Artillery

Napoleon called the cannon "the god of war" [as did Stalin] and Bismarck is said to have once proclaimed that "the truth is only within the range of the cannon." Especially in modern warfare, artillery became the number one killer in the war. According to some statistics, during the Second World War, the casualties caused by artillery exceeded 60% of all casualties in the battlefield.

The term “artillery” means large calibre systems capable of engaging ground targets by delivering primarily indirect fire. Such artillery systems provide the essential indirect fire support to combined arms formations. Large calibre artillery systems are guns, howitzers, artillery pieces combining the characteristics of guns and howitzers, mortars and multiple launch rocket systems with a calibre of 100 millimetres and above.

The mission of the Field Artillery is to destroy, neutralize, or suppress the enemy by cannon, rocket, and missile fires and to help integrate all fire support assets into combined arms operations. Field artillery weapons are normally employed in masked or defilade positions to conceal them from the enemy.

A basic trend in the devalopment of modern field tube artillary is a rise in maneuvarability — the development of self-propalled artillery to raplace pieces towed by mechanical traction. It is thought that only salf-propallad artillary is eapable of providing highar speed of travel and better cross-country ability over broken terrain. Self-propelled guns differ advantageously from towed guns in yet another respect. They require vastly less tine to be put into firing position with a smaller number of servicing personnel. Depending on the situation, thay can be speedily concentrated or dispersed.

Artillery generally refers to large-caliber weaponry that are operated by a crew, as opposed to small arms or weaponry carried and fired by individual troops. The term “cannon” is a general term used when referring to artillery. It refers to an artillery gun or a howitzer.

Types of artillery include:

• Guns – Which fires at a high muzzle velocity through relatively long barrels and with a flat trajectory. Examples would be antiaircraft or antitank guns. Guns serve for the annihilation of open vertical targets as well as for long-range fire. The characteristic features of guns are long barrels, high muzzle veloeities of projectiles, flat trajectory, high rate of fire. They surpass all weapons of other types in maximum effective range and penetration effect of shells. However, givan their caliber, guns are the heaviest weapons since their long and heavy barrel and the great recoil on firing necessitate strong and massive carriages.

• Howitzers – Artillery weapons that have relatively short barrels, lower muzzle velocities, and more parabolic trajectories. Howitzers are Intended for the destruction of defensive installations and for hitting targets under cover. Therefore, the flight path of howitzer shells is steep and plunging; muzzle velocity is low (400-600 m/sec or less). Howitzer barrels are short: calibers large; shells heavy; maximum angles of elevation 65-75°. Howitzers have a multisection charge, the magnitude of which can be varied imediately before loading. The nunber of charges for howitzers runs as high as 10-13. Variation in the curvature of the trajectory and range of fire is thus achieved with a constant angle of elevation. The fact that the charge is multisection makes a howitzer round more economical. Given the same caliber, the weight of a howitzer is a half or a third the weight of a gun, and given the sane weight as a gun, a howitzer can have a considerably larger caliber.

• Gun-howitzers (howitzer-guns) are pieces of an intermediate type, capable of performing fire missions of both a howitzer and gun character.

• Mortars – Generally small tactical munitions fired from short tubes. Mortars are fired with a high trajectory and have a relatively short range. Heavy mortars are artillery pieces with howitzer characteristics developed to the maximum. They are intended for the destruction of especially strong defensive installations. They have large calibers, short barrels and a very steep trajectory. Fire from heavy mortars is usually delivered at angles of elevation greater than 45° — hence the term "mortar fire". Mortars are smoothbore weapons firing unrotative finned projectiles — mortar shells. They differ from rifled pieces (guns and howitzers) in the simplicity of their construction, light weight, and steep trajectory (angles of elevation from 45 to 85°). Mortars are employed to hit enemy personnel and fire weapons in open country and under artificial and natural cover; in foxholes, trenches, dugouts and ravines, behind reverse slopes, in woods. The great curvature of trajectory makes it easy to select and camouflage firing positions for mortars, and makes it possible to deliver fire from deep cover (ditches, ravines, woods) and over the head of friendly forces. The nost valuable characteristic of the mortar (minomet) is its light weight despite the great power of mortar shell effect.

