Netherlands orders latest DITA howitzers for Ukraine: when will AFU get them?

He said this on Espreso TV.

"The DITA self-propelled artillery system is a 155 mm wheeled self-propelled artillery system based on the DANA self-propelled artillery system known in Ukraine and the Armed Forces. That is, it is actually a 155 mm wheeled self-propelled artillery system called DITA with the preservation and even development of all these wonderful things that DANA already had, we are talking about automation," the expert said.

According to him, DANA has automatic loading, which allows to reduce the crew, while DITA consists of only two people who do not touch the ammunition at all during combat operations.

"The fact is that everything there is done by an automated charging system, which means a very fast rate of fire, which means that the system, due to its high digitalization, works virtually autonomously without the crew having to do anything but press where to destroy the target, all information about it is received again from automated control systems. And then it works automatically. The only point is that these systems are not quite the gold standard 155/52 caliber, they are slightly shorter in length - 47 calibers, which affects the range of fire a bit, it is up to 39 km, but these are the platforms. Nevertheless, the DITA is an excellent example of an automated artillery system," Katkov explained.

The editor-in-chief of Defense Express emphasized that since this is a new system and no other country has it in service, Ukraine needs to wait to get it.

"Excalibur Army is the only company offering it, it will be a new production, and we know that nine systems have been ordered. As for the time required to produce them, it is measured in months in any case. The only way Ukraine can get them in the near future is if the Excalibur Army has been producing them for the warehouse (and there was no such information) and is ready to send them from its own stocks. Maybe there will be one sample, but if we are talking about new ones, it is a technological production cycle that is measured in months," the military expert added.

• On February 28, the Netherlands ordered nine units of DITA self-propelled artillery systems from the Czech Republic to be shipped to Ukraine.