DONETSK, Dec 2 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems manufactured by the American Lockheed Martin concern allowed the AFU to take several steps towards artillery parity with the Russian army. However, according to the military, with the onset of cold weather, the effectiveness of this high-tech weapon was under threat.
“Help” did not happen
The Haimars showed their best side. Powerful, accurate, long-range, reliable, capable of quickly changing position after a volley. Not subject to wear and do not require expensive repairs.
The system has a modular design: when the MLRS is fired at targets, it is recharged, completely replacing the package of six guides with rockets with a similar, “fresh” one.
This process, with the proper skill of the crew, takes no more than 15 minutes. And the powerful wheelbase allows the calculation to quickly leave the shooting area, so as not to be substituted for the “response”. Therefore, hitting them, the military notes, is not an easy task.
American MLRS HIMARS Image Source: © Photo : U.S. Army / Spc. Collin MacKown
When the "himari", as they are called in the Donbass, first appeared at the front in the summer, they caused a lot of problems for the Russian army. Ukrainian jet fighters accurately hit the headquarters, destroyed the arsenals, covered the marching columns on the march. Civilian objects in the center of Donetsk were also bombed. St. Andrew's Bridge in the Kherson region was hit more than 150 times.
It seemed that the APU received the ultimate weapon of victory. However, they quickly adapted to the new threat. According to the soldiers, the air defense forces have learned to detect and shoot down rockets in time. It turned out to be no more difficult than intercepting the Ukrainian operational-tactical Tochka-U missiles, which the APU has been using since the first days of the conflict.
Mud Test
However, in the near future, all the advantages of the HIMARS MLRS may abruptly come to naught. The weather at the front is getting worse every day.
The fatty Donbass chernozem has turned into an insurmountable obstacle for both infantry and military equipment. Even army MTLB tractors sit on the "belly". According to the military, it was possible to pull out the equipment only with a tank.
“It will be even worse for wheeled vehicles in these conditions," says an officer of the 1st army corps of the NM DNR with the call sign Brown. - There are areas on our site where even Typhoon trucks are stuck, which are considered one of the most passable in the fleet of the Russian army. This is a big problem for us and for them. You can't fool nature. Already now we note that the intensity of the enemy's use of MLRS HIMARS has significantly decreased.”
The road to the positions of the gunners on the matchmaking line Image source: © RIA Novosti / Andrey Kotz
According to the officer, “himari" is clearly not designed for combat operations in Eastern Europe in late autumn and early winter. This system was adopted in 2005 and was actively used in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and in these countries a completely different climate and terrain. There, rather, the equipment can get bogged down in the sand, or “boil" from the heat.
But Western MLRS are clearly not ready for the Donbass “mud baths”.
Problems with logisticsAccording to the military, with the onset of severe frosts, the situation for Ukrainian jet fighters may become even more complicated.
Of course, it will be easier to move on frozen ground. However, in winter, military equipment is more prone to breakdowns, and there are no repair facilities for servicing Western weapons in Ukraine.
In theory, American cars, like Russian ones, are capable of operating in the temperature range from minus 50 to plus 50 degrees. However, in practice, they have not yet passed the test of the Russian winter. In the region in December, the temperature drops to -20, the constant wind in the forest-steppe zone only increases the cold.
Svatovsky defensive line Image source: © RIA Novosti / Andrey Kotz
In winter, the same "Haimars" need special wheels to move through deep snow and muddy mud, special fuels and lubricants are needed. And not simple, but “sharpened” exclusively for the equipment of NATO countries. Analogues made according to Soviet patterns, of which there are many in Ukraine, simply do not fit.
Finally, as the fighters explain, in the winter, HIMARS MLRS will lose their main trump card - secrecy. If in the summer the installation after firing could quickly leave the position and hide in the nearest forest plantation, now the foliage from the trees has fallen.
The surrounding landscape is visible from the drone at a glance. In addition, traces of the past equipment are perfectly visible on the snow from the air, which allows it to be quickly tracked down and delivered an artillery strike. Therefore, according to the military, during the winter campaign of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, if they do not lose their main trump card, they will think at least a hundred times before taking it to firing positions.
