Somewhat related to the Bohdana is Kraz. The company that originally build the military truck for the Bohdana. Kraz could significantly increase its production of military trucks after 2014. But somehow they still managed to get bankrupt despite demand for the trucks. I think a short documentation about Kraz would also be nice.
The old Austro-Hungarian Empire had a decoration called the Order of Maria Theresa that would be given to battlefield commanders who disobeyed or disregarded bad orders, took the initiative, and achieved victory.
You can't build something like that without plans, you know, paper or computer files with all the dimensions and other specs. You don't give someone a pile of metal and a completed unit and say 'copy that.'
@@GreeceUranusPutin Depends on how many off the shelf parts are used to build it. If it's just a matter of how to assemble a bunch of bits and pieces that you can place an order for or have plans for you absolutely can.
of course you can, it is just orders of magnitudes harder. The phenomenon is called 'reverse engineering'. Its the reason why abandoned tanks were blown up by their german crew in WWII.
Makes me feel a bit proud that a country in war chose Tatra chassis for their howitzer. There is no better truck for it and Tatra has long history of wheeled howitzers.
@@crabyman3555, that would be rubble, Ruble is the Russian Currency, basically what you said was, "Ukrainian own KRAZ truck factory has been bombed into money by the Russians".
@@lucasokeefe7935, LMFAO, Lucas when you want to reply to the comment of a certain person, hit the 'Reply' button under that persons comment, not the button of the original comment poster so everyone knows who you are replying to, it is not that hard to figure out but as you were unable to figure it out I thought I could help you with that, you are correct with your comment in that the Russian Ruble is worth about the same as the remains of a bombed out building. Cheers.
I was an artilleryman in the Danish army for 17 years, so I don't say this lightly: We need to do everything in our power to never get into a conflict where standard artillery sets the agenda. When you hear "front line", "trenches" and "artillery" in war news, shit has gone horribly horribly wrong. The Ukrainians have no choice but to fight the war they're in with the means they have. But for the collective west, who is "a little bit" more casualty adverse than Russia (and by necessity Ukraine) need to focus on dominating the sky utterly and completely. Standard artillery should be considered a tool for "mopping up" after the airforce has turned everything into a parking lot.
@@mostlymessingabout Ukraine does not have the armed forces of West It's Airforce & Armored units are nowhere near, not even close to what NATO posses, The only thing that scares NATO is Russia's nuclear arsenal, all the rest, like Russian ground army, airforce etc... is Just food for NATO
@@mostlymessingabout What russian Juggernaut?....you must be the life of the party. Russia is no juggernaut by any means. All their vehicles are old and outdated. they have no doctrine to follow and 0 proficiency when it comes to crews or tank on tank combat.
"Shoot and scoot" does not mean getting out of range after firing (15:06). It simply means moving from the original firing position so return fire from the enemy won't hit you.
south korea already has the best self propelled howitzer in the world...known as the K9 Thunder since 1998. It has gone through many improvements since. The entire K9 fleet operated by the ROK Armed Forces is now undergoing upgrades to K9A1, and a further upgrade variant K9A2 is being tested for production. As of 2022, the K9 series has had a 52% share of the global self-propelled howitzer market, including wheeled vehicles, since the year 2000. Turkey has used them for 20 years called the Firtina I and Firtina II....Poland has used them to replace all their russian guns and they call them the' Krab" (which poland donated a few dozen to Ukraine. Finland started buying them from south korea 8 years ago and they call them "Moukari". India bought a bunch and call them "Vajra"....Norway has bought a bunch and call them "Vidar"....Estonia bought a bunch and call them "Vou"....australia bought a bunch of them and call them the "AS9 or the AS9 Huntsman" ...and now the "AS10 AARV"...Egypt bought a slew of them and call them the K9A1EGY.....Romania just bought 54 of them and call them the "K9 Tunet"
@@jtf2dan honestly the Ukraine war and Poland's (and more and more the rest of NATO) buying spree has put South Korea on the map. I also expect if they get their 5th gen fighter working there might be a lot of interest using it for air cover for the many F-35's so many countries have bought, but can't get a F-22. If they can keep the price down below the F-35 you can expect many, MANY interested buyers
@@jtf2dan While the K9 one of the best alongside the German Boxer RCH 155 and the Archer artillery platform all those systems are more expensive per unit. By comparison the Bodhana gives a more than respectable performance for a dirt cheap price meaning Taiwan if they wanted could theoretically by a whole lot more of them.
