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Russia sends newest Howitzers to Finnish border. Photo/Reuters
MOSCOW – Russia will soon deploy its newest howitzer to the Northern Military District which borders Finland and Norway. This was revealed by the Russian defense company Rostec.
“Testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery unit has been completed and its mass production has begun,” Sergei Chemezov, head of Rostec, told state news agency RIA.
“The first pilot batch will be delivered at the end of 2023,” he said.
“I think they will appear there soon (in the Northern Military District), because howitzers of this class are needed to provide superiority over Western artillery models in terms of firing range,” Chemezov said.
In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin changed the status of the Russian Northern Fleet, whose primary zone of responsibility is the Russian Arctic, to the Northern Military District, including also the Murmansk region, which borders Finland and Norway.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has accused the “Western collective” of waging a proxy war with Russia and warned that Moscow would build up power on its western borders after Finland joined the US-led NATO alliance.
Earlier in December, Russian news agency TASS reported that a unit of Coalition-SV howitzers had been deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
The howitzer, with a range of up to 70 kilometers, is equipped with a modern 2A88 cannon of 152 mm caliber with a rate of fire of more than 10 rounds per minute, as well as modern systems for automating the process of firing the weapon, target selection and navigation.
(ahm)