Frost and guns: how severe cold interferes with UAVs and enhances the role of artillery
Twenty degrees of frost in Donbass is a rarity. The cold affects the course of hostilities — there are noticeably fewer drones in the sky. But the fighting continues, and artillery takes on a significant part of the tasks of destroying the enemy. In order for the guns not to stop, a special weapon lubricant is used, the fighters wear thick gloves and pea jackets. Izvestia correspondents visited the artillery positions of the Center group of forces in the Red Army area and saw how they gave the enemy a light in cold weather.
The road "in gray"
In the predawn darkness, the engines of two UAZ minibuses upgraded for combat conditions are warming up. The cars have the back of the roof cut off according to the latest "fashion", there are no doors — minibuses have been turned by craftsmen into trucks with places for shooters. It's -20 degrees outside and humid. With the steppe wind, it feels like -30, and on the way, an incoming air current will be added to them.
Departure to the front line is coming soon. Gunners gather at the vehicles with the loaded tank. They look a little awkward because of the thick winter suits, bulky gloves and mittens.
The fighters have just come out of a warm room and are encouraging each other with classic jokes about how "Siberians don't freeze, but dress warmly." And they remember what record values thermometers showed in different regions of Russia, where they happened to live.
From the cold, the elastic bands of the glasses on the helmet almost immediately become hard and it is difficult to lower them over the eyes. And there is more than an hour of travel ahead in that important period of time, for which the name "gray" has been fixed. This is the moment of the onset of predawn twilight, when the human eye no longer needs its headlights on to drive and sees better than the cameras on attack UAVs.
This is the most advantageous moment to go to the front line, if you have the opportunity to choose.
Metal nets were saved
At the firing position, the first thing they do is unload the shells from the vehicles and hide them in special protective cellars. By the time we arrived, it was already dawn and the weather was absolutely clear and frosty. Drones don't fly, they say, because of the cold, so it's unusually quiet around.
On the other hand, a large number of contrails of jet aircraft of "adult" aviation, as it is now called, are clearly visible in the sky. Judging by the strokes in the sky, the number of corrected aerial bombs that went into enemy positions is comparable to the peak moments of the battle for Avdiivka.
And it's not just our troops who are hunting. The opponent snaps dangerously in response.
Senior gunner Danil Aptykov shows us protective screens made of conveyor belt and metal nets that cover the 130-mm M-46 cannon from above. They show damage, but the gun itself is intact.
— The enemy tried to damage our cannon, but the defense played a role. The gun remains combat—ready, you will see it in a couple of minutes," explains Danil.
Without weather dependence
— We are non-metal-dependent artillery, so we work in any weather, both for aerial correction and simply according to the available coordinates. The equipment can handle the cold. We are also used to this kind of weather. We're moving, there's enough work, so we're not freezing," says the gun commander, Sergeant Ivan Serov, who greets us under the camouflage net of the entrenched M-46 cannon.
His weapon is one of those that perform counter—battery warfare tasks. Ivan says that the enemy artillery is experiencing shell starvation and rarely fires. But she is still in position and her search from the air is ongoing. When detected, the M-46 is used — one of the longest-range guns in service in our army.
Ivan is from the Altai Territory, he has been serving in the army since 2019. He joined the service immediately after graduation. From the very first days, I went through all those areas where the Center group operated. He has five state awards.
— I received the Medal for Bravery when, left alone with a comrade at the cannon, we returned fire under fire, supporting the infantry. He's been working with me since the beginning—he's our gunner. We train new people with him, share our experience. Our team is friendly, we don't leave people in trouble," Ivan recalls one of the episodes for which he was awarded.
Danil Aptykov, who was just described by the commander of the gun, looks very young. It immediately catches your eye when he slides down the mask.
He hails from the Chelyabinsk region, he is 25 years old, but he is already an experienced gunner — he has been serving since the age of 19, having signed a contract after military service.
— We work both at night and during the day, — says Danil. — There are different lights for shooting in the dark. Also, during the SVO, they started making different devices for night shooting — we use everything. In cold weather, we work as usual, only we dress warmer and service the equipment from icing and warm up.
The cannon opens fire. We see several shells leaving in the direction of the next planned target — the enemy's fortifications.
After firing, the barrel of the gun is lowered and one of the soldiers immediately runs up to the bolt with aerosol grease and carefully processes it to prevent the mechanism from freezing.
A light sheen and small droplets of moisture remain on the metal, the same as they were before the fire was opened. It's time to leave the firing line for a while, so as not to get hit back. Lubrication will allow you to resume shooting without additional training.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
