A second group of Ukrainian soldiers has successfully concluded their training on the powerful AS90 155mm self-propelled guns Britain is donating to Ukraine.
To celebrate the end of the rigorous three-week course, they participated in a live firing exercise at a location in southern England.
The British Army say here that the soldiers received customised training from instructors at the Royal School of Artillery (RSA) as part of the United Kingdom’s long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Russia’s unprovoked invasion. The participants are already serving members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are now skilled in all aspects of operating and maintaining the AS90 system.
However, the training presented its own set of challenges. In order to expedite the process and allow the gun crews to return to Ukraine as quickly as possible, the course was designed to provide only the most essential skills. Notably, AS90 training for British soldiers usually takes much longer.
The live firing exercise aimed to familiarise the trainee gun crews with the sound, feel, and smell of the weapon, ensuring that they can fire it safely and effectively.
Lieutenant Colonel Ed Botterill, Chief Instructor at the RSA, explained the training approach and was quoted as saying:
“These soldiers are not recruits, however the range of military experience varies from just a few months to decades, and we have had to tailor the training accordingly. We have delivered a much compressed training package in which we have taught them how to use, fire and maintain the AS90.”
According to the British Army:
“The UK was the first country to donate by granting in kind a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks with armoured recovery and repair vehicles, as well as a number AS90 guns at “high readiness” and more at “varying states of readiness.” The AS90 is an agile, highly accurate, modern artillery system which provides armoured protection to its crew whilst enabling them to strike targets at long ranges.”
Good, but we’re going to need more than 14 Archer systems to replace these. I’m not sure how impactful these are going to be in Ukraine considering their limited firing range, but hopefully they can help the Ukrainians in useful ways.
It is more the effective range of the AS90. How accurately can it be used?
The Russian kit has range but a very low hit to kill probability.
We know the Russians are expert at cratering a field and you look at a lot of the drone footage there often isn’t an obvious target for 100’s of meters. Which screams appalling accuracy and poor fire control. Which is great as they are using up their limited supply of ammunition hitting empty fields and buildings.
I was pondering whether to mention accuracy, but decided not to since I’m not very familiar with how accurate the AS-90 is considered to be. I’m quite confident, though, that Archer has almost double the effective range and that if we actually get meaningful numbers (with any interim purchases and MFP exceeding AS-90 quantities) things look less muddy and depressing for the RA in the future. Then again, we have to look at initial numbers of AS-90 ordered which if I remember correctly were 170 or so. As for Ukrainian use, I’m not sure about how accurate they are, but… Read more »
Hi eclipse. The AS90 has pretty good accuracy up to it’s max range. The vehicle is located by a very accurate Ring laser gyro based navigation system, hence it’s bearing to target is also very accurate. Barrel wear is measured by a MVMD device above the barrel which feeds into the ballistic solution. So, given it’s limited range, it’s likely to be able to put 100’s of kgs of HE onto target with none of the spread that the Russians display thus conserving ammunition stocks.
cheers
Plus I believe Ukraine has been delivered the 155mm Excalibur guided shell. Which work’s equally well in AS90.
👍
I agree.
I’d be restively confident that RN alone would take out the Russian surface fleet.
The Russian sub fleet is a bigger threat.
I don’t see RuAF std standing up to NATO at all.
The army and its total disregard for casualties gives it a strange afterlife quality……
I think someone has already mentioned that these 14 systems are a batch 1 with more to follow, maybe Boxer/MAN 8×8/10×10 truck based systems and then there’s the tracked requirement.
Yes, Quentin, pretty sure I’m the one who mentioned that. In any case, I doubt that the number brought into service will exceed those taken out. However you look at it, the AS-90 has not had any significant upgrades since entering service and is nearing the end of its service life. Even if the MoD announces a purchase of more truck based systems, this will be paired with more AS-90 donations or retirements and the tracked artillery programme being pushed back.
The German military have just signed a contract for a further 10 PzH 2000s, for some E185 million with options for three more batches of 6. If we were to go/purchase a tracked variant, that SPH would be my choice of system.
So are the uk archers based on the volvo truck?
Due to the timescale of the delivery, I’m assuming it will be the Volvo 6×6 all-terrain chassis.
LINK
Unsure where this will lead. “UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace and Swedish Minister of Defence Pål Jonson signed a letter of intent (LOI) in London on 29 March on a bilateral strategic partnership. The Swedish and UK ministries of defence (MoDs) said in press releases on 28 and 29 March, respectively, that the signing of the LOI strengthened bilateral military cooperation and the two countries defence relationship. The two MoDs linked Jonson and Wallace’s meeting in London to Sweden’s sale of 14 Archer self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) to the UK, which the Swedish MoD said would enable the… Read more »
Why?. 14 BAe Archer will deliver the same effect as 40+ AS90s. AS90 does not have limited range 24.7km with standard NATO Ammunition was the specification when it was introduced into service along with a 3 round burst fire capability. AS90 still meets that criteria, the reason we didn’t adopt “Braveheart” was that the Depth Fire requirement would be meet with GMLRS and that the RAF insist that the Depth Battlefield is still their domain.
Absolutely – I read elsewhere we are donating 32 x AS90s – that’s a lot considering we have precious little to begin with. Replacing 32 with 14 on paper seems to not add up but the Archer purchase is intended only as a stop-gap, so I can understand the decision.
The Drive have a twitter link to a Krab being replenned in the open being hit by a Russian loitering munition – ‘Lancet’ (?).
Firing the gun is one thing, fighting the gun is a whole, lot more, complicated.
Who amongst us, would replen a Gun in an open field? Not sure, but it seems all the crew were taken out by the blast wave – you don’t need shrapnel, waves will give your internal organs the good news as well. RIP.
I see the Russia seems to have some degree of success with loitering munitions against SPG , would arming a support team with combat shotguns be capable of destroying these on their final approach, or a 40mm launcher with proximity fuse
Do we have any AS90’s left in service? I don’t mean in kept in storage somewhere but with real live crews who roll them in and out of the hanger several times a week, maintain them, and train on them?
I’ve heard that what we have left is all in storage, that can’t be right, can it?
Steve, why do you think that?
AS90 is our only SPG and has not yet been replaced by a successor. It is in service with 1RHA and 19 Regt RA. So that should be 48 guns. Plus those guns in service with the Trg Org, in the Repair Pool and in the Attrition Reserve. OSD is 2032.
Thanks Graham,
I’d heard they’d all been taken out of service already which didn’t sound quite right.
Hopefully they aren’t firing off too many live rounds in training, as there is a war on and the 155mm shells are proving difficult to come by. 10 years to replenish our national stockpile currently is a bit worrying.