I think the more important part of the package is their artillery app. They use it with every artillery piece, new and old and it helps them make more accurate shots, faster and with the use of drone
This is the very same principle as the french _CaESAr_ . In fact, these two weapons are so similar from a distance that the Russians have *confused* them on several occasions, both on the battlefield and in their propaganda. This is also a quite similar concept as the more automatized Swedish _Artillerisystem 08 Archer_ .
If it works, it works. A 155mm shell is one hell of a shell. Much cheaper than a missile, easily supplied by NATO, cheap to produce and (with the AP shell) multifunctional. Easily mounted on a (relatively) light platform (I mean, no modern tank even comes close to 28 tons). No wonder it is a much used idea.
I was about to say the same. Those are roughly the same specs as the Caesar cannon, especially the firing range. Which, yknow, for a country which had to rebuild its military industry for the ground up, is a pretty good performance.
@@blodstainer The map highlighted Czech as he said Warsaw. Its not really a big deal. Its not like there was misinformation or deliberate lying like on the channels that complainer watches.
The US and other countries have for years made precision guidance kits (PGK) for 155m shells that replace the standard fuze with a GPS guidance system and small fins that are able to give otherwise dumb artillery rounds the precision and first round kill capacity approaching that of the $100k Excalibur 155mm round. The PGK itself only runs about $7.5k per unit. A base bleed 155mm round would add about $2k to the price, and a rocket assisted round about $5K-$10k. So for the price of a single Excalibur round, Ukraine could fire 5-10 GPK rounds. There would be no need for a ranging round. In fact in a German test that fired 9 GPK tipped 155m rounds all 9 landed within 10m, 8 out of 9 rounds landed within 3m of the target, 5 within a single meter, and 1 went through the roof of the old clapped out SUV being used as a target from a distance of 40 km. No corrections were applied between rounds. All were simply programmed with the same GPS coordinates. Besides being cheaper than the Excalibur, PGKs are simpler and faster to make and so many more artillery rounds could be fired with this level of accuracy and precision. If enough of these PGK could be delivered to Ukraine, within a few weeks Russia wouldn't have any artillery pieces or heavy mortars left since the combination of anti battery radar and these guided rounds means that every time Russia's shorter range artillery pieces fired a round, a Bohdana (or Caesar, Archer or Panzerhaubitze 2000) with longer range than the Russians would drop a guided round down their throats and then scoot just in case Russian happened to have an artillery battery within range.
"Hey, remember all those Toyotas with heavy machine guns and things bolted on? Yeah, what if we scaled it up and used precision engineering instead of a dude with an angle grinder?" Yup, soldiers win fire fights, tanks win battles, but artillery win wars.
I think it's important to point out a few things. 1. Zmiyiniy Island is a very small island, but its a pretty large target. More importantly, it is a stationary target (duh). 2. The island is fairly flat and very baren. There is practically nothing there, and more importantly, there is no natural shelter. 3. The island is just within range. 4. This is perhaps the most important part: there really is no air infrastructure on the island and Russians would never commit an real warship to the task of protecting the island. (After what has happened to the flagship of the Black Sea fleet) 5. Bohdana is a fast maneuverable thing, for an artillery price that is. It can be fiered from Ukrainian controlled territory, with plenty of ground support (spotters, camouflage, correction, local guides) All things together make Bohdana, or a similar spg, a perfect tool for bombardment of Zmiyiniy island. The fact that it was so successful only prooves that if tou ahve a perfect tool for the job, the job will get done. To put it bluntly, the russians were a big beetle, sitting on a bullseye of a target of an olimpic shooter. Bombardment of Zmiyiniy is a good real-world test, but it should only be treated as a proof of concept. It should not be used to predict future battlefield success. Though I'd say Fuck Yeah Ukrainians!
I always find it funny that despite being shown time and time again that easily repairable assets that can use off the shelf non-military parts in a pinch are a major positive, militaries still go with the "oh no, we're just going to buy these parts from this company and this company alone, and their high standards mean we will gladly pay whatever they ask for them" solutions. Or maybe that's just the US?
you realize that's what the US does? a lot of US vehicles basically use off the shelf parts that they can easily buy from OEM manufacturers in the country, whats bad about that is what were once civilian companies will start to mainly focus on their defense contracts because it is lucrative and sustaining. it's why a lot of civilian companies basically started from defense companies selling off their civilian subsidiaries
it's not just the US but the US is known for that since military spending is less restricted and subject to much less scrutiny than in other western countries. the US government has pretty strong ties with the military-industrial complex (for obvious reasons) and part of sustaining those ties is making deals that would not be made if they were subject to real competition. in other western countries bidding and price comparison are much more important and not doing them properly can result in quite significant political scandals. I'm from finland and we have a strong culture of government transparency which includes that.
