If we refer to data from The Military Balance 2024, at the beginning of last year, the Russian army had, among other things, 550 towed howitzers "Giatsint-B" and only 250 howitzers "Msta-B". For comparison, we can take data from 2022 from the same reference, which also recorded that at that time the Russian army had more "Giatsint-B" howitzers in service or reserve than "Msta-B" - 1100 units and 750 units respectively.
The figures mentioned above will not only illustrate the rate at which the Russian army's towed artillery is being depleted in the war against Ukraine, but they may also indicate the reasoning behind the Russians' decision to create a sort of artillery "Frankenstein" based on the "Giatsint-B".
To elaborate, it is worth recalling that at the end of December 2024, news emerged about the appearance of a new wheeled self-propelled howitzer using the artillery components from "Giatsint-B" and the chassis from "Voshchina" based on the latest 2S43 "Malva". However, the design features of this mobilized self-propelled howitzer were difficult to discern due to various kinds of grilles and "mangal" setups.
Now, a photo of this installation without the "mangal" and other "attachments" has become publicly available, which may provide some insight into this piece of enemy artillery.
Nevertheless, it remains unclear not only the index of the self-propelled howitzer itself but also the potential level of its mass production, meaning whether this is a unique unit or, conversely, if the Russians plan to launch mass production of such self-propelled units with artillery components from "Giatsint-B".
Moreover, this "Frankenstein" based on "Giatsint-B" could very well be an attempt by the Russians to somewhat rationalize their project for the wheeled self-propelled howitzer 2S43 "Malva", which was known to exist as far back as 2019, well before the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It is likely that when the creators of the 2S43 "Malva" were designing this self-propelled howitzer specifically for the artillery components from "Msta-B", they anticipated being able to draw on sufficient stockpiles of such howitzers. Indeed, at the beginning of 2022, the Russians had approximately 600 "Msta-B" howitzers in reserve, which made their calculations seem quite justified.
However, as the Russians were forced to withdraw towed 152-mm howitzers from storage, the reliance on "Msta-B" as a component for the new wheeled self-propelled howitzer became less justified. This context may have led the enemy to the idea of "upgrading" the 2S43 "Malva" project to use artillery components from "Giatsint-B".
