Ukrainian troops are actually coaching on M777A2 towed Howitzer that’s optimized for firing GPS-guided artillery shells. These are the identical shells that had been promised as a part of Washington’s most up-to-date $400 million army support bundle.
The M777A2 comes with a digital fireplace management system that features GPS aiming functionality together with commonplace digital fireplace management programs that include the M777A1 already in Ukraine. The coaching is alleged to be occurring in Germany.
The extra superior cannons are optimized for firing the M982 Excalibur guided projectile, which might change course in flight utilizing extendable fins and is, due to this fact, way more correct than conventional artillery shells, particularly over lengthy ranges. To make use of the guided spherical, troops enter GPS location information into the gun’s steerage unit earlier than sending it downrange. Extra complicated salvos may also be programmed.
Within the most-recent safety help bundle, the U.S. Protection Division has solely stated it will likely be sending 1,000 rounds of 155 mm howitzer rounds that present “higher precision” than commonplace shells for the M777. The New York Instances on July 13 reported that the precision 155mm rounds had been certainly Excalibur guided artillery shells.
Transferring to Ukraine correct, seen for the primary time in Ukrainian service had been long-promised M113 armored personnel carriers. The U.S. included 200 of the Vietnam-era APCs in an earlier bundle of army support. A number of different nations, together with Australia, are additionally sending M113s to Ukraine however the video beneath is the primary time U.S.-donated autos — of which the U.S. army has a whole bunch in storage at pre-positioned depots in Europe — had been seen being utilized by the Ukrainian Army.
All of that U.S. tools and extra have made an enormous distinction for Ukrainian forces persevering with to carry out towards Russia’s push westward, however earlier than we get into the small print, make amends for The Battle Zone’s earlier rolling protection right here.
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After the previous week, throughout which Ukrainian forces focused enormous stockpiles of Russian artillery ammunition and explosives partly with U.S.-made Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Techniques, or HIMARS, the consequences of these weapons might be seen from house. Utilizing NASA information that pinpoints ongoing fires, the maps beneath present the almost-complete elimination of Russian fireplace on Ukrainian frontlines within the east. Dubbed by some battle observers because the “HIMARS impact,” the Ukrainians have harnessed the weapon’s energy to hone in on particular high-value targets and are utilizing them so successfully that the U.S. is sending one other 4 launchers. That may convey the variety of HIMARS in Ukraine to 12, on high of tracked M270 a number of launch rocket programs (MLRS) donated by different NATO nations.
The Ukrainians might have gotten some concentrating on assist from the Russians themselves, in line with a video that popped up on Twitter lately. It seems that one Russian soldier or collaborator filmed a number of others loading a truck with ammunition inside one among their huge ammo dumps within the Donetsk area. When the video was posted to social media, the Ukrainian Army was in a position to establish the placement and goal it with artillery.
If true, it’s yet one more instance of Russian forces and their allies in Ukraine utilizing non-secure communication to their detriment. To get an thought of the form of destruction wrought when Ukrainians rain artillery on a Russian ammunition storage facility, try this video of the aftermath of 1 such depot reportedly in Alchevsk, Luhansk.
In response, Russian forces proceed to saturate a broad entrance with massed artillery and in some areas are launching probing assaults by small company- and platoon-sized items, in line with the U.Ok. Ministry of Protection’s newest intelligence evaluation of the battle.
However Russia’s “ageing autos, weapons and Soviet-era ways … don’t lend themselves to shortly regaining or constructing momentum until utilized in overwhelming mass,” which Russian forces are presently incapable of mustering, the U.Ok. MoD stated.
With all of the lack of ammunition and autos, Russia nonetheless is probably going centered on taking extra cities and territory within the Donbas within the coming days, in line with the U.Ok MoD. Russian forces probably will set their sights on smaller cities and cities to safe approaches on the way in which to bigger targets just like the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, the U.Ok. MoD stated.
The July 13 U.Ok. intelligence evaluation additionally finds that Russia is working to “undermine the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state and consolidate its personal governance and administrative management over occupied components of Ukraine.” Additional proof is offered by pictures on-line of confiscated Ukrainian passports, piled up and discarded by Russian officers in areas of jap Ukraine beneath their occupation.
Russian forces additionally proceed to fireside missiles into Ukrainian cities, with air-raid sirens being activated nearly each day all through the besieged nation. On July 13 the Zaporizhia Regional Navy Administration claimed that two Russian missiles hit the metropolis of Zaporizhia.
Then the next day, no less than a dozen folks had been killed and a few 25 wounded in a Russian missile strike on the town of Vinnytsia, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine says. The world hit was close to a hospital and many of the useless are civilians, kids amongst them. The Ukrainian Army says the nation already has suffered 3,000 Russian missile strikes.
The New York Instances reported on July 13 that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Belgium to work out a method to pry Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports. Though they failed to fulfill a proper settlement, UN Secretary Normal António Guterres got here away with a “ray of hope,” in line with the Instances.
Industrial transport visitors has risen sharply within the Black Sea over the previous week, in line with ship monitoring maps. This might be a direct results of Ukrainian forces having run the Russian garrison off of Snake Island, from which they might maintain ships in danger and implement Russia’s blockade of grain inside ports like this one at Izmail, on the mouth of the Danube River.
Russian warships are nonetheless patrolling the Black Sea, nevertheless. On July 13, a U.S. Air Pressure RQ-4B World Hawk unmanned aerial system took a comparatively shut take a look at a few of these Russian naval vessels. The high-altitude, long-endurance drones have been flying reconnaissance missions over the Black Sea for weeks, gathering intelligence on Russian naval actions, although it isn’t recognized whether or not the data is then fed on to Ukraine from U.S. sources.
Ukraine is placing Western-supplied weapons to good use within the ongoing struggle however its authorities and army officers proceed to cry for ever extra munitions, that are flowing into the nation at an alarming charge, in line with European officers. That might be fueling a black marketplace for smuggling weapons out of the nation. The Monetary Instances lately reported that each NATO and European Union officers are involved that weapons like these anti-tank guided missiles, which seem like loaded within the trunk of a automotive with Albanian plates, are being smuggled from Ukraine to the Balkans.
In one other attention-grabbing twist on the proliferating-weapons narrative, Iranian-made HM-16 120mm mortars have now proven up in fight footage from the battle.
Russian forces stay beneath menace from a wide range of anti-tank guided missiles, or ATGMs, as nicely. Ukrainian forces proceed to pound their armored autos with numerous ATGM designs, as seen on this extremely clear view of a Stugna-P strike on a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile system.
European nations proceed to display their collective army may alongside the jap border of NATO in response to Russia’s battle of alternative in Ukraine. On July 13, British Challenger II tanks arrived in Poland, the place they’ll assist Polish items however stay beneath British command. Poland donated a whole bunch of its personal T-72 tanks to Ukraine early within the practically five-month battle. Britain is sending its tanks on a brief foundation to backfill Poland’s armor capabilities whereas the U.S. is trying to fast-track the sale of M1 Abrams tanks for a similar purpose.
Battle, as at all times produces weird and unlikely scenes, just like the beneath X-ray of 1 very fortunate Ukrainian soldier. Struck within the head by a bullet, however sporting a ballistic helmet, the spherical was unable to penetrate the cranium. It may be seen within the X-ray movie, lodged within the gentle tissue of his scalp.
We are going to proceed to replace this put up till we state in any other case.
Writer’s word/correction: Headline and lede up to date to mirror that the Ukrainian troops are in coaching on the M777A2 programs now and they don’t seem to be but on the battlefield.
Contact the writer: dan@thewarzone.com
