Ukraine Destroys Record 122 Russian Artillery Pieces In One Day

Ukraine is destroying record amounts of Russian artillery by deploying increasingly effective systems to locate and target big guns. In the last few weeks the action has shifted up a gear, with Ukraine claiming a staggering 122 artillery pieces on 28th March, the highest daily total ever.

Ukraine reportedly destroyed some 1,644 guns in March, about triple the rate from 18 months ago. For comparison, the U.S. has about 3,000 artillery pieces, the British Army has 200 total.

While these numbers are impossible to verify, satellite images show Russia has been emptying its storage yards and warehouses of Soviet-era gear to make up the losses. There is also plenty of video evidence of Russian artillery being destroyed, and importing North Korean artillery of an odd caliber (170mm) is a strong indication Russia can no longer field enough guns on its own.

Artillery now plays a much decreased role; the Russians now rely more on glide bombs for tactical firepower at the front line. While there may be several reasons for the decline in artillery — loss of the scout drones to find targets and adjust fire, a reduction in the number of shells available – the destruction of guns on the front line looks like a significant factor. Is Russian artillery in danger of extinction?

Artillery Location 101

Until this war, the standard method for locating artillery was counter-battery radar. This is generally a large, vehicle-mounted system with a huge radar dish able to detect and track artillery shells in flight. A ballistic computer can follow the shell’s path, then calculate backwards and locate the point of launch within seconds.

Russia’s Zoopark is a typical counter-batter radar, able to detect a 155mm howitzer from more than 14 miles away, HiMARS from more than 20 miles and ATACMS from more than 40 miles.

Such systems have two big drawbacks. They are expensive, making them scarce, and the radar emissions are easy to detect and locate. This is why we see videos like this Ukrainian FPV destroying a $24 million Zoopark.

Such losses, and the increasing availability of reconnaissance drones, have led to a shift in tactics. According to a recent study by British thinktank CHACR, drones are taking over.

“Generally speaking, the Russians have shifted from reliance upon radar and sound ranging to the uncrewed aerial vehicle providing initial detection…. The uncrewed aerial vehicles are used to detect muzzle flashes of Ukrainian guns or their thermal signatures,” according to the report.

However, both the Russians and the Ukrainians are also moving to an early technology, one which was new and exciting in WW1: sound ranging.

Sound Rangers

William Lawrence Bragg was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, best known for his work on X-ray diffraction, but in 1915 he developed something with more direct impact. Working for the British Army, Bragg used widely-spaced microphones to automatically record distant gunfire via a galvanometer, a pen tracing the vibrations on an unspooling roll of paper similar to a seismograph. Bragg’s microphones were made of old ammunition boxes and wrapped in fabric to remove high-frequency noises like wind. This clumsy arrangement was still able to locate a firing position to within 10 meters from several miles away.

Acoustic systems were largely replaced by radar, which had greater range and accuracy and did not require widely spaced microphones. Now better microphones, plus, crucially cheap processing power and better algorithms (with a bit of AI machine learning thrown in) make acoustic detection far more capable at much lower cost.

And, since a microphone is passive, it cannot be detected as radar can.

There are multiple systems already in use, but in February Ukraine announced an improved system developed by Vidar. The system was reportedly already being deployed at the front line on a small scale, and was being put into mass production. According to the makers, a set light enough to be carried by one person includes five microphones and a central computer. The system can precisely triangulate artillery firing positions from 15 miles away, and an AI-based system filters out background battlefield noise like nearby explosions,

Affordable, efficient sound ranging which can be networked with command-and-control systems like Ukraine’s Delta would in principle mean that every Russian gun can be located as soon as it fires and resourced assigned to target it.

This is not a sudden leap forwards by Ukraine. We have seen similar systems evolving in parallel in the word of drone detection. In particular, the Zvook and Sky Fortress systems both use large numbers of networked microphones to pick up the distinctive sounds of drone engines. Sky Fortress, with six thousands microphones on poles set up around Ukraine, is said to be so efficient that it picks up most of the drone entering the country and transmits location data to Delta within 12 seconds.

Spiking The Guns With Drones

Historically, counter-battery fire was carried out by big guns, leading to ‘artillery duels.’ These days, the biggest killer of artillery seems to be small drones. While it is easy to kill or injure the gunners, the artillery pieces themselves have been difficult to destroy. Blast and shrapnel do little damage to what is essentially a large mass of solid metal.

However, the Ukrainians have perfected the art of targeting gun barrels with drones carrying shaped-charge warheads. A direct hit puts the weapon out of action, and since the Russians have very limited capacity to produce new gun barrels, the damage tends to be permanent.

And while acoustic detection may not provide an accurate enough fix for artillery fire, for an FPV which can search the area and home in on the target it is more than accurate enough.

The latest monthly compilation from the Birds of Magyar drone unit shows, among many others, 19 strikes on Russian artillery barrels from very close range. These strikes still appear to be carried out manually, although a gun barrel would be a straightforward target for an automated attack system.

In addition, a report by Russian news agency TASS from March 30^th states, without giving details, that Ukraine has recently extended the range of its FPV attacks to 25 miles (40 kilometers), roughly double the previous range. According to TASS, long-range attacks have struck “the Zaporozhye, Orekhov, Dzerzhinsk, Kremennaya and Kharkov directions of the special military operation, as well as in Russia’s borderline areas of Belgorod and Kursk.” In other words, they are now everywhere.

It is not clear whether these are longer-ranged rotorcraft, aircraft-type drones, or FPVs brought into the area by drone-carrying motherships. Whichever type they are, they are likely a factor in the spike in artillery losses.

The exact reasons for the decline of artillery are not clear. But on both sides, it has become less of a factor and more strikes are carried out by drones. Whether there is any road back for artillery remains to be seen. But more and better artillery detectors, combined with more and better means to destroy guns, will be deployed in the coming months and years. That would put artillery on course for a sharp decline with no obvious prospect of recovery.