"MINKIVKA, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian
crew of a high-tech German artillery system can shoot three shells within
seconds that will simultaneously hit the same spot more than 25 miles away.
That is, when the big gun hasn't broken down.
The Panzerhaubitze howitzer is part
of an arsenal of weapons being put to the test in Ukraine in what has become
the world's largest arms fair.
Companies that make the weapons used
in Ukraine have won orders and resurrected production lines. The deployment of
billions of dollars of equipment in a major land conflict has also given
manufacturers and militaries a unique opportunity to analyze the battlefield
performance of weapons, and learn how best to use them.
For all the Panzerhaubitze's
technical prowess, the conflict has shown the importance of being able to fix
weapons on the battlefield. A simpler howitzer, the M777, has proven more
reliable, but also more vulnerable to attack.
Debate around the performance of the
two howitzers, and many other weapons, could help shape military procurement
for years.
The U.S. and European nations have
sent billions of dollars of equipment to Ukraine from existing military
stockpiles, and countries are starting to replace some of that inventory amid a
broader rise in military spending.
Global military spending rose for the eighth
consecutive year in 2022 to a record $2.24 trillion, according to the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.
Artillery guns and the shells they
fire, drones, missile-defense systems and multiple-rocket launchers are all
heavily used in Ukraine.
Some of this equipment -- made by the likes of BAE
Systems, Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon
Technologies -- is now receiving orders or interest from potential buyers, arms
makers say.
"People are looking at Ukraine
and seeing what's working," said Tom Arseneault, chief executive of the
U.S. operations of BAE Systems.
The British defense giant says it is
in talks with Kyiv about making its L119 artillery gun in Ukraine after it has
proved useful and that orders for the shells used in the country have ramped
up. The company also says it has received increased inquiries for its CV90
combat vehicle and the M777 based on their performance in the conflict.
While some countries are beginning
to replace equipment sent to Ukraine, companies say military procurement is
typically slow, meaning many orders won't materialize immediately.
The conflict is affecting
procurement decisions for the U.K., said Gen. Patrick Sanders, head of the
British army.
One lesson from Ukraine has been the importance of being able to
do battlefield repairs, he said.
That has proved particularly
pertinent for howitzers, a class of mobile, long-barreled battlefield guns that
fire shells and are the most widely used Western weapons in Ukraine.
A crew of Ukrainian artillerymen
operating outside Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine praised the accuracy and rate of
fire of the Panzerhaubitze. The weapon's thick, high-grade steel offers
protection in a way that other howitzers don't, they said.
The Panzerhaubitze, made by Rheinmetall
and the German arm of KNDS, has secured orders from Berlin to replace units
sent to Ukraine, while Kyiv has also signaled interest in buying the big gun.
The constant use of the
Panzerhaubitze, though, has led to breakdowns, Ukrainian artillerymen said. One
of the machines operated by the Bakhmut crew caught fire and had to be taken
back to Germany, and the electronics in the automatic loading process
malfunctioned in another. It is now loaded manually.
The weapon's makers attribute
problems to a combination of being fired too much and a lack of servicing.
"If they take care of the electronics, it works," said Armin
Papperger, Rheinmetall's CEO.
Some military analysts say another
lesson is that not enough time was spent training Ukrainian operators in the
haste to get them back onto the battlefield. The Ukrainian artillerymen
received five weeks of training on the Panzerhaubitze. German operators
typically train for four months.
Other Western howitzers have also
had problems amid constant use. An operator of the Polish howitzer, the AHS
Krab, said one machine was being used so intensively that its barrel tore off.
A spokesman for its manufacturer, Huta Stalowa Wola, didn't respond to requests
for comment.
Papperger said the conflict is
showing how fast barrels wear out. Rheinmetall has now tripled its production
of gun barrels for armored fighting vehicles.
Ukraine has put some Western
equipment to the test in a more intense environment than it has previously been
deployed.
The CV90, for example, saw combat in
Afghanistan and Liberia, but "it's totally different to what we are seeing
in Ukraine," said Dan Lindell, director of combat vehicles at the Swedish
unit of BAE Systems that makes the armored carrier.
Lindell said BAE has had more
inquiries about the vehicle based on its performance in Ukraine. The Swedish
and Ukrainian governments have also signed an agreement that could lead to
production of CV90s in Ukraine.
Other weapons that have received
praise in Ukraine, including the endorsement of President Volodymyr Zelensky,
are the Himars mobile rocket launcher and Britain's long-range Storm Shadow
missiles.
Rocket launchers, including the
U.S.'s Himars and M270S, have impressed the British army's Sanders most in
Ukraine, he said, citing their precision, concentration of firepower and range.
Companies that make some of those
weapons have won fresh orders and boosted production. Since the conflict began,
the U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin $630 million in contracts to
manufacture Himars for itself and allies.
Meanwhile, RTX is increasing
production of its Patriot missile-defense system to 12 a year, and plans to
deliver five more to Ukraine by the end of next year. It has
been tweaked to enable it to destroy hypersonic missiles.
"Successful operation allows manufacturers
to write 'proven in combat,' which helps sales," said Nicholas Drummond, a
former British army officer who runs defense-industry consulting firm AURA
Consulting Ltd." [1]
