Modern artillery is Ukraine’s superweapon. And what does Elon Musk have to do here?

Artillery has become a real superweapon of Ukraine. An this is thanks to the mobile application of Ukrainian developers GIS “Arta” and Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The war has been going on in Ukraine for three months now, and for three months now the occupiers have been trying to seize our territories, destroying cities and villages, but we are steadfastly defending ourselves, inflicting devastating blows on enemy positions.

Artillery is the God of War!

I am sure that many of you have heard about the successful operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Belogorovka in the Luhansk region. The whole world is amazed by the effective actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to counter the attempt to cross the Siversky Donets River by Russian troops. Despite the massive attack and attempts of the Russians to get to the other bank of the Siversky Donets River in Luhansk region, the Armed Forces not only held their ground, but also destroyed pontoon crossings, as well as a large number of Russians, military equipment and more.

In its latest analysis, the US Institute of Military Research points out that the scale of the defeat west of Severodonetsk terrifies not only the Russian military, but also analysts and bloggers. There is more and more criticism from Russian supporters of the Russian command on the Internet. Not surprisingly, the scale of incompetence and complete lack of tactical sense on the part of Russian generals who send offensive units to be destroyed by well-organized Ukrainian troops outrages even staunch supporters of the current aggression.

How did it happen that the Ukrainian artillery managed to cover all the attempts of the enemy to lead pontoon crossings and destroy a large number of orcs and their equipment? The answer to this question is quite simple and lies in the use of modern military technology.

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Ukrainian artillery works just like Uber – here is the secret of phenomenal accuracy

Two months ago, some feared that the Russians would seize Ukraine in a few days, but our valiant Armed Forces have been fiercely resisting the occupiers for three months now. The war in Ukraine continues, the invaders are taking enormous losses. This is due to the high fighting spirit of our defenders, as well as modern “superweapons”, which the aggressor does not have.

One of such advantages is the GIS ‘Arta’ system. The Ukrainian-made system for informing the location of Russian troops builds its communication around the Starlink and allows to inflict serious blows on Russian troops. The enemy positions can already be fired upon within 30 seconds of receiving the request. No wonder that Kremlin is furious and threatens Elon Musk. But more on that later.

The automated GIS ‘Arta’ command and control system, which the creators themselves call ‘Uber for Artillery’, combines information from drones, GPS, satellite photos, altitude maps, ammunition data in Ukrainian army units and is a very effective tool for planning, control, processing and dispatching of the results of reconnaissance operations, which allows for quick identification and destruction of selected targets. The application was created by Ukrainian developers in 2015, and the military welcomed it with open arms.

Can this system be compared to Uber? Yes, because the innovative situational awareness system works on the same principle as the travel ordering service, which connects the passenger with the nearest driver, only the GIS ‘Arta’ system connects military targets with the nearest artillery, mortar, missile units and combat drones.

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GIS ‘Arta’ in action

When a reconnaissance unit or drone patrolling a given area “notices” an enemy, it transmits its location to the system (similar to what a passenger does in the Uber application). After processing this data, the control system selects the most optimal method of firing, informing the nearest artillery crew, mortar units or drones. Once the headquarters confirms the target, it will be destroyed by targeted shots within 30 seconds.

The source of data for the system is information provided by reconnaissance drones, rangefinders, smartphones, GPS and radars provided to NATO by Ukraine. Then the algorithms decide on their own which weapon is to be sent to a given place to increase the effectiveness of the attack. By comparison, a similar US system takes 30 minutes from notification to shelling, although the Pentagon is more accurate in verifying targets.

Moreover, the shelling is carried out from multiple directions, unlike the ‘traditional’ shelling used by the Russian army. Instead of firing from standard artillery batteries located in one place, the attack is more like a swarm of shells coming from almost everywhere. In addition, the GIS ‘Arta’ system is able to calculate when a projectile or missile from each unit will hit the target and coordinate the attack from different positions so that they hit the target almost simultaneously. This greatly complicates the Russian counterattack.

The effectiveness of the GIS ‘Arta’ system was confirmed by the recent operation near the Siversky Donets River. The occupiers, who tried to force it, were completely defeated. In 2 days, the aggressor lost dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers, and, according to various sources, from 1,000 to 1,500 soldiers.

Artillerymen of the 17th tank brigade of the #UAarmy have opened the holiday season for ruscists. Some bathed in the Siverskyi Donets River, and some were burned by the May sun. pic.twitter.com/QsRsXmnJ65

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 11, 2022

Thus, the estimate based on the analysis of aerial photographs shows that our military destroyed as many as 73 T-72 and T-80 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, modern MT-LB armored personnel carriers, boats and other engineering equipment for the pontoon crossing. Now they will not be able to set up the crossing for a long time, although there are doubts that they are capable of it at all.

The most interesting thing is that the GIS ‘Arta’ system works perfectly with old, even Soviet models of 152 mm artillery installations, as well as with state-of-the-art 155 mm NATO howitzers, kindly provided to us by our Western partners. They are now the most effective weapons in all areas of the front, destroying enemy tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles and enemy manpower.

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So what do Starlink and Elon Musk have to do with it?

Of course, an Internet connection is required for the GIS ‘Arta’ system to work. The Russian military knew in advance about the Ukrainian system, so with the onset of the invasion, they launched a massive cyber attack on Tooway, a provider of civilian satellite Internet, paralyzing the Ukrainian combat system.

And then Elon Musk, who developed the Starlink system a few years ago (the technology belongs to SpaceX, which works in the aerospace industry), entered the arena. Starlink is a set of satellites designed for broadband Internet access anywhere in the world. This is exactly what is needed in a war, when a normal network infrastructure becomes the target for the enemy in the first place. From the very beginning of the war, an American businessman suggested that Ukraine use Starlink.

Unlike with other types of communications, Russia is unable to hack the communication system from Mask, so GIS ‘Arta’ can work smoothly to provide a tactical advantage to our military. The accuracy of the target’s coordinates is very high, with an error of six to twenty-five meters, which in the artillery field means that targets will almost always be hit. In fact, the system can prioritize and calculate firing parameters for all types and means of fire damage.

And here began the ridiculous threats against Elon Musk. The head of the Roskosmos space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, wrote in his Telegram channel that Musk was involved in providing ‘fascist forces in Ukraine with military communications equipment.’

.@Rogozin sent this to Russian media pic.twitter.com/eMI08NnSby

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022

Rogozin also informed the world that ‘Elon will be responsible for this big time, no matter how well he plays stupid.’ But it is difficult to ‘talk’ to its owner on Twitter, so the answer was not long: ‘If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya.’

If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022

This dispute has only confirmed that one of the technologies used by Ukrainians to track Russian troops is satellite internet from Elona Musk. The Starlink satellite system proved to be a great help to our artillerymen, and Russia, led by dictator and war criminal Vladimir Putin, failed to deprive the Ukrainian military of the Internet.

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Conclusions

Undoubtedly, Ukraine has superweapons – our state-of-the-art artillery, which is able to effectively hit enemy positions, inflicting devastating blows on orcs.

Finally, another advantage of the Ukrainian GIS ‘Arta’ tracking system is that it can automatically map, for example, schools, hospitals and other civilian objects and locate its own military units. This makes it possible to send a signal to the military with a command to change position if they fall into the line of fire.

The events of recent days have shown that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are able not only to defend themselves, but also to counterattack effectively, inflicting devastating blows on the enemy. Our defenders have once again proved that they are fighting in a modern way, using technological developments of Ukrainian programmers. We are all working for our common Victory. And it will certainly come. Everything will be Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine! We believe in the Armed Forces!