The UK Ministry of Defence will surpass its pledge to deliver 12 AS90 howitzers to Ukraine within 100 days of taking office.
Currently, there are 16 units inbound, ten already delivered and six more to arrive in the coming weeks.
Known as the ‘Braveheart’, the AS90 is a 155-millimetre self-propelled howitzer that entered service in the British Army in 1992. BAE Systems have built 179 in all for the service, though this number has considerably reduced.
Impact of the AS90 donation
Artillery systems such as the AS90 serve as cover for Ukrainian troops and as a means to destroy Russian targets. The British government have gifted 20 battle-ready systems last year and ten more since.
While the commitment demonstrates the country’s unrestricted support for a nation on the frontier of Russian autocracy, the donations have bled the British Army dry.
Despite the government’s decision in July to select the German Remote Controlled Howitzer-155 (RCH-155) as the Mobile Fires Platform – a programme that is now beyond the stringent cost/benefit analyses expected in the Strategic Defence Review – there is little interim artillery capability available.
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Speed up delivery
Britain’s ability to increase and expedite the AS90 delivery is itself, besides the donations, an exemplary form of Western support to the struggling nation.
Ukraine’s forces remain entrenched in a bitter struggle to repel the marginal Russian advances in the Donbas, while occupying some 900 square kilometres in the Kursk region inside Russia. In response, the Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, called for allies, particularly the US, to speed up the delivery of military assistance as part of Ukraine’s newfound ‘Plan for Victory’ presented to allies this week.
“I call on our allies to increase and speed up the delivery of military assistance packages. Air defence equipment, drones, electronic warfare equipment, long-range systems, and artillery shells are on our priority list.”
New methods of acquisition
In addition, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the defence procurement arm of government, acquired 14 Swedish Archer howitzers to compensate for the reduced number of artillery systems
Notably, the first of these systems arrived in October 2023 just six months after signing the contract.
The pace of this procurement is due to an extensive overhaul of how UK Defence traditionally acquires new systems. DE&S is close to implementing the new Integrated Procurement Model; the set-up will reach minimum viable product in October 2024.
Unveiled by the former Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge in February, he implored: “a clear focus on pace and consistent, timely delivery needs to be our new normal.”
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