Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov confirmed the fact of the transfer of the first self-propelled howitzer PzH 2000 to Ukraine last week, June 21. Now BILD published report on the work of self-propelled howitzers at the front.
Journalists reported that the location of the PzH 2000 was classified. The self-propelled howitzer are camouflaged by forest, in addition, everyone is forbidden to use mobile phones so as not to be detected by the electronic intelligence of the Russian army.
A Ukrainian artilleryman named Ruslan said that together with his colleagues he spent 36 days learning how to work with the new system in Germany, although initially they were going to learn the PzH 2000 in 10 days. He praised the German howitzer and noted that it was superior to the Soviet production systems that had previously been used.
“We are very grateful to the German Chancellor and the German people for these self-propelled howitzers. This is a perfect weapon, one such howitzer is worth three Soviet howitzers that we used before. The Russians still have an advantage in artillery. But we hope that we can change that through new arms shipments. We need more!” - the soldier said.
Ukraine received a division of self-propelled howitzers PzH 2000 of 12 vehicles. 7 items were donated by Germany, 5 more by the Netherlands. Now Germany is considering the possibility of transferring 6 more PzH 2000s.
PzH 2000 is a German self-propelled howitzer developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann in 1998. Built on the chassis of the Leopard 2 tank, it is characterized by a high level of system automation and rate of fire.
Equipped with a 155 mm howitzer with a 52 caliber barrel. Ammunition includes 60 shells and 228 modular propellant charges. According to the manufacturer company, the PzH 2000 is capable of firing three standard projectiles in nine seconds or ten in 56 seconds at a range of up to 30 km.