According to information provided by the Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby during an interview on May 9, 2022, Ukraine is specifically asked for self-propelled howitzers like the M109 because they don’t provide them with more mobility on the battlefield and a level of ballistic protection that you won’t get on an M777 155mm towed howitzer. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy have all agreed to either send over the M-109s themselves or the German PzH 2000 SP howitzer to Ukraine.
Citing information from John F. Kirby, the US has been training Ukrainian troops on the artillery systems, and so far over 220 Ukrainian soldiers have completed preparations on the M777 howitzers while over 150 more continue to train. Other trainings have involved the AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel air defense radar system, on which 15 Ukrainian troops have finished training, and 60 others have finished training on the M113 armored personnel carrier with 50 more continuing to train.
According to information published on Internet, the United States planned to provide a total of 90 M777 155mm towed howitzers to Ukraine. Another batch of M777s will come from Canada and Australia.
France is sending over — sent over a dozen of their wheeled self-propelled howitzers (SP), the CAESAR. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy have all agreed to either send over the M-109s themselves or the German PzH 2000 tracked SP howitzer.
On May 2, 2022, the Netherlands confirmed the supply of an undisclosed number of PzH 2000 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, which was followed by Germany which has also accepted to provide PzH 2000 from its military inventory.
On April 27, 2022, Army Recognition reported that Italy was considering the delivery of tracked howitzers to Ukraine including 155mm artillery howitzers PzH 2000 or M109L. On April 22, 2022, it was announced that Belgium was thinking of an option to deliver M109 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers that were in service with the Belgian army in the past.
The M109 is an American-made 155 mm self-propelled howitzer based on a tracked armored chassis that was introduced in the early 1960s. The main armament of the M109 consists of one M126 155 mm howitzer in an M127 mount. It has an effective firing range of 18 km with conventional ammunition and 30 km with RAP (Rocket assisted projectile) which is artillery, cannon, or recoilless rifle round incorporating a rocket motor for independent propulsion.
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