9.00-10.00 that would make an awesome basis for a movie. Command tells the engineering team to dismantle it, but the lead engineer disobeys orders and drives it across the country to a friend of his in the military that worked with him testing the prototype, and as things are getting really bad, shells for the Soviet calibre guns is running low, they have received a shipment of shells from Europe but have no way to fire them effectively, then this crazy engineer shows up with this one prototype that out ranges the Russians and the day is saved cause they have plenty of ammo for it.
There was mention of the French Cesar unit but w/ about the Archer from Sweden, it's older. A Tatra truck chassis? ✓ out the Czech Dana. It's been around even longer & is in it's Dana II version.
There's also Slovakia's Zuzana / Zuzana 2 and Czech's newer version of DANA called DITA (has multiple rounds simultaneous impact) / MORANA (aka DITA v2, prototype). The advantage of cz/sk artillery systems is the crew can stay inside, better protected. Also DANA M2 / DITA / MORANA are operated by just 2-3 crew members compared to 4-5 on other systems.
Napoleon was a Corsican gun captain. When he was taking France to war he had the finest guns, and the most even burning powder, in Europe. The French artillery in his hands changed the way wars were fought, and it was Wellington, among others. who understood that reverse slope dispositions were required to prevent the artillery from destroying a defending army.
Once this war is over they'll probably be able to sell a lot of their equipment to get some quick cash to rebuild their economy. How much they sell depends on how the war ends and how big of a threat Russia is still.
@@7stormy334 There is nothing to sell, most equipment is way past the expire date, even if they had twice as much equipment that was twice as functional they'd need to keep it all
One of my favorite lines on this kind of thinking is from the space startup XCOR: "NASA would have spent six months and millions of dollars designing a $2,000 igniter that does the same thing a spark plug does. We drove to the auto parts store and bought a spark plug for $1.95."
I drove a Volvo and audi and saab...Volvo feels like it's a tank. Very well built. I found a 2003 saab old guy low milesish 75k It runs like a Swiss watch. Sweden Made a hell of a car. Shame Ford ruined saab and jaguar.
@@sethb3090 yeah ... and if that wouldn't sound like the idiot that got himself and some other unfortunate Killed witht the Titan Sub, that could be something positive but otherwise it sounds more like something from a Techbro with Dunning Kruger Syndrome
@@enisra_bowman there were a lot of problems with OceanGate other than off the shelf parts. Spark plugs are simple and reliable, intended to work flawlessly millions of times, and all it needs to do is ignite the rocket engine when it's supposed to.
@@sethb3090 I don't know whether NASA was foolish as you said, or maybe there was a spec mismatch? For instance, maybe the spark plug needed to work in conditions that are not within the capability of a car spark plug? Maybe the failure mode needed to be different? Maybe it had to be more robust? More reliable? For instance, one of NASA's rocket engine could be restarted in space. There, we are talking about temperature that is extremely high and extremely low. And the air is very thin if there is any air at all. I don't know whether a car spark plug would work in that condition. Thinking about it. Just to design a testing environment to test a car spark plug in that condition would cost a lot of money. Like, a chamber that has the same kind of gravity, air density and composition, temperature that mimics the extremes of outer space etc. And this test can't be avoided as you surely don't want to try it out for the first time when the spacecraft is actually up there to see if a car spark plug would work in that condition.
Reminds me of the Swedish Archer system: a big honkin' artillery gun mounted on a heavy-duty truck which can go just about anywhere, pretty expeditiously, with an auto-loader to speed up the shooting before scooting to avoid the inevitable return fire.
It's amazing when engineers with actual hands on practical combat knowledge design an artillery system without the deficiencies of legacy systems, so they can make it easy to repair/maintain/move/operate in the real world! This makes an absolutely huge difference in the long term future, and success! Practical experience/knowledge really rocks!
