Interesting theme from various artillery spotting annecdotes and reporting. Ukriane is developing very thrifty artillery targetting.
Early on in the war, the artillery GIS system was discussed. That allowed any Ukranian unit or aircraft to pin a target onto a map in the cloud. When a mortar or artillery became free, the system would calculate their aiming details from the location of the specific gun. This allowed guns to be spread out widely, instead of massed as a unit to minimise manual firing calculations.
Next was comments that the 155mm donated guns are more accurate than the 152mm guns, needing less rounds to hit the target.
Next came a snippet from the Russian side that if the barrage went for more than a handful of shells, that it was friendly fire from Russian guns. Ukraine would drop 3 small salvos on a target, then stop. Russia will just keep firing.
Then there’s the piece I posted earlier today that included a moment where a gun was walking shells onto a Russian automatic grenade launcher. They’d missed 3, were getting closer each time, but the artillery unit said the 4th shot would be the last shell hit or miss. The 4th shell hit, but it showed a reluctance to expend ammunition. The speed that a drone operator could call in fire, the direct comms to the guns, allowed live targets to be hit instead of empty areas that had action an hour earlier.
There’s been a BBC documentary that is region locked to the UK. In that an SOF soldier says that Russia can afford to waste shells, Ukraine cannot and must make sure they hit a target.
And finally, there’s numerous reports of shell hunger on the Russian side, that the volume of fire in Bakhmut is bad but 10-20% of the volume at Popasna. Reports of LDR troops earlier in the war firing 1000+ rounds to hit a very obvious building and only getting it once.
All in all, this tells a story of Ukriane being forced to innovate and improve its artillery efficiency through a very real ammunition shortage. Those innovations will remain in place as more guns and more ammunition is delivered, drastically improving the effectiveness.
Idea borrowed from this tweet, but this is the documentary I can’t get to.
