Russia will soon deploy its latest howitzers to the Northern Military District, which borders Finland and Norway, the head of the Rostec defense conglomerate said in remarks published on Wednesday (December 27).
Tests of the new Union SV self-propelled artillery unit have been completed and mass production has already begun, Rostec chief Sergei Chemezov said in an interview with state-run RIA news agency.
The first pilot batch is expected to be delivered by the end of 2023.
“I think that this class of howitzers will appear there (in the Northern Military District) soon, because they are needed to have an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of range,” Chemezov said.
In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin changed the status of Russia’s Northern Fleet, which is primarily responsible for the Russian Arctic, to the Northern Military District, and also incorporated the Murmansk region, which borders Finland and Norway, into that region.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government has accused “Western groups” of waging a proxy war with Russia, and has threatened Finland’s membership in the U.S.-led NATO alliance. In response, the US has warned that it will build up troops on its western border. .
In early December, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported that one Allied-SV howitzer had already been deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
The howitzer with a maximum firing range of 70 km is equipped with a modern 2A88 cannon of caliber 152 mm with a rate of fire of more than 10 rounds per minute, as well as modern systems for automating the process of aiming, target selection and firing of the main gun. Equipped. Navigation, according to TASS news agency.