“We were not prepared for such wear and tear on the howitzers. They were never even tested under such conditions. This kind of ammunition consumption was not foreseen by either weapons manufacturers or development program managers”
Are you sure this is correct? What did they design them for? Or could this be intentional misinformation from the military to make the Russians think the howitzers are in disrepair?
In 1814 the British Navy fired cannons at Fort Henry for 25 straight hours. Even with muzzle loading cannons that’s quite a lot of rounds. Modern equipment should be capable of at least that.
I’ve read multiple negative reviews of the M777s durability repeatedly. They break down after short usage and Ukraine lacks the ability to repair them. We have sent lots of them and don’t even have more we can send to replace all the destroyed and broken down ones. So our latest package includes a small number of 105mm howitzers instead. It’s all we have now.
Here is just one example:
“Fakyu Fakfak
1 month ago
to have been an artillery gunner, those m777 breaks all the time. its even worst during winter warfare. if the gps lose his charge, the m777 become an other piece of artillery that take more than 30 minutes to set in battery position. at this point 105mm are better and faster to deploy without the gps sysyem. you also have to dig the arrows and the m777 you almost dig 2 trench everytime. during winter with a frozen ground its a shit show. but the m777 with a gps round can fire very accurate up to 40km of range. otherwise with regular ammo 16km. other inconvenant, those rounds are 90pds. untrained personnal cant carry long missions over long period of time without beeing exhausted. 105mm are 30 pds which make them better in my opinions for long warfare. if i remember they fire up to 12km.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html
The U.S. has essentially run out of the 155 mm howitzers to give to Ukraine; to send any more, it would have to dip into its own stocks reserved for U.S. military units that use them for training and readiness. But that’s a no-go for the Pentagon, military analysts say, meaning the supplies reserved for U.S. operations are highly unlikely to be affected.
I’m a retired Field Artillery officer, that statement is verifiably false. Both the M777 and HIMARS are field tested and have combat history.
It makes even less sense for the HIMARS. The firing element is contained in the ammo pod, which holds 6 rockets. Fire 6 rounds then discard the pod, pick up a new one and fire that one. The launcher truck and fire control systems do not see huge wear and tear from firing. The pod gets by far most of the damage.