The Rostec state defence conglomerate announced on Wednesday (27 December) that it will soon deploy its newest howitzers in the Northern Military District, which borders Finland and Norway.
According to Sergei Chemezov, the head of Rostec, testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery units has been completed, and mass production has already begun.
He claims that by the end of 2023, the first batch of pilot units will arrive.
“I think they will appear there (in the Northern Military District) soon since howitzers of this class are needed to provide an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of firing range,” Chemezov said.
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin changed the status of the Russian Northern Fleet, whose territory included the Russian Arctic, to the Northern Military District, which included the Murmansk region, which shares borders with Finland and Norway.
Moscow has accused the “collective West” of staging a proxy war against Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has warned that it will increase forces along its western borders following Finland’s accession to NATO.
Earlier in December, the Russian state news agency TASS reported that a single Coalition-SV howitzer had already been deployed to the Ukrainian frontline.
In addition to having a range of up to 70 kilometers (44 miles), the howitzers are equipped with 152 mm calibre 2A88 cannons with a firing rate of more than ten rounds per minute, as well as a modern system for automating the process of pointing guns, selecting targets and navigating.
