Russia to deploy newest howitzers close to Finland's border

Russia’s newest howitzers will be deployed shortly to its Northern Military District, which borders Finland and Norway, according to the director of the Rostec state military corporation in statements published on Wednesday.

The testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery units has been finished, and mass manufacturing has already begun, according to Sergei Chemezov, the chairman of Rostec, in an interview with the state-run RIA news agency.

According to him, the first pilot batch would be delivered by the end of 2023.

“I think they will appear there (in the Northern Military District) soon, since howitzers of this class are needed to provide an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of firing range,” Chemezov said.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, reorganised the Russian Northern Fleet in 2021, transferring its primary jurisdiction from the Russian Arctic to the Northern Military District. This new organisation included the Murmansk area, which borders Finland and Norway.

Moscow has accused “the collective West” of waging a proxy war against Russia since beginning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has also threatened to bolster its military along Finland’s western borders if Finland joins the NATO alliance, which is led by the United States.

One Coalition-SV howitzer has reportedly already been sent to the Ukrainian battle lines, according to a report published earlier in December by Russia’s official news agency TASS.

The howitzers, with a range of up to 70 kilometres (44 miles), are equipped with a modern 2A88 cannon of 152 mm caliber with a firing rate of more than 10 rounds per minute, as well as a modern system for automating the processes of gun pointing, target selection and navigation, according to TASS.