• Recoilless rifles are employed in the nain to fire on tanks with shaped-charge shells. The distinctive feature of the construction is that there are nozzles in the breech of the barrel for the escape of gases to the outside, i.e. in the direction opposite to that of the shell's notion. In the process, dynamic equilibration takes place — the barrel remains motionless despite the shot. The principal nerit of recoilless rifles is their light weight.

• The rocket systems of field rocket artillery are intended, as a rule, for the delivery of Salvo fire on comparatively large targets and areas with powerful shells of fragmentation, high-explosive and other effect. Such systems have a rocket shell equipped with a tail unit, which is unrotative in flight, or a spin-stabilised missile which spins in flight. Both types of projectile ara of the powder type and are unguided. The rocket engine makes it possible, in principle, to eliminate the effect of recoil and therefore to get rid of cumbersome carriages and barrels made of heavy steel.

The function and capabilities of the separate field gun and howitzer units has merged to a single system having the capabilities of both. Along with the merger of function, system weight has drastically decreased while weapon impulse has settled toward the upper end of the range. With the decrease in overall weight, both the non-recoiling and the recoiling masses are affected. While the merger of function and weight reduction complicates recoil management, the adoption of a single system to be supported significantly simplifies training and both support and logistics requirements.

The global howitzer systems market is projected to grow with a 10.1% CAGR throughout the forecasted period, to reach a volume of US$72.1 billion. This big increase is partially explained by the war in Ukraine which has mainly impacted two of the largest markets, namely the North American and European. Europe is expected to account for 38.8% of the total market in the 2024-2032 period, with a volume of US$28.01 billion, marking a 9.3% CAGR.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted some of the key characteristics of the modern battlefield against a peer enemy. Long-range fires have always been in the plans of all armies, but there an inherent conception that these would be better served with missile systems, which among other characteristics provide accuracy. While this is true the war in Ukraine has also highlighted the importance of volume of fire, which cannot be adequately served by missile systems.

The importance of volume in fires has remained at the centrepiece of Russian (and Chinese) tactical planning. These ground forces can deploy thousands of howitzers to dominate the battlefield and open the way for troops to seize their targets. Although that issue could be tackled by the acquisition of a proportionally if not equally large number of howitzers from the western countries and their allies, the costs are prohibiting.

Joint procurement from security or political organizations’ member-states (e.g. the EU and NATO) could provide the organisational, legal and financial framework to form economies of scale and reduce the impact of independent procurement and future support.

Nevertheless, the market is not only determined by pricing, but political factors too. As in every major platform procurement political support is important to successfully close an agreement. Howitzer systems do not escape from that realm.

What is currently important also is the ability of industries to manufacture howitzer systems. The war in Ukraine has overstretched the industrial capacity. Despite the collective actions on behalf of the EU countries and the US, it is a challenging task that will require every production facility available to join the effort. Looking into that from a different angle, it can be said that opportunities are not only found in sales of the systems, but also in the form of M&A throughout the supply chain, with possible further consolidation opportunities being ahead.

Even though military technology has advanced significantly in areas such as cybersecurity, unmanned systems and telecommunications, among several other ones, boots on the ground are the determining factor for victory and the need to support them by artillery fires remains unchanged as a critical factor. Just like during the two world wars, the shift to near-peer or peer-to-peer conflicts, such as the one taking place in Ukraine, show that artillery systems are key for the outcome of operations. The tempo of this kind of operations will be high. That translates into high volumes of ammunition consumed and increased losses of lives and equipment. The industry is trying to increase production of ammunition and equipment to cover the gaps created after the donation or sale of equipment and ammunition to Ukraine, and for the continuation of the support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The howitzer market is better consolidated as opposed to other segments (e.g. ammunition), with limited companies producing howitzers in every region. During the Cold War the US dominated the market with its howitzers being used by most of the countries of the western world. However, that gradually changed with local companies expanding their market share making it more competitive compared to a few decades ago. A study from Market Forecast Amsterdam shows that the global howitzer systems market is projected to grow with a 10.1% CAGR throughout the 2024-2032 period, to reach a total volume of US$72.1 billion over this period based on data collected for all the inventories and future, stated or derived opportunities, the "Howitzers Systems - Market and Technology Forecast to 2032" study.