Photos of damage to PzH2000 self-propelled howitzers aided to Ukraine by Germany and other countries exposed!
As the most advanced self-propelled howitzer obtained by the Ukrainian army, PzH2000 not only has the advantages of long range, good accuracy, fast reaction speed, high level of automation, etc., but also has thicker armor, but in the continuous war of attrition, combat losses are still inevitable. Judging from the leaked photos, the PzH2000 self-propelled howitzer is suspected to have been hit by anti-armor submunitions dropped by long-range rockets of the Russian army.
In addition to PzH2000, Poland's aid to Ukraine "Crab" and Norway and other countries aid M109 series also suffered losses, according to public reports, up to now, it seems that the French-aided "Caesar" truck gun has not been damaged or damaged, which is probably related to the limited defense of "Caesar" itself, and the Ukrainian army must use hit-and-run tactics.
As for the Hymas and M270 rocket launchers, the Russian Ministry of Defense often claims to have destroyed the Hymas and the arsenal where its ammunition is stored, but both the Pentagon and the Ukrainian military deny these claims, insisting that the Hymas aid to Ukraine has no losses, and the Russian side has not produced credible evidence that it destroyed the Hymas rocket launcher.
Compared with combat losses, the problem of failure of various types of NATO standard howitzers equipped by Ukrainian artillery due to high-intensity use has aroused the great attention of the "Ramstein Group", many faults can not be solved on the front line, and need to be sent outside Ukraine to repair, which has been proved since the PzH2000 self-propelled howitzer was damaged due to high-intensity use, German technicians in Lithuania to help the Ukrainian army repair its equipment of PzH2000 self-propelled howitzers.
At present, the largest number of NATO standard howitzers equipped by Ukrainian artillery is the M777 155mm towed howitzer provided by the United States and other countries, the United States alone provides 142, Australia and Canada also provide more than a dozen, because of high-intensity use, these M777 howitzers have many failures, the United States is planning to establish a repair plant in Poland, specifically for the Ukrainian army M777 howitzers and M119 105mm towed howitzers to provide maintenance services, especially the replacement of barrels.
There is news that the Ukrainian army is equipped with a third of the various types of NATO standard howitzers, a third of them need to be repaired, and PzH self-propelled howitzers are half unusable, the reason for these problems, is not that these NATO standard howitzers are too "delicate", but the intensity of use of the Ukrainian army far exceeds the standard, taking M777 as an example, the M777 howitzers equipped by the US military only fire about 100 rounds a year in training, but in Ukraine, hundreds of rounds can be fired a day, and even some M777 howitzers have fired more than 6,000 rounds , replaced at least 4 barrels.
Due to the shortage of Soviet-style shells, these better NATO howitzers undertook the main shelling tasks of the Ukrainian army, but even the best artillery will have problems under this high-intensity use, not only the wear of the barrel is aggravated, but also some other parts will also have problems, especially more complex and sophisticated self-propelled howitzers like PzH2000: artillery was originally used to provide support firepower, but on the Ukrainian battlefield, it became the main lethal weapon, and the natural failure rate surged under high-intensity use, as is the case with Ukrainian artillery, Although the Russian army did not disclose relevant information, it is very likely that the same is true, and the barrel life of similar artillery in the Russian army is only a little more than half that of the American army.
In addition, the Ukrainian army also found in use that the shells supplied by the West to Ukraine, especially 155-mm shells, are made in different countries, the shells made in these countries meet NATO standards and can be universal, but some are suitable for firing old howitzers, some are suitable for firing new howitzers, firing on unsuitable howitzers will cause increased barrel wear, such as M777, whose barrel life can reach 2500 rounds (old type) / 4000 rounds (new) strong charge firing, but in Ukraine, Due to intensive use and unsuitability of shells, the barrel life dropped to about 1500 rounds.
These experiences provided by Ukrainian artillery in combat are timely fed back to their donor countries, and can be regarded as valuable combat experience for relevant countries. Of course, the Russian artillery has also gained a lot of experience and lessons, but due to information control, etc., we can not see much, and we dare not jump to conclusions about whether these experiences and lessons have been fed back in time and used to improve tactics and techniques.