Compass Points - King of Battle
Tremendous need for tube artillery
Compass Points - King of Battle
Tremendous need for tube artillery
February 21, 2024
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For decades, Marines have called artillery the King of Battle. The fighting in Ukraine shows that the King still wears his crown. By some reports, most causalities in Ukraine on both sides are caused by artillery.
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This is the conflict in Ukraine now: a pitiless artillery war, the kind perhaps not seen since the days of endless trenches and gouged terrain that marked World War I. Less strategy than slugfest, both sides lob barrage and counter-barrage over a see-sawing front line and hope to still be standing when they pulverize the other side into either submission, or at least a crushing withdrawal.
-- Nabih Bulos Foreign Correspondent
LA Times, "Endless shelling and dead soldiers: A vicious artillery war spreads in Ukraine."
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More than a year ago, the Pentagon began to increase the production of 155mm artillery rounds from 14,000 per month to 90,000 per month. Charles R. Davis reported, "Ukraine is burning through artillery shells. Now the US is increasing production by 500%." But over the last year, so many artillery shells have been expended, the demand still exceeds supply.
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Reporter Samya Kullab observes, "A key withdrawal shows Ukraine doesn't have enough artillery to fight Russia"
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Dwindling ammunition threatens Ukraine’s hold on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line under withering assault by Russian artillery. Defensive lines are in jeopardy. Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region on Saturday after daily Russian onslaughts from three directions for the last four months. Avdiivka was a stronghold for Ukrainian positions deeper inside the country, away from Russia. A frontline city ever since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, the fortified settlement with a maze of trenches and tunnels served to protect important — less strengthened — logistical hubs further west.
-- Samya Kullab
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While Ukraine waits for the next round of funding from the US, other nations are contributing, and they are contributing artillery. The Defense Post reports that, "Czech Republic Proposes 800,000 Artillery Rounds for Ukraine Soon." Incredibly, the Prime Minster of Denmark says that Denmark will send its 'entire artillery' to Ukraine.
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Denmark is sending its "entire artillery" to Ukraine, the Danish prime minister has said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mette Frederiksen appealed to other European nations to do more to help Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.
"They are asking us for ammunition now. Artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery," she said.
. . . The Danish announcement will come as particularly welcome news in Ukraine as its military has been starved of artillery shells, forcing it to scale back some operations, Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi told Reuters in December.
"There's a problem with ammunition, especially post-Soviet (shells) - that's 122 mm, 152 mm. And today, these problems exist across the entire front line," he said.
-- Nathan Rennolds
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The original US M114 155 mm howitzer was fielded in 1942 for service in World War II. As with all technology, both the cannon and shells of tube artillery have been upgraded many times. Tube artillery today is still on time and on target. When a military force at war today does not have enough artillery, that force must go door to door asking neighbors for help. Is that what the Marine Corps is going to do? Over the last few years, the Marine Corps has greatly reduced tube artillery, under the theory that tube artillery has little value on the modern battlefield. Fighting in Ukraine, however, shows that the King of Battle is not ready to give up the crown.
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Rockets, missiles, and drones are important in their own ways, but nothing beats the capability and cost of artillery. There is still tremendous need for artillery both in Ukraine and in the US Marine Corps.
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AP via Yahoo - 2/20/2024
Analysis: A key withdrawal shows Ukraine doesn't have enough artillery to fight Russia
By SAMYA KULLAB
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-avdiivka-war-063ab1bd47a500ad4a815b12f3d1386d
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Business Insider - 01/24/2023
Ukraine is burning through artillery shells. Now the US is increasing production by 500%.
By Charles R. Davis
https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-increasing-production-of-155mm-artillery-shells-2023-1?op=1
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The Defense Post - 02/19/2024
Czech Republic Proposes 800,000 Artillery Rounds for Ukraine Soon
By Inder Singh Bisht
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2024/02/19/czech-republic-artillery-rounds/?expand_article=1
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Business Insider - 02/18/2024
Denmark to send its 'entire artillery' to Ukraine, the country's prime minister says
By Nathan Rennolds
https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-to-send-all-artillery-ukraine-pm-russia-war-2024-2?op=1
Force Design 2030 designers felt rockets not artillery were the future of the modern battle space. Hmmm, whatever could be wrong with that assumption? Guess it never came up in the XBox scenarios they ran, after signing their NDA’s. The number of rounds is staggering, the impact on the tubes alone much be having an impact. Perhaps now, some of the propeller heads will begin to admit that maybe, just maybe they got things wrong, and return to reconstituting MAGTF strengths, to include the logistics needed for sustained forward operations.
Decades ago as I was beginning my study of military history I noted that I had yet to find a war in which the participants discovered that prewar ammo consumption projections were not too low. Sixty years of study later, it's still true.