The Employment Of Russian Artillery

Russian military units, such as the Battalion Tactical Group, have historically been organized around artillery as the primary combat arm, with maneuver forces supporting its effects. Operations typically begin with concentrated artillery fires to suppress and destroy a target area. Infantry and mechanized units then advance to seize and secure that area. Artillery then moves forward into the newly secured area under the protection of those forces, and the cycle repeats.

While Ukraine has replaced much of its artillery with strike drones, Russia uses its drones primarily to complement its artillery, employing strike drones more selectively. Forward-deployed drone teams search for Ukrainian defensive positions and relay those locations to artillery units, which then engage these targets. The drones often remain on station to conduct battle damage assessment. The Russian Ministry of Defense frequently posts this footage on Telegram, showing drone teams working in concert with artillery units to strike Ukrainian positions across the full battlefront.

Over the course of the war, Russia has lost a large amount of its artillery to Ukrainian drone strikes. Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed over 40,000 artillery systems, with Oryxspioenkop providing visual confirmation of approximately 3,100 artillery pieces. Regardless, Russia’s guns keep firing, supported by a defense industry set up to repair the damaged equipment. Additionally, Russia has pulled older systems, such as the D-20 152mm gun-howitzer, back into service to complement its newer self-propelled howitzers. While some systems may only have a range of 20 km, others can reach 40 km or more with rocket-assisted projectiles. Meanwhile, rocket artillery systems, such as the BM-30 Smerch, can strike targets at 70 km or beyond. This creates a layered network of fires along the battlefront.

Ammunition Resupply Is The Critical Vulnerability Of Russian Artillery

Despite the large number of reported losses, Russian artillery remains difficult to identify. Many systems are heavily camouflaged and defiladed, making them hard to spot unless they fire. After they fire, the howitzers relocate quickly to avoid counter-battery systems from identifying their position. These systems are either tracked or towed by tactical vehicles, allowing them to move off-road across varied terrain and avoid predictable routes. Furthermore, given the wide range of systems, they can be dispersed throughout Russian-controlled territory while still remaining within range of Ukrainian lines.

Given the sheer width and depth of the battlefield, this creates a fundamentally difficult search problem, with Ukrainian drones scanning a vast two-dimensional space to locate relatively small, well-concealed targets that frequently change positions. Even when detected, many Russian artillery positions are protected by counter-drone nets, soldiers with shotguns, or other defensive measures.

However, for these howitzers to sustain fire, they require a constant stream of ammunition. Russia is expending ammunition at a high rate, reportedly firing between 10,000 and 15,000 artillery rounds per day. This ammunition is delivered by supply trucks, such as the KamAZ-5350 or Ural-4320. These heavily laden vehicles are constrained to road networks as they move toward artillery positions, where the ammunition is then transferred to the gun crews.

Attacking these resupply trucks is much simpler for Ukraine than finding the artillery units themselves. Rather than searching a two-dimensional space, Ukrainian drones can focus on patrolling roads. As such, Ukraine has increasingly targeted the artillery resupply vehicles, striking them as far as 60 km beyond their defensive lines as they move along these routes. In some cases, drones can even wait along roadsides, conserving battery power until a resupply vehicle passes. The drone then takes off, pursues the vehicle, and strikes it, typically targeting its fuel tank.

In addition to following predictable paths, these ammunition trucks are relatively easy targets. Given their weight and wheeled design, they cannot easily maneuver off-road to evade drones. These heavily loaded vehicles also lack the capacity to carry extensive counter-drone protections, such as hedgehog or turtle-style defenses. As a result, a single strike drone is often sufficient to detonate the carried ammunition, destroying the vehicle in the process.

Ukraine Is Extending Its Kill Zones As Russia Adapts

Ukraine’s current defensive scheme consists of entrenched positions set behind a layered obstacle belt. In front of this belt is a “kill zone,” where any Russian personnel or equipment entering has a high likelihood of being detected and destroyed by Ukrainian drones. Russian drone operators typically push forward into these kill zones, but their artillery systems remain well outside them while still within range of Ukrainian defensive positions. By monitoring roads for ammunition resupply, Ukraine is effectively extending the reach of these kill zones deeper into Russian-controlled territory. Areas that were previously usable for artillery become difficult to sustain, as resupply vehicles are targeted before they can reach firing units. In effect, this creates a broader zone where Russian forces can physically operate but cannot be effectively resupplied, limiting their ability to fight.

This strategy aligns with Ukraine’s goal of maximizing the effectiveness of its weapon systems while conserving resources. In a prolonged war of attrition, success depends on the ability to sustain operations by using limited resources efficiently. Targeting resupply vehicles requires fewer drones and less time than hunting dispersed and concealed units, while often producing greater operational effects. A single strike can destroy large quantities of ammunition and disrupt multiple artillery systems at once, compared to the multiple drones often needed to destroy a single howitzer.

Ukraine’s targeting of Russian artillery resupply will have an immediate effect on the battlefield, as Russian units face increasing difficulty sustaining fire. Over the longer term, Russia will adapt, potentially increasing its reliance on strike and bomber drones as these systems become more prevalent in its arsenal. However, in the near term, Ukraine’s current approach provides a clear advantage, limiting the effectiveness of Russian artillery and constraining offensive operations.