Leaving their hiding place in the forest, the team operating the Ukrainian PzH 2000 howitzer of the 43rd Ukrainian Artillery Brigade had only a few minutes to fire, before having to immediately return to cover to avoid being hit by unmanned aerial vehicles.
This `cat and mouse` situation is taking place across the hills and valleys of the eastern front, where Russian forces actively deploy drones to hunt for high-value Ukrainian artillery.
The Russian army is stepping up ground attacks along a 1,000-km front line, putting pressure on the last major cities Kiev still controls in eastern Donetsk province.
To counter the advance of Russian forces and prevent the enemy from continuing to `spread` artillery shells on the defense line, the Ukrainian army urgently needed counter-battery firepower.
The PzH 2000 artillery of the 43rd Ukrainian Brigade opened fire towards Russian forces in Donetsk on May 4.
Members of Ukraine’s 43rd Brigade, a unit operating in Donetsk, said they were facing increasing pressure from drones.
`The enemy used drones to attack us before, but not as much as now,` said the commander of a PzH 2000 artillery battery nicknamed `Lyova`.
Lyova said his unit was attacked four times by Russian Lancet unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but almost no one was injured thanks to the thick armor of the German-made artillery model.
Andriy Stavnychyi, a senior officer in the artillery battery operations team, feels particularly uncomfortable with reconnaissance UAV models like the Orlan or the more modern Russian Supercam series.
`There were times when we had a lot of work to do, but couldn’t move because there was always something flying above,` this soldier said.
For Ukrainian artillery, cheap reconnaissance drones are often a bigger threat than Russia’s multimillion-dollar counter-fire radar systems, according to Rob Lee, an expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).
Ukrainian forces in January destroyed Russia’s most modern counter-fire radar system, Yastreb-AV, right after Moscow announced the deployment of this weapon to the battlefield.
To deal with drones, the PzH 2000 artillery units of Brigade 43 often had to change their hiding places, hiding deep in the trees and wrapping wooden frames around the vehicles.
However, this is still only a temporary solution.
While the electronic warfare systems have not been delivered, Brigade 43 will continue to have to play `cat and mouse` with Russian drones to avoid losses.
The ‘cat and mouse’ battle between artillery and drones in Ukraine
The PzH 2000 cannon fires in a video posted in February 2023.
PzH 2000 is considered one of the best self-propelled artillery systems in the world.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last month that Moscow would increase its targeting of Ukraine’s Western weapons warehouses.
Lyova revealed that in addition to drones, Russian forces also used many other weapons to attack his unit, including Krasnopol 152 mm smart artillery shells equipped with a laser guidance system.
According to expert Lee, Ukraine’s counter-fire capabilities will be seriously reduced if they lose the PzH 2000 complexes, creating conditions for Russian forces to `deploy artillery in a more daring way`.
Even if they successfully conserve these precious artillery pieces, the 43rd Brigade is currently unable to fully utilize their effectiveness.
The unit’s PzH 2000 gunners said they did not have enough specialized 155 mm ammunition, which is designed to optimize the gun’s performance and help it reach a range of more than 40 km.
Ukrainian PzH 2000 artillery in combat in the summer of 2022. Photo: Radio Svoboda
If provided with increased-range ammunition, they could target similar Russian self-propelled guns far from the front lines, pushing them further back and eliminating the enemy’s counter-fire capabilities.
Lyova said his unit was fully equipped with ammunition when Ukraine launched its counteroffensive campaign last summer, but they now fire much less than then, only 8-15 artillery shells per day.
Repairing broken PzH 2000 artillery is another challenge for Brigade 43. They do not have many spare parts, while the cannon’s positioning system often malfunctions, making it difficult to fix right on the battlefield.
According to Stavnychyi, some parts in the PzH 2000 artillery can be replaced with components in French and Italian artillery models that the unit operates.
`However, even with spare parts and artillery shells, the challenge from the enemy’s ‘birds’ is still there,` he said, referring to Russian drones.