Ukraine’s Armed Forces have officially demonstrated the Bohdana self-propelled gun in frontline conditions. It is also now known that there will be at least two, and possibly even three, different chassis variants.
It seems that Ukrainian defenders will use this artillery system on two different types of chassis at the same time. The Land Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared photos on its Facebook page of the combat use of 2C22 Bohdana self-propelled guns on the frontline.
These photos are important because they are the first official mention of the Bohdana in a considerable period of time since unofficial information about their use in practice emerged. Prior to this, there were only photos from the summer of 2022 showing a prototype Bogdana self-propelled gun being used to defeat the Russian army that invaded Zmeinyi Island.
Back in January 2023, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Reznikov hinted that the 2C22 self-propelled guns would be mounted on an updated chassis, and also mentioned that mass production of these weapons had begun with a view to deploying them in military areas.
In February of the same year, it was reported that the upgraded Bohdana self-propelled gun could potentially have three chassis options: MAN, KRAZ with a 6×6 wheel configuration and Tatra with an 8×8 wheel configuration.
According to the technical specifications provided, the updated 2C22 Bohdana self-propelled gun was to weigh about 28 tonnes, carry up to 20 rounds of winter ammunition and reach a rate of fire of up to 5 rounds per minute. The crew of the artillery system consists of 5 people.
The 2C22 was designed to incorporate a computerised automated target tracking and guidance system, as well as an adaptive rapid deployment system for firing in different terrain conditions.
Given the above information and recently published photographs, it seems likely that Ukrainian defenders will be using self-propelled guns on two different types of chassis simultaneously.
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