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German RCH-155 Will Tilt the Ground War in Favor of Ukraine

Things are going bad to worse for Putin

Shankar Narayan
5 min readJan 17, 2025
RCH 155

Twice since the beginning of the Russian invasion, I have called a Western weapons system a game-changer on the battlefield: the U.S.-made Patriot long-range air-defense systems and the F-16 fighter jets. I did not include HIMARS and ATACMS (long-range missiles) in this category because they are not merely game-changers — they are war-winning weapons.

If Ukraine had 100+ HIMARS launchers and thousands of ATACMS missiles, they would win the war in a short burst. Calling HIMARS and ATACMS a “game-changer” is an understatement — they are far more than that.

This week, Ukraine has taken delivery of another game-changer on the battlefield: the German-made self-propelled howitzer RCH-155. The Ukrainian army is the first to field this weapons system — not even the German Bundeswehr has it yet. It has gone straight from prototype to production to the frontlines in Ukraine.

When Avdiivka fell to the Russians on February 17, Ukrainian commanders didn’t blame air-defense shortages or the lack of fighter jets for their losses. Instead, they pointed directly to the dire shortage of artillery shells.

Drones are integral to Ukraine’s armed forces, playing a key role in halting enemy mobility…

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Shankar Narayan
Shankar Narayan

Written by Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.

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