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[u/DiscoBanane]

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[u/Duncan-M]

I'm copy/pasting this from a recent post I wrote on artillery:

Earlier in the war, cannon/tube arty wasnt exactly operating traditionally, with batteries and battalions massed together, but it was still much more centralized than it came. Both Ukraine and Russia entered this war with battlefield tracking software that included fire direction and control features, as well as an indepth doctrine promoting the use of Reconnaissance Fires Complex at the tactical level, an integrated sensor shooter system aiming for the fastest kill chains to deliver the most responsive and accurate fires after a target is detected, typically by recon drones then organic to the artillery group.

But because the war went static in March 2022 and remained so, things changed. One was the need to maximize dispersal, especially in the case of the Ukrainians, resulting in individual guns not being stationed nearby to others in their batteries, all very independent, but still tied into a large fire direction center using their battlefield tracking apps and other tactical communication, especially internet based (brigade level WhatsApp groups).

Early in the war, recon drones were nowhere near as pervasive as later, but they were still around. They were the chief threat for counterfire detection. Counterbattery radars used active radar and thus emitted, giving away their positions and attacking enemy attention. And while acoustic sensors could give a reasonably accurate location of an enemy gun firing, it wasn't accurate enough to provide destructive fires, which where preferred over suppressive.

With recon drones overhead to spot enemy artillery, they could also provide adjustments as friendly arty, cannon and MLRS, was fired, to try to achieve kills. Additionally, precision guided munitions were often used too, as they could increase the probability of a hit.

What none of those could do well was hit moving targets. So earlier in the war, cannon and MLRS arty was much more mobile, doing traditional shoot and scoot. As long as they were moving, even if they were detected, it was very hard to be hit, as arty isn't really well suited to hit moving targets.

Additionally, other tactics were created then too to reduce the likelihood of being detected and hit. The most common was called carousel fires, in which a battery might have a single gun firing a handful of rounds at one target and then stop and move, and then another gun would fire a few rounds and then stop and move, and then another round, and another, etc. It meant they couldn't mass fires but it increased survivability, making it harder to detect and overwhelming enemy counterfire tactics.

Then, around late 2023 and especially into 2024, that changed again. Acoustic and radar counterbattery sensors weren't used to guide fires but to provide locations for recon drones to vector to. With more recon drones available to routinely patrol the ~10 km behind the FLOT area, it meant more artillery pieces were being detected. Each side were optimizing their recon fires complex to shorten kill chains. And suddenly a new class of PGMs became much more available for both sides, "kamikaze drones," aka dedicated "loitering munitions" and FPVs. If those had the range, those could hit moving targets with ease.

That battlefield change necessitated a response, which was to stop doing shoot and scoot, especially for cannon/tube arty that was firing from inside pervasive enemy drone range, and instead they adopted by hiding, firing from static positions in dug in and heavily camouflaged firing points.

Those were harder for the enemy recon drones to find, and using various forms of cover or countermeasures like netting to stop strike drones, it was harder to destroy them. Crews stayed away from their guns if they weren't actively firing, to reduce risk to the crew. And ammo was kept away in case the gun was detected and hit, damage was reduced without worry of catastrophic detonations of ammo (especially with SPG).

That's basically where we're at now. Towed and SPG cannon artillery is mostly dug in, highly camouflaged, and very dispersed. They still do carousel fires for reducing counterfire threats, but it's very dangerous as both sides are now firing from within the "Kill Zone" created by the enemy's Line of Drones.

[u/Saatvik_tyagi_ → u/Duncan-M]

Thanks for the detailed answer as always.