2023-04-25 00:52:01
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 155-millimeter howitzer is one of the most sought-after artillery ammunition in the Ukrainian war. The United States has already shipped more than 1.5 million cartridges to that country, but kyiv wants even more.
Here’s a look at why this particular munition is so widely used, and why it has been so crucial in the war in Ukraine.
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WHAT IS THE 155 MILLIMETER SHELL?
In essence, the 155mm cartridge is one very large bullet, which has four parts: the detonating fuse, the projectile, the propellant, and the primer.
Each cartridge is approximately 60 centimeters (2 feet) long, weighs about 45 kilograms (100 pounds), and is 155 mm (6.1 inches) in diameter. They are used in howitzer systems, which are large, towable guns identified by the range of angle of fire their barrels can be adjusted to.
155mm shells can be configured in a variety of ways: they can be loaded with high-explosive material, they can use precision-guided systems, pierce armor, or produce high fragmentation.
Past variants have included smoke cartridges to obscure the movement of soldiers and lighting cartridges to expose the enemy’s position.
“The 155mm cartridge and similar Soviet-era 152mm cartridges are so popular because they provide a good balance between range and warhead size,” said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Defense Foundation for Weapons. Democracies, a non-profit group. “If you have a projectile that is too small, it won’t do enough damage or go as far. If you have a larger projectile, you can’t necessarily shoot it as far. This is the most common middle ground, and that is why it is used so much.
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HISTORY OF THE 155MM
The French first developed the 155mm cartridge to respond to the extensive trench warfare of World War I, and early versions included gas shells, Keri Pleasant, a historian with the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, said in a statement to The Associated Press.
As World War I continued, the 155mm gun became the most common artillery piece used by the Allies, Pleasant noted, and the US Army later adopted it as its standard heavy artillery piece.
The US military developed its own version, the M1, for World War II. Following the conflict, the newly formed NATO alliance adopted the 155mm as its artillery standard.
By the Korean War, the cartridge had been modified again, with a cluster munitions variant. “The cartridge contained 88 submunitions, which were dispersed over a wide area to destroy vehicles, equipment, and personnel,” Pleasant said.
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ITS USE IN UKRAINE
Howitzer rounds can hit targets up to 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 kilometers) away, depending on the type of cartridge and firing system used, making them highly prized by ground forces for taking down enemy targets from a protected distance.
“Adversaries don’t get much warning that it’s coming. And it’s harder to hide from incoming projectiles that arc from above, making it highly lethal,” Brobst said.
In Ukraine, 155mm cartridges are being fired at a rate of between 6,000 and 8,000 a day, said Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the Ukrainian parliament who serves on the war supervision commission. That pales in comparison to the approximately 40,000 howitzer shells of the Russian variant that are fired at them, she told reporters at a recent event in Washington sponsored by the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan research body.
The Pentagon had previously reported how many rounds it was providing in each of the security assistance packages that were being sent roughly every two weeks to keep up the flow of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. But in February it stopped specifying the number of 155mm cartridges shipped in each package, saying it was for operational security reasons.
Yet in its total tally of aid provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, the Pentagon says it has shipped more than 160 155mm rounds, more than 1.5 million 155mm rounds, plus of 6,500 precision-guided 155mm rounds, and more than 14,000 Remote Anti-Armor Mine Systems (RAAMs), essentially a 155mm round loaded with four mines that are scattered over the ground, which can Disrupt a Russian tank if it runs over them.
Other countries have also sent howitzers, but kyiv has continually asked for more. Since last year the Ukrainian authorities have been requesting up to 1,000 howitzer systems to push back Russian forces.
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SPRING OFFENSIVE
As Ukraine prepares for an intense counteroffensive this spring, it will likely need to fire 7,000 to 9,000 155mm rounds a day, said Yehor Cherniev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament who spoke to reporters at the German Marshall Fund event.
In recent months, the Joe Biden administration has been using presidential equipment disposal authority to ship ammunition directly from the US military stockpile to Ukraine, rather than having to wait and purchase cartridges from defense-manufacturing firms, from so that they can arrive in time for the anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive.
The United States has also been training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany on how to best use 155mm rounds in combined arms strategies: coordinating attacks with targeting information provided by soldiers on the front lines and other armored systems in order to maximize damage and reduce the number of shells needed to kill a target.
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Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
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