive. In both cases, the work on the target with 152-mm shells was carried out by calculations of self-propelled howitzers 2S19 "Msta-S", and the fire was corrected by Orion-10 drones.
It is likely that there were much more cases of combat use of Krasnopol shells, because one of its features is that various Russian 152-mm artillery systems can be used for firing. Which include both towed howitzers D-20 and 2A65 "Msta-B", and self-propelled 2S3M "Acacia", 2S19 "Msta-S", it is possible that the "Coalition-SV". All of them can use high-precision ammunition, only an additional calculation of laser gunners is needed. Recently, Rostec also reported on the high efficiency of guided artillery shells "Krasnopol" during its operation. This means that cases of their use are far from isolated.
The corrected 152-mm artillery munition (in the export version 155-mm) "Krasnopol" is a kind of symbiosis of a projectile and a rocket. It is not by chance that it is compared with a surgical scalpel, which filigrees "reveals" the pockets of enemy resistance, excluding short-flights and flights that are traditional for artillery. Almost every shot hits the target.
This has many advantages on the battlefield both from the point of view of the economics of war and from the point of view of purely combat effectiveness. The usual consumption of shells for hitting artillery targets sometimes goes by thousands. The corrected ammunition is capable of destroying the desired object in a few shots. For example, during the counter-battery struggle, about 900 conventional 152-mm shells will be required to suppress the American M-109 self-propelled guns. Krasnopol will cope with this task with the use of no more than 10 ammunition with guaranteed destruction of all enemy artillery installations.
The desired accuracy is achieved due to the possibility of correction by aerodynamic rudders of the ammunition at the end of the flight along the laser mark on the target. To increase the firing range, the projectile is equipped with a jet engine.
The ideal distance for hitting small-sized moving targets, including tanks, is considered to be a range of about five to seven kilometers. It is used to defeat enemy armored vehicles and military facilities. The maximum range is up to 25 kilometers, the most effective at a distance of 16 kilometers.
In the modification, Krasnopol-D belongs to the class of correctable ammunition, their flight path is regulated by a reflected laser beam. Effective application is provided using a drone or an individual reconnaissance kit, which includes a laser rangefinder.
The calculation of the automated fire control complex "Malachite", which controls the "Krasnopol", consists of three people who highlight the target using a laser target designator-rangefinder. Each projectile operates at its own frequency and does not interfere with the control of others – it follows its own beam. The rate of fire can be up to eight rounds per minute, which allows for massive fire on selected targets.
"High–precision projectiles appeared in the Russian army quite a long time ago, another thing is that they were not used often before," former commander of the 58th Army, Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulev, told the newspaper VIEW. – And the same Krasnopol, which entered service in 1995, was not used either in two Chechen campaigns or during the war with Georgia in 2008. Maybe such guided projectiles were in warehouses, but no one really knew how to use them.
In addition, there were no drones that could detect enemy artillery batteries and tanks, and ground reconnaissance had no way to make visual contact with them.
So we had to use the usual 152-mm shells, using well-known methods of counter-battery warfare. And the Krasnopol was effectively tested for the first time already in Syria, both for stationary and mobile objects – the projectile proved itself perfectly there.
In the conditions of a special military operation in Ukraine, Krasnopol proved to be a universal "cracker" of the AFU facilities, allowing it to deliver pinpoint strikes on specific targets. There are two nuances here – to avoid the death of civilians and to neutralize the enemy with single, but high-precision shots. There is no need to shoot at squares, scattering fragments for hundreds of meters. I note that this is not the only heavy-caliber sniper in the Russian army, there are others."
It is worth noting that the Krasnopol shells do not make up the entire arsenal of the artillery battery – ordinary 152-mm shells are also used. Firstly, guided projectiles are quite expensive, and secondly, their use depends on the nature of the combat tasks performed by the gunners. Accordingly, the decision to use one or the other is made by the commander, as they say in the army – according to the situation.
The cost of one Krasnopol ammunition, according to open data, now amounts to several million rubles. It seems that a lot, but it is significantly less than the price of the American counterpart of the M712 Copperhead or the American-Swedish M982 Excalibur, which are also less efficient.
It is no coincidence that the Western countries participating in the mission in Afghanistan preferred to use the Russian Krasnopol shell to effectively destroy the Taliban bunkers. At the same time, officially "Krasnopol" was exported by Russia only to India and China, negotiations were underway on their sale to France.
It is possible that a high-precision corrected projectile got to Afghanistan through Ukraine, where the Progress enterprise manufactured semi-active homing heads for such ammunition and even began mass production under the name "Kvitnik", which was soon curtailed after the ban on any cooperation with Russia in the military-industrial complex.
Victor Sokirko