AFU officer Chornovol: Bohdana SPG, which has range of 42 km, is currently only supplied with 15-km shells. Long-range rounds make up just 5% of MoD purchases. VIDEO
The Bohdana self-propelled gun (SPG), which has a range of 42 km, is currently supplied along the entire front line with only M107 shells with a maximum range of 15 km. The Ministry of Defence 's procurement of long-range shells for Bohdana is only 5%.
This was reported on Facebook by a combat officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Tetiana Chornovol, Censor.NET reports.
The servicewoman noted that recently there have been cases when the Bohdana self-propelled artillery system has not hit the target.
"Earlier, when the Bohdanas fired, we FPV pilots used to envy them… Say the enemy took cover in a solid building, our radio horizon’s off, EW is jamming us, windows are sealed, and our warheads are light, so we can’t do much to the structure...Then we’d hear the launch, the Bohdana fires, a couple of big badabooms, right on target, and that’s it — job done. But lately, for some reason, it’s been the other way around. The Bohdanas keep firing and stubbornly miss. For instance, in this video, there’s a structure where six orcs ran inside. While we were prepping an FPV with a large HE charge for takeoff, the target was being shelled by a Bohdana. We were still in the air — the Bohdana kept firing and still missed. One good thing: its fire kept the orcs from leaving the building. And then we arrived… You can see the result in the video," Chornovol writes.
According to Chornovol, it turns out that the world's best long-range self-propelled artillery system, which can shoot 42 km, is now supplied along the entire front line with only M107 shells with a maximum range of 15 km.
I rang the Bohdana crew chief, boasting, "We put your Bohdana to work and honestly, isn't this not the first time something's gone wrong with your Bohdanas?""Ah," he replied, "it's all about the ammunition." It turns out the Bohdana, the world-class long-range SPH capable of firing out to 42 km and now operating across the front, is being supplied almost exclusively with M107 rounds, which have a maximum range of 15 km. Only 5 percent of the shells procured by the Ministry of Defence for the Bohdana are long-range rounds. In the field, then, about 95% of Bohdana rounds are 15-km types and only 5% are for 40 km. "As you can see, artillery crews don't have much choice," the Ukrainian Armed Forces officer said.
However, she noted that the "maximum" range is not the working range, it is not the target range.
"When I go to Wikipedia, I read that the deviation from the target of the M107 is more than 100 metres at the maximum. It is best to shoot such shells only at 10km-12km. So, it becomes clear why Bohdan missed the target. In particular, they did not hit the target in the video. It was at a distance of 14 km from our FPV fighters. And we set up a position on the very edge to reach further, our position is underground and in concrete, so we are fine," Chornovol writes.
She stressed that it is absolutely abnormal when a large self-propelled artillery system is forced to enter the "kilL zone" and fire in the open, as it immediately becomes a "juicy target" for the enemy.
"All enemy FPV drones then try to chase it down. It’s a real lottery for the crew, for the howitzer… Moreover, it’s a foolish, pointless risk, because that same SPH can operate well beyond our lines from tree-lines. From there it can safely and accurately engage the enemy with long-range rounds, rather than as now — pointless work under fantastical danger," the servicewoman writes.
"But that’s not all. Then I phoned the artillery crews and they stunned me even more. It turns out the shells the MoD has supplied for the Bohdanas across the front aren’t just the wrong spec — they’re garbage even within their category. Artillerymen say they can only fire accurately out to about 8 km with those rounds. So to guarantee a hit on the target I showed in the video, the Bohdana would have had to fire into the middle of enemy positions," Chornovol continues.
According to the officer, those rounds were also bought from a country that has long been an ally of Russia.
"To be honest, it hurts me terribly. A long time ago, as a journalist, I would have been glad to unearth such damning facts… Now I am crazily angry and in despair. Those shells have effectively wiped artillery support on the front to zero. And these are our lives — my unit’s, and those of our neighbours. It’s basic: in the FPV era, with the kill-zone expanding, you must enable any weapon to operate at its maximum range. Instead, they’ve downgraded the Bohdana from a reliably accurate 35 km reach to 8 km. I cannot fathom whether it’s stupidity, cynicism, or sheer indifference from those who procure for the front. And although I’m no longer an artillery soldier, I’ll speak for all of us gunners: ‘Dear, deeply civilian ministers of defence — try at least a little to understand weapons and send to the front what’s actually needed. For the Bohdana self-propelled artillery system in the FPV era you need long-range rounds,’" the servicewoman emphasized.
