War in Ukraine Volume 9

Soviet military doctrine long placed great emphasis upon the use of massed artillery and its use was honed to a fine art during the Great Patriotic War. In the early part of the Cold War this arm was allowed to atrophy in an era where it was expected that nuclear weapons would dominate the battlefield from the outset. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s however the Soviet artillery arm underwent a renaissance and large numbers of the resulting generation of weapons systems were passed on to the inheritor states of the USSR in the 1990s.

While Russia was able to maintain its Soviet-legacy artillery systems, and introduce some new developments, Ukraine was much less able to do so and in particular lacked the levels of ammunition reserves and manufacturing capability of Russia. Inevitably, Ukraine turned to the West and began to receive weapons and ammunition from NATO and allied nations.

Despite the critical role gun artillery plays in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, the technical aspects and histories of the individual artillery systems used by both sides have received relatively little attention in English, where they are often lumped together as generic ‘artillery’. This book aims to rectify this deficiency in the accessible literature and examine the major tube artillery systems and mortars employed by both sides in this conflict.

War in Ukraine Volume 9: Artillery 2022–2024 is illustrated throughout with original colour photographs and the @War series signature colour artworks.