Ukraine’s artillery brigades are choosing unguided 155 mm artillery shells over guided rounds such as the M982 Excalibur, and shifting the accuracy work onto the gun itself.
The commander of Ukraine’s 7th Artillery Brigade – known as “Gregit” – Lt. Colonel Vitaliy Kornienko (call sign “Hephaestus”) set out the practice in an interview with Oboronka, describing how his unit combines first-person-view (FPV) drones with tube artillery.
The pattern carries directly into Pakistan Army procurement, which is fielding comparable 155 mm/52-calibre platforms and building out its own artillery ammunition base.
What the Russia-Ukraine War Settled About Drones and Artillery
Since beginning in 2022, the Russia-Ukraine War has been the definitive reference case for studying the evolution of warfare between two states. There have been other state-on-state conflicts since, including the ongoing war between the United States and Iran and the India-Pakistan conflict of May 2025.
However, the Russia-Ukraine War is – thus far – the only one of these conflicts whose duration offers a long-term look at the impact of new technologies, the measures to counter them, and the counter-countermeasures.
It is a conflict where truisms and theories alike are forced to endure for many months at a time, exposing whether they were valid or what could break them.
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