While the front of the Russian-Ukrainian war shifts very slowly in Moscow’s favor, in an attempt to access new resources, experiments with new armaments continue. Launched by France and the United States in January 2024, the “Artillery for Ukraine” coalition is currently no longer news, and the same goes for the other eight coalitions contacted by the Ukrainian defense contact group, which brings together 54 of Kiev’s partner countries . However, the deliveries of new guns to the Ukrainian army continue and among these what happened to the “Anna of Kiev” brigade deployed in Donbass is particularly important, which received eighteen additional Rch-155 Caesar self-propelled howitzers compared to the fifty-four planned for Kiev until 2030 , with another six howitzers to be delivered in 2025. This supply was announced in December 2022 by Germany which had never exported them before, and adds to the 25 examples of Pzh-2000 previously taken from the Bundeswehr inventory. An order had subsequently been placed for another thirty-six units at Knds Deutschland, in total enough to equip three artillery battalions. On January 13th, two years after the initial announcement in Berlin, the first Rch-155 was officially delivered to Boris PistoriusGerman Defense Minister, who passed it on to Oleksii MakeievUkrainian ambassador to Germany. The Rch-155 is actually a development of the PzH2000 (it has the same ballistic fire control computer), but it is lighter, more flexible and constitutes a long-range artillery weapon for all areas of use, also providing a high level of protection for the crew in terms of survivability and superior protection from mines and ballistic threats, especially for the two machine gunners needed to operate it. It has a range of between 40 and 54 km depending on the type of 155 mm projectile used and a rate of 9 shots per minute; finally, it can fire on the move, reducing its vulnerability to reaction fire.
Now this system has also been tested without a pilot to be able to achieve complete autonomy of the overall system in command, navigation and fire control, and this opens up new mission options such as shooting at moving targets, being able to undertake actions to defend the position. Thanks to its network-based system architecture, the Rch-155 will also be able to implement autonomous driving and action in the future. The fire control system and ammunition array can support both already introduced and future NATO ammunition types. Ukraine is the first user to receive the new RCH 155 wheeled howitzer. Pistorius said: “The delivery of the first new howitzer to Ukraine is proof of what is possible when technological excellence and common will go hand in hand hand in hand”, adding that this delivery “confirms the unwavering German support for Kiev in its struggle for independence and demonstrates that Germany is ready to take responsibility for security in Europe”. In December 2022 it was speculated that KNDS Deutschland would take 30 months to produce the first Rch-155s for the Ukrainian army. According to the newspaper The World, the manufacturer was waiting for a signal from the German government before starting production. Since then, the Bundeswehr has announced its intention to order eighty units by 2025 and the British Army has chosen this artillery system as part of its Mobile Fires Platform programme. Finally, the Rch-155 was also selected by Switzerland. All this will not be decisive in overturning the war situation, but it certainly fills part of a technological gap to which NATO now seemed destined.