Some of the early lessons from Ukraine

 The emergence of Artillery as the decisive arm on either side

 The effectiveness of Javelins against armored vehicles
 The ease of using drones to take on ammo dumps, convoys, tanks and troop
concentrations.

The employment of Artillery in preparatory bombardment, close support tasks and counter
battery tasks in present environment needs to followed by every Gunner.

With this background…read this piece in WP.

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Western artillery surging into Ukraine will

reshape war with Russia, analysts say
DAN LAMOTHE , THE WASHINGTON POST • APRIL 30, 2022

WASHINGTON — The Western artillery flooding into Ukraine will alter the war with Russia,
setting off a bloody battle of wits backed by long-range weapons and forcing both sides to grow
more nimble if they hope to avoid significant fatalities as fighting intensifies in the east, U.S.
officials and military analysts predict.

The expanded artillery battle follows Russia’s failed effort to rapidly seize Ukraine’s major
populations centers, including the capital city, Kyiv, and comes as the government of President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Western benefactors brace for what is expected to be a grinding
campaign in the Donbas region. The conflict there is expected to showcase the long-range
cannons that are a centerpiece of Russia’s arsenal, weaponry already used to devastating effect in
places like Mariupol, a southern port city that’s been pulverized by unrelenting bombardment.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking alongside his Canadian counterpart at the Pentagon on
Thursday, said long-range fires will prove “decisive” in the next phase of the war. The Biden
administration, which along with Canada is training small numbers of Ukrainian troops how to
operate the dozens of 155 mm howitzers that both countries have pledge to provide, is expected
to approve the transfer of even more artillery to Ukraine in coming days, Austin said.

The U.S. and Canadian howitzers bound for Ukraine are towed on trailers, while those pledged
by France - systems known as self-propelled CAESAR howitzers - fire the same, 155 mm
explosive rounds, but from the back of a truck chassis.

The United States alone already has promised Zelenskyy nearly 190,000 artillery rounds, plus 90
howitzers to fire them. As of Thursday, more than half had arrived in Ukraine, said a senior U.S.
defense official who, like some others, spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules
set by the administration.

A new $33 billion request to Congress for additional Ukraine aid includes proposed funding for
“longer-range artillery of a heavier caliber,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers
on Capitol Hill, though he stopped short of identifying which specific systems are under
consideration. Other allies, such as Britain or Sweden, also could send artillery, analysts said.

To date, Russia and Ukraine have traded fire using some of the same systems, including the
powerful 300 mm Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, which can shoot rounds some 55
miles, and aging 122 mm howitzers first fielded in the 1960s. The introduction of various
Western artillery pieces is expected to accelerate a tactical shift by both sides to employ what’s
known as counter-battery fire, in which military forces seek out their enemy’s artillery,
determine its location and attack, analysts said.

“You’re trying to find, fix and finish,” said George Flynn, a retired three-star Marine general and
former artillery officer. “You want to find the enemy howitzers. You want to fix their position.
And then you want to finish them off. That’s the essence of targeting.”

After an artillery unit attacks an adversary, it needs to keep moving, Flynn said. “Once you get
into a counter-battery fight, it’s shoot and scoot,” he added. “You don’t stick around and let
yourself get targeted.”

Ukraine’s ability to target Russian artillery units is especially important, analysts say, because of
the Kremlin’s demonstrated willingness to lob round after round into cities and towns, destroying
civilian homes and infrastructure. “Just the existence” of more Ukrainian artillery units
performing counter-battery fire will degrade Russia’s ability to “sit there, pile up ammo and go
to town,” said Scott Boston, a former U.S. Army field artillery officer who studies the Russian
military for the Rand Corporation.

“The problem” that Ukraine and its Western allies would “like to impose on the Russians,” he
said, “is for them to never have confidence that a headquarters, or a key ammunitions dump, or
an important cluster of firing platforms, can ever be stationary for very long.”

The Pentagon on Friday assessed that Russia has not been as effective as it would like at using
long-range fires, with a senior defense official noting that, as the West continues to send so much
artillery to Ukraine, “This could become a bit of a gunbattle.”

Artillery units often disguise themselves with camouflage or other forms of cover, and it can
require a mixture of intelligence, unmanned aircraft and radar to spot them. The West is
providing Ukraine with drones and counter-battery radar to do just that.

Zelenskyy also has requested some form of multiple-rocket artillery, such as the highly accurate
M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, that is used by the U.S.
Army and Marine Corps. Such weapons launch rounds quickly, which is useful in firing on
enemy artillery forces before they reposition, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel
who studies the war for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Cancian, a former artillery officer, said that there “will be a lot of pressure to provide” HIMARS
in coming days, and that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the United States begin supplying it
soon. Another type of multiple-rocket launch system, such as the M270 operated by the U.S.
Army, also could be sent, he surmised. The HIMARS is newer and moves about the battlefield
more freely, while the M270 carries more rockets.

“I think there will be a lot of pressure to provide that, and since we seem to be announcing an aid
package a week, I wouldn’t be surprised to see HIMARS next week or the week after,” Cancian
said.

Ukrainian officials also have sought more self-propelled howitzers rather than towed weapons
such as the M777. A Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the
issue is sensitive, said that while it appears easier to perform maintenance on and find parts for
the M777 howitzer, they are more vulnerable to Russian counter-battery fire than self-propelled
howitzers, like the Army’s M109 Paladin.

Cancian said he would be watching to see whether advanced, highly accurate 155 mm Excalibur
rounds make it to Ukraine. The weapons are guided by GPS and designed to fly up to 25 miles,
according to Raytheon, its manufacturer. The Pentagon has declined to specify what types of
artillery rounds are being sent.

The shipping of Western artillery into Ukraine is important partly because there are few places
where Ukraine can find replacement rounds for its Soviet-era systems, said Sam Cranny-Evans,
an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Poland, Bulgaria and a few other
NATO allies produce them, but many more countries produce ammunition for Western weapons.

While the West has promised tens of thousands of artillery rounds to Ukraine, they may be
depleted quickly, Cranny-Evans said, requiring defense contractors to ramp up production.
Russia also has a significant advantage in the number of artillery pieces it possesses, and it’s
unclear how many of Ukraine’s legacy systems are still operational or how much ammunition
they have for them, he added.

Russians forces are using artillery to extricate themselves from Ukrainian ambushes and inflict
fatalities as well as to avoid having to go “into the teeth of these very high-end Western
weapons,” including Javelin and NLAW anti-armor missiles, that already have destroyed some
Russian units, Cranny-Evans said.

“They’re just going to sit back and let their long-range assets to do the work because they don’t
have the manpower to waste,” he said.

Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said in an interview that there is a role for collaboration
among Western countries in providing weapons to Ukraine that are “consistent and
interchangeable,” allowing Ukraine to learn the systems and maintain them when they are
damaged.

“The M777s are a perfect example of the way in which allied countries with that capability can
band together and respond to a desperate need that Ukraine has,” she said. “And that’s a model
that we’ll continue to utilize going forward.”

The use of artillery and other weapons has been complementary in Ukraine and will continue to
be, Boston said.

“If you do a good job of bottling someone up, then they’re going to be way more vulnerable to
artillery than if they were dispersed and in cover,” he said. “If the Russians don’t have
confidence that they can disperse because they’re going to get picked off by Javelin teams, then
they might be bunching for security against that - and then be more vulnerable against artillery.”

The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung in Washington, David Stern in Mukachevo, Ukraine,
and Alex Horton in Kyiv contributed to this report.