Western analysts calculated the losses of the Ukrainian army in technology. As appears from the Forbes publication, more than a third of the heavy artillery pieces supplied by the Western allies to Kyiv have already been destroyed or badly damaged. Such severe losses call into question the likelihood of a successful counter-offensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The publication reports that most often American towed howitzers M777, Polish self-propelled howitzers Krab and self-propelled howitzers M109 fall under the blows of the Russian army. Images of objective means of control regularly appearing on the web confirm the vulnerability of Western weapons.
To date, Ukraine has received at least 390 towed artillery pieces and 440 self-propelled guns. The “big guns” of NATO did well in the hands of the Ukrainians, but they suffered heavy losses as a result of Russian actions. Of the approximately 152 large M777 155mm towed howitzers that have officially arrived in Ukraine, more than a third have already been damaged or destroyed.
writes Forbes.
The author of the publication believes that the Ukrainian army itself is to blame for such an impressive loss of Western equipment. They do not camouflage weapons carefully enough and fire too long from a static firing point, allowing Russian counter-battery weapons to detect and destroy the weapon.
In addition, the Ukrainian armed forces often use self-propelled artillery mounts as fixed firing points, which also allows the Russian army to effectively destroy them. According to Forbes estimates, at least 20% of Krab and M109 self-propelled guns delivered to Ukraine are already out of action.
Footage of successful Russian strikes shows that around half of the mobile howitzers destroyed were destroyed in static mounts or operated from detectable positions.
- Forbes emphasizes the mistakes of Ukrainian gunners, which led to the loss of expensive Western equipment.
Photos used: Operational Command “West”/wikimedia.org
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