Artillery in warfare half a century ago in Vietnam would have been useless if the whole battery were required to move every three minutes or take a direct hit with smart missiles until they were put out of action. Guns had to be surveyed in. Fire direction centers would have to be set up, complete with a table with a map to measure range and a FADAC computer the size of an oversize suitcase that needed a separate power source to run it. Artillery crews had to have their ammo at hand and laid out in a way they felt best. Before the first round went out there would need to be a manual check with slide stick like things and a fire direction officer would a have to pick the charge, all after the chart operator measured the range and deflection. The first round fired would have to be a marking round in the air in the vicinity of the target because the FO was only about sure of where he was...no GPS in those days. Then the actually explosive rounds would come next.
Scooting is a critical ability because the battlefield in Ukraine is under constant watch by drones, sensors, satellites, and, well, people with cell phones, which makes it hard to hide.
But while long-range precision rockets serve as a kind of scalpel, tube artillery does the knock-down, drag-out work of suppressing the enemy. Ukraine peaked at firing about 9,000 artillery shells a day early in the war, but that petered off to fewer than 1,800 a day in early 2024, according to the Royal United Services Institute. Russia, meanwhile, has fired between 7,000 and 16,000 shells a day, though it peaked at around 38,000 a day in June 2022.
Artillery shells are usually cheaper than rockets. They have a higher sustained rate of fire, and they work regardless of weather or enemy jamming, which can disrupt the guidance systems of precision missiles. Ukrainian soldiers and officials told Reuters last year that the 155mm shell in particular provides a crucial combination of explosive power and extended range.
