Russia’s latest howitzers will soon be deployed to the Northern Military District, which borders Finland and Norway, the head of the Rostec state military company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Rostec chairman Sergey Chemezov said in an interview with the state-run RIA news agency that testing of the new self-propelled artillery unit has been completed and mass production has already begun.
He said the first pilot batch is expected to be delivered by the end of 2023.
“I think that this class of howitzers will soon appear there (in the Northern Military District), since they are needed to have an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of range,” Chemezov said. .
Russian President Vladimir Putin reorganized Russia’s Northern Fleet in 2021, moving its main jurisdiction from Russia’s Arctic to the Northern Military District. This new organization also included the Murmansk region, which borders Finland and Norway.
The Russian government has accused “Western groups” of waging a proxy war against Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has also threatened to build up troops along Finland’s western border if Finland joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led NATO alliance. By the United States.
According to a report published by Russia’s state news agency TASS in early December, one coalition SV howitzer has reportedly already been sent to the Ukrainian front.
The howitzer, which has a maximum firing range of 70 kilometers (44 miles), is equipped with a modern 2A88 cannon of caliber 152 mm with a rate of fire of more than 10 rounds per minute and modern systems to automate the firing process. According to TASS, how to point a gun, select a target, navigate, etc.
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Published date: December 27, 2023 13:52:00 (IST)