The War in Ukraine Is Also a Giant Arms Fair

That is, when the big gun hasn’t broken down.

The Panzerhaubitze howitzer is part of an arsenal of weapons being put to the test in Ukraine in what has become the world’s largest arms fair.

Companies that make the weapons being used in Ukraine have won orders and resurrected production lines. The deployment of billions of dollars worth of equipment in a major land war has also given manufacturers and militaries a unique opportunity to analyze the battlefield performance of weapons, and learn how best to use them.

For all the Panzerhaubitze’s technical prowess, the war has shown the importance of being able to fix weapons on the battlefield. A simpler howitzer, the M777, has proven more reliable, but also more vulnerable to attack.

Debate around the performance of the two howitzers, and many other weapons, could help shape military procurement for years to come. At a major arms fair in London this month, exhibitors said they were frequently asked about the performance of their weapons in Ukraine.

Ukrainian artillerymen praise the German-made Panzerhaubitze for its accuracy and rate of fire. Photo: Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. and European nations have sent billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine from existing military stockpiles, and countries are now starting to replace some of that inventory amid a broader rise in military spending. Global military spending rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to a record high of $2.24 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.

Artillery guns and the shells they fire, drones, missile-defense systems and multiple-rocket launchers are all heavily used in Ukraine. Some of this equipment—made by the likes of BAE Systems, Rheinmetall ,Lockheed Martin and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies—is now receiving orders or interest from potential buyers, arms makers say.

“People are looking at Ukraine and seeing what’s working,” said Tom Arseneault, the chief executive of the U.S. operations of BAE Systems.

The British defense giant says it is in talks with Kyiv about making its L119 artillery gun in Ukraine after it has proved useful and that orders for the shells used in the country have ramped up. The company also says it has received increased inquiries for its CV90 combat vehicle and the M777 based on their performance in the war.

While some countries are beginning to replace equipment sent to Ukraine, companies say that military procurement is typically slow, meaning many orders won’t materialize immediately.

The war is already affecting procurement decisions for the U.K., according to Gen. Patrick Sanders, the head of the British army. Other recent conflicts, including Syria, also influence procurement orders by the U.K., which has Europe’s largest military budget.

“You look for repeat patterns,” he said.

One lesson from Ukraine has been the importance of being able to do battlefield repairs, Sanders said.

That has proved particularly pertinent for howitzers, a class of mobile, long-barreled battlefield guns that fire shells and are the most widely used Western weapons in Ukraine.

The M777 howitzer, in action with Ukraine’s 40th Brigade, has proven to be reliable but also vulnerable to attack. Photo: Joseph Sywenkyj for The Wall Street Journal

A soldier from the 40th Brigade pulls the trigger to fire a 155mm shell from an M777 howitzer at a Russian military position. Photo: Joseph Sywenkyj for The Wall Street Journal

A crew of Ukrainian artillerymen operating outside Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine praised the accuracy and rate of fire of the Panzerhaubitze. The weapon’s thick, high-grade steel offers protection in a way that other howitzers don’t, they said, citing how the weapon recently escaped a one-hour bombardment with just shrapnel marks.

The Panzerhaubitze, made by Rheinmetall and the German arm of KNDS, has secured orders from Berlin to replace units sent to Ukraine, while Kyiv has also signaled interest in buying the big gun.

The constant use of the Panzerhaubitze, though, has led to breakdowns, according to Ukrainian artillerymen. One of the machines operated by the Bakhmut crew caught fire and had to be taken back to Germany, and the electronics in the automatic loading process malfunctioned in another. It is now loaded manually.

The weapon’s makers attribute problems to a combination of being fired too much and a lack of servicing. “If they take care of the electronics, it works,” said Armin Papperger, Rheinmetall’s CEO.

Some military analysts say another lesson is that not enough time was spent training Ukrainian operators in the haste to get them back onto the battlefield. The Ukrainian artillerymen received five weeks of training on the Panzerhaubitze. German operators typically train for four months.

Other Western howitzers have also had problems amid constant use. An operator of the Polish howitzer, the AHS Krab, said one machine was being used so intensively that its barrel tore off. A spokesman for its manufacturer, Huta Stalowa Wola, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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