Soldiers from the 45th Artillery Brigade showcased an Archer self-propelled gun handed over by Sweden.
Footage of the new howitzer was published by Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Ground Forces.
To celebrate the Missile and Artillery Troops Day, the Ukrainian military published a video showing one of the handed-over Swedish Archer self-propelled guns.
Ukrainian Archers are equipped with special Barracuda camouflage, but they do not have a remotely controlled machine gun turret. Judging by the personnel, wheeled howitzers are already on the front lines and performing combat missions.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the 45th Separate Artillery Brigade was armed with several battalions of Msta-B, Giacint-B 152mm towed howitzers, as well as D-20.
However, with the growing shortage of 152mm ammunition and the failure of old Soviet systems, they were gradually replaced by western FH70 and М777 155mm howitzers.
- Soldiers of the 45th Separate Artillery Brigade fire from an M777 howitzer, March 2023. Photo credits: 45th Separate Artillery Brigade
- Soldiers of the 45th Separate Artillery Brigade fire from an FH70 howitzer, October 2023. Photo credits: 45th Separate Artillery Brigade
Currently, the brigade also receives self-propelled artillery in addition to the towed artillery systems. Ukraine could get a battalion—a batch of eight Archers.
Archer
The Archer ACS is a Swedish 155mm self-propelled gun developed by BAE Systems Bofors. Deliveries of this equipment to the Swedish army began only in 2013.
The artillery part of the self-propelled howitzer is fully automated. Its base is an FH 77B 155mm gun with a 55-caliber barrel length. The autoloader allows it to send six shells in 30 seconds on different trajectories.
The artillery system can fire all NATO ammunition, including BONUS ammunition and M982 Excalibur adjusted shells in service with the UK.
The maximum range of fire is 30 km with a conventional projectile (HE), 40 km with a rocket-assisted projectile (HE ER), and 60 km with a corrected Excalibur projectile.
The self-propelled howitzer is built on a modified chassis of a Volvo A30D all-terrain truck with a wheel arrangement of 6×6. Its combat and engine compartments are armored, and the cabin is protected from bullets from small arms and debris.