Poland’s AHS Krab howitzer: combat experience in Ukraine

According to military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko, at least 20 howitzers are known to have been lost during the period of active combat operations.

The Krab self-propelled tracked gun-howitzer thanks to its quick transition from moving to firing position and back again, range, accuracy and mobility, allows it to effectively engage enemy targets while minimizing the probability of successful counter-battery fire. It also proved to be very effective in delivering barrage fire with 3 rounds within 10 seconds.

The main threat to the Krab system was not so much enemy artillery as Lancet barrage munitions. Despite the fact that these ammunition have a 1 to 3 kg warhead, they became a serious challenge for Krab SAMs, which have standard for self-propelled vehicles anti-bullet/anti-fragmentation armor.

This problem was partially solved by the mesh protection, which, despite the Lancet's lidar and the possibility of remote detonation of the shaped charge, was very effective against the Lancet-1 type due to the use of an archaic Soviet-era ammunition fixed on construction foam without centering. In turn, the Lancet-3 became a real problem for Polish systems.

The laser irradiation warning system with automatic smoke screen was also very useful.

Also, one of the verified damaged Krab SAM was due to a barrel rupture in October 2022. At that time there was an increase in the intensity of artillery use, and the barrel ruptured due to exceeding the resource limit. After this incident, no more barrel ruptures were recorded.

Thanks to the combat command and control system, individual systems can effectively perform combat missions separately from the overall unit, which significantly reduces the risk of being hit by return fire and other means of destruction.

The Krab howitzer does not have fully automatic loading, which would not be superfluous, especially since this option is becoming standard in modern self-propelled artillery.

The reliability of components and resistance to wear and tear in extreme conditions, especially the running gear, is also quite high. Although major repairs always require evacuation and not always even basic work can be done in the field.

The auxiliary propulsion system, which allows the artillery systems to operate without engaging the main engine, has been very useful.

In general, the AHS Krab howitzer demonstrated dominance over its Russian analogues in terms of range and accuracy, mobility and autonomy, as well as reliability during a year of active use in Ukraine. It experienced many times less malfuctions than its Soviet and Russian analogues. But at the same time, in most cases, these failures were difficult to fix in the field, unlike their more primitive competitors.