Many M-777 artillery pieces were provided to Ukraine by the United States and other western nations, but the majority of these cutting-edge artillery systems were either destroyed or taken by Russian Forces.
In the past, the West had hopes that the battlefield in Ukraine would be the area where their given weaponry would “shine” and that it would serve as a “unique” advertisement for those weapons, drawing in a lot of interested foreign buyers.
However, weapons that were intended to “transform the battlefield”—such as Turkey’s TB-2 UAV and French Caesar self-propelled howitzers—failed one after another. The US M-777 lightweight “super gun” is, however, “the highlight of the disappointment.”
The US Army has been using the M-777 lightweight howitzer, and despite its high price, it has drawn many overseas purchasers from countries like India and Saudi Arabia thanks to its remarkable performance on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The US Army leadership believed that the M-777 artillery guns would become a “game-changing weapon” on the battlefield, particularly in the Donbass, in the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine War when the Ukrainian Army was lacking in artillery guns.
The M-777 cannon was praised by the Ukrainian and Western media when it first arrived on the Ukrainian battlefield, who said that this was a weapon that transformed the battlefield and effectively suppressed the Russian Army’s “outdated” artillery.
The M-777 artillery was “exposed” on the Ukrainian battlefield following the first “excitement,” and the rate of damage and destruction was much higher than the quantity of modern guns. What then is the reason?
Savchuk, the captain of the Ukrainian army’s artillery unit who was captured by the Russian army, recently disclosed that Ukrainian soldiers frequently tossed away defective M-777 howitzers instead of repairing them.
In this context, Savchuk clarified that despite having received training, Ukrainian forces lacked the necessary equipment and replacement parts to fix damaged M-777 cannons.
Along with that, Savchuk also brought out the painful fact that Western weaponry are being shattered and damaged at a higher pace than other weapons provided to Ukraine as military assistance. Overall, contrary to what the western media reported, the potency of the Western weapons did not outweigh the Russian ones on the Ukrainian battlefield.
Russian-made weapons are more reliable and simpler to repair than American-made weapons; for instance, fixing the M-777 howitzer takes a lot of time and effort. The Russian military will not hold back until the Ukrainian soldiers have mastered artillery repair procedures as long as the battle is ongoing.
If the soldiers in a fight are unable to manage their equipment, for instance, repairing the damage, it will result in defeat. It also demonstrates how crucial it is to rely solely on military hardware.
When you have a weapon in your possession, it is not enough to only know how to use it; you also need to know how to care for it. The Ukrainian Army, not the west, is obviously to blame for the “failures” of Western weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Army “abandoned” a number of M-777 cannons because they could not be repaired or because the “escape” was occurring too quickly. As a result, the Ukrainian Army’s rate of weapon attrition was even higher than that of Western aid.
The Ukrainian army’s objections and Russian rage on the battlefield ultimately led to the western-supplied weapons becoming the victim.
