Commander of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate Lieutenant Normal Kyrylo Budanov has singled out the efficiency of North Korean 170mm self-propelled howitzers, throughout a current interview specializing in international nations’ help for the continued Russian conflict effort, lamenting the intense issues which these weapons’ superior capabilities have triggered for Ukrainian forces. North Korea is the one nation on the earth to discipline artillery of this calibre, with the system having entered service within the mid-late Seventies, and being modernised significantly over near half a century. With the gun’s Korean identify remaining unknown, it has been referred to within the West because the Koksan, after the area it was first noticed in by U.S. intelligence in 1978. Variants have in any other case been referred to in NATO member states because the M1978 and M1989, primarily based on the years wherein they have been first seen. The howitzer is surpassed in dimension solely by the Soviet 2S7M Malka, though this technique has a comparatively brief vary and was solely ever fielded in a small variety of items, in distinction to the Koksan which may be very extensively deployed by the Korean Individuals’s Army and by many estimates has the longest engagement vary on the earth.
Relating to the capabilities of the 170mm howitzer, the Ukrainian intelligence chief noticed: “Sadly, this gun is demonstrating itself fairly effectively in battle. It’s firing from fairly an extended vary, and it’s fairly good by way of accuracy.” “We’ve information that the Russian Federation was supplied 120 items. However I feel that provide will proceed as a result of these weapons are demonstrating themselves fairly effectively. That is unlucky for us as a result of that is artillery for long-range firing,” he elaborated. 120 weapons would in North Korean service equip roughly 4 military artillery regiments. It stays unsure whether or not the 170mm weapons are in service within the Russian Army, or whether or not they’re operated by Korean Individuals’s Army items stationed in Russia, with the likelihood remaining that the system is being utilized by each companies. In a earlier evaluation on October 31, 2024, Army Watch highlighted the likelihood that the 170mm weapons may be part of the continued Russian conflict effort, simply two weeks earlier than the primary photos confirmed their arrival in Russia. Subsequent batches have been filmed arriving in mid-December. Financing from exports of 170mm weapons to Russia may permit for an acceleration of manufacturing in North Korea, probably of latest variants modified to satisfy Russian Army necessities. Use of the weapons within the theatre might also lead Russia to fee the opening of a manufacturing line for 170mm ammunition domestically with North Korean help.
North Korea’s deployment of by far the world’s largest artillery drive has led each Russian and abroad analysts to evaluate artillery to be an space the place help from the nation can be significantly valued within the Ukrainian theatre. The Russian Army was by the tip of 2024 already estimated to have acquired as much as 9 million rounds of 122mm and 152mm artillery from the nation, with the switch of 170mm weapons permitting for a 3rd calibre to be offered. Newer photos have confirmed the adoption of 60mm and 140mm mortars to be used in frontline Russian Army items. Because of the sharp contraction each of Russia’s defence sector and of its floor forces within the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, the nation not solely fields mortar and artillery programs in only a fraction of the numbers that North Korea does, however can also be estimated to have a lot decrease productive capacities. In consequence, the Russian Army’s reliance on North Korean provides has continued to develop, with many Russian artillery items having come to rely nearly totally on ammunition provided by North Korea. At the very least six Russian artillery items at the moment supply between 50 and one hundred pc of their munitions from the nation. The continued battle is extensively considered fuelling a significant financial increase within the closely militarised East Asian state, footage from which has proven indicators of additional acceleration of its beforehand already important financial development.
