Stolen from Reddit:
Question:
How does Russia use their artillery compared to the US?
I’ve heard that Russia is an artillery army but can’t find many articles explaining why.
I have also heard the saying “The US maneuvers to fire while Russia fires to maneuver”
How do they use artillery differently?
Answer:
The first difference is in the amount of
firepower. For most NATO force, the largest piece of field artillery is 155mm and the largest mortar piece is 120mm. Many don't use MLRS and except for the US army and a few militaries like Turkey and South Korea no other NATO militaries employ tactical ballistic missile such as the MGM-140 or HIMARS. Russian force employs heavier artillery. Russian largest field gun is the 203mm 2S7 Pion which has received an upgrade package December last year and has been seen using it in Ukraine. Their largest mortar is the 240mm Tyuplan which was last seen in combat in 2014-2015, and their army employ a large number of MLRS and tactical ballistic missile such as OTR-21 Tochka.
The second difference is in organization with a
Russian unit possessing more artillery than its American equivalent. A current Battalion Tactical Group being deployed in Ukraine only has 800 men at most, but it has one MLRS battery with at least six Grad or TOS-1 and a SPG battery with at least six 122mm Gvozdika or 152mm Msta. An American Brigade Combat Team has five times that number in men, but only has access to twelve 105mm gun and six 155mm gun.
The third difference is
tactical employment. For example, if an artillery unit in the American army destroys 30% of enemy strength, the unit is considered to have "annihilated" the enemy; if a Russian artillery unit destroys 30% of enemy unit, it is considered to merely "suppress" the enemy. While the US army considers accuracy of the utmost importance and invests heavily into guided round, the Russian considers such things as "propaganda" that should only be invested to impress the world.
In their view, mass, concentrated firepower is the key to victory: it is cheaper, more easy to conduct, less of a hassle to their logistic, and yield a similarly devastating result.