Armies all over the world have observed Russia’s wider war on Ukraine and have come to the same conclusion: modern war is mostly an artillery war – or as Stalin put it, artillery is the “God of War”. Armies need more howitzers and more rocket launchers and plenty of ammunition for both.
The German army might be the best example of this determination to add artillery firepower. The Bundeswehr has an ambitious plan to more than double its artillery inventory from 121 self-propelled howitzers and 36 rocket launchers today to 289 self-propelled howitzers and 76 rocket launchers in 2035.
But for all its ambition, the German artillery plan illustrates the relative paucity of artillery in the armies of the biggest Western powers. Sure, a force of 365 artillery pieces is better than a force of just 157 artillery pieces. But 365 is still too few when Germany’s biggest potential foe, Russia, deploys thousands of howitzers and launchers.
