Russia might be trying to solve its artillery shortage issues by deploying older and hybrid weapons

On August 1st, the Ukrainian military news website Militarnyi reported that the Russian Armed Forces had allegedly deployed a new and very weird artillery gun. However, the artillery gun wasn’t exactly a new weapon. 

A video posted on X showed Russian forces using a hybrid artillery gun that looked like an older M-46 Soviet-era artillery piece but it was being loaded with munitions that were not typically employed by the artillery system. 

Photo Credit: X @technicznybdg

“At the end of the video, one of the soldiers mentions that the gun is an interesting hybrid, featuring a barrel from an AK-130 130mm ship gun mounted on a carriage from an M-46 gun,” Militarnyi explained. 

Photo Credit: X @technicznybdg

The Ukrainian news website pointed out that the modernized breach of the artillery gun was noteworthy and speculated there was a high probability that these hybrid systems could be a way for Moscow to troops with “the required quantity of artillery systems.”

Photo Credit: X @technicznybdg

AK-130 naval guns have been manufactured since the 1980s but they are no longer fitted to naval ships, which means Russia would have ample supplies of the weapons and the Kremlin could have decommissioned their stocks for use on land. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Rhk111, Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Militarnyi noted that Russia has been suffering from shortages of artillery systems for a while and has been equipping land vehicles with naval guns since 2023. But it isn’t just older naval stocks Moscow is tapping into for use on the frontlines. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @btvt2019

Russia has deployed a new type of artillery system to the frontlines in Ukraine, though it is not a modern weapon, according to reports. It is, in fact, the M-46 130 mm towed field gun and the decision to utilize a Cold War-era artillery system from storage, however, is not a mystery.

According to David Axe of Forbes, when Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian Armed Forces went into battle with roughly 5,000 artillery pieces and rocket launchers. But things didn’t go as planned. 

Leaked documents that made headlines during the first year of the conflict revealed that Russian leadership believed their armed forces could capture Kyiv in three days and the country in three weeks, but Ukraine put up a dogged defense.  

Russian forces were halted thanks to Western military assistance and Ukrainian courage. Yet, Moscow was determined to eke out a win and has been working to conquer Ukraine for the better part of nearly three years—all while taking losses. 

Russia has lost about 1600 towed, rocket, and self-propelled artillery systems as of August 13th according to unique video and photo evidence analyzed by the Dutch open-source intelligence group Oryx—which reports loss totals on its websites. 

The Ukrainian General Staff has also reported its own projections of Russian equipment losses in Ukraine, and as of July 20th, it noted Moscow has lost 15,642 artillery systems since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. 

The true number of artillery systems Russia has lost in Ukraine is probably somewhere in between the figures from Oryx and the Ukrainian General Staff's projections, but regardless of the number, it is clear Moscow is facing a major artillery problem. 

“Increasingly desperate for heavy firepower and struggling to manufacture new artillery and shells, the Kremlin has opened up storage yards from the early Cold War and guns that were obsolete decades ago,” wrote David Axe. 

Artillery losses inflicted since the invasion began may be why Russia has looked to the older M-46 130mm towed artillery gun as a solution to its growing woes. But exactly how old is this artillery gun and what do we know about its deployment?

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Bandanschik, Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0

David Axe noted the M-46 is an 8.5-ton artillery gun manned by eight soldiers that can fire a shell as far as 17 miles—or roughly 27 kilometers—at a steady rate of about 5 shells per minute. That wouldn’t be so bad if the guns themselves weren’t so old and ammunition reserves. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Bukvoed, Own Work, CC BY 2.5

According to Army Recognition, the M-46 was developed in the 1940s, deployed in 1954, and retired in the 1970s, but the website noted social media videos have shown the older weapon has been moving about Russia based on reports from open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts who track Russian weapon deployments. 

OSINT analysts used satellite photos and data posted on social media to determine that the M-46 was being used in Ukraine, despite Moscow's lack of shells for the system—Russia does not produce 130mm shells. However, now the M-46 artillery system may be a viable option for Russia thanks to North Korea. 

“On June 25, 2024, Russian forces released new videos and photos from the frontline, showing units using the M-46 field gun with what [appeared] to be North Korean-made 130mm HE-Frag projectiles,” Army Recognition explained. 

Photo Credit: X @war_noir edited by The Daily Digest

Newsweek also reported on the findings one OSINT analysts who posted their conclusions on X under the account HighMarsedon.  HighMarsedon noted Russia may have pulled about half of its 130mm M-46 guns out of its storage for use in Ukraine. 

Photo Credit: X @HighMarsed

Defense Express previously reported that Russia has been using the M-46 artillery gun in Ukraine since as early as January 2024. But noted at the time that it wasn’t clear how many of the artillery guns had been taken out of storage for use on the frontlines. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Mike1979 Russia, Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0

"These photos do not allow us to count the probable number of M-46 guns that the enemy deconserved,” Defense Express reported, adding that Russia had about 350 of the older artillery systems in storage at the time. 

HighMarsedon reported that Russia had 665 M-46 guns in storage according to Forbes, and based on their analysis of satellite images, Moscow may have pulled at least 65 of its M-46s from storage by February 2024.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Screenshot

Regardless of how many M-46 artillery systems are being used in Ukraine, the fact that Moscow needed to pull older guns from its stockpile shows Russia might be struggling more than we know. However, only time will tell if it's bad enough to halt their invasion of Ukraine. 

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Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Screenshot