Russia has never had a "major blue water" type of force. Russia's main blue water forces are its submarine squadrons of the Northern Fleet. Most of the Russian Navy is not much better than a coastal defense force. The one exception is the Admiral Kuznetsov, which has to be towed about because it does not have its own motive power due to - well - being an asset of the Russian Federation, which is a fate similar to a death sentence for equipment and munitions.
It is sending wounded men back into the line that can't defend themselves. It is a sad situation for z and Ukraine. Hitting z oil refineries every day...those will never be rebuilt. Z is selling off its land now to China....so broke.
i keep hearing how russia is losing...but still have crimea , and eastern portions of ukraine still.... not bad for being 'incompetent' , but im sure somehow ukraine is "winning"
@breadmoth6443 yessir... you gotta be some sort of naive to think Russia is losing. They have the two things on their side Ukraine does not. Time and bodies to fill the uniforms
I was skeptical about the video title but this turns out to be an interesting and infromative video about an impressive artillery piece - that it is Ukraine designed and made makes it all the more impressive !
I am a retired Australian Artillery man, we practiced conventional war tactics and part of that was Fire and Movement or shoot and scoot during the cols war
In the early 2000's Ukraine was the 4th largest arms exporter in the world after the US, Russia and China, hopefully they can get back to that level of production. Ukraine also built a very solid tank the Oplot including a NATO compliant version Turkey was considering, it is superior by quite a bit to the Russian T-90 but they never could afford to build it in quantity for themselves, the majority were supplied to foreign customers. They also produce a very nice APC and IFV but again they cannot afford to produce them in large numbers.
Ukraine mostly sold stuff it got from USSR and had joint projects with Russia (aircrafts, turnines, ICBMs), but it's own efforts were problematic - Oplot to Thailand for example, it took not 4, but 8 years to make ~50 tanks, so no wonder that next batch they got elsewhere. IFV's were returned by Iraq, contract terminated and later similar problems were found when Ukraine itself ordered some. During war all military factories were damaged to some extent and there's growing manpower deficit in economy, so while potential is still there it's much more likely that Ukraine wouldn't be exporting much military stuff.
@@Daokl( not 4, but 8 years it because)It was a Russian sabotage. Some of the spare parts were made by a contractor from Belarus, but already in those years Russia had a huge impact and it blocked the transfer of these spare parts on time. As far as I remember, these are the trunks of the gun and rubber products. Ukraine had to increase the production of these products. (IFV's were returned by Iraq) Only one model. Yes, it was a big failure of the contract was gorgeous 400+ and they show themselves well in use. But even also Iraq 2nd by the number operahtor after Ukraine. And yes, they solved that problem. And Thailand after (not 4, but 8) by 200+ BTR-3 it same factory
Ukraine was the weapons factory of the USSR. All the halfway usable USSR weapons were designed in Ukraine. Factories like Antonov or Motor Sich have survived to this day. The "tractor works Kharkiv" was a legend in the USSR. All the soviet tanks were designed there until the russkies tried to design their own tank, the T-14 Armada, which - of course - is a desaster. Even the Iskander missile was originally developped in Ukraine which is why Ukraine has its own Ghrim-2 missile, unfortunately too few. The Boghdana is just one of the ukrainian-made weapons. The drones are the best in the world. Slava Ukraini.
Recently I've found it really difficult to listen to Simon. Even though I've watched hundreds of his videos before. I've thought about why I can't enjoy his content anymore. I can't quite put my finger on it. The best answer that I've come up with is that over the years his content has become less and less personal. I feel like not only he's not an expert in any of the things he talks about, but also he doesn't even care enough about them. He's become an absolute and total mouthpiece. His writers write stuff and he just reads them. I don't even think he's thinking about what he's saying even while saying it. It really becomes obvious how much he lacks passion for what's he's saying when you for example compare his video about a certain tank to an actual tank expert and historian who just loves to talk about tanks. Anyway, I don't really put the blame on him. He's been very honest that he's doing all this for the money. So he's just maximizing his profits by turning himself into an empty vessel that just reads what's in front of him.
See that big white space above the US on your map? That's Canada. Canada is also in NATO. In fact Canada was instrumental in the formation of NATO. Oh, and Canada has sent 155 shells to Ukraine.
Love the Bohdana! It's unfortunate that Ukraine's own KrAZ truck company that provided the prototype chassis has struggled with corruption, technological advancement, production capability, and market performance. It would have been nice to see the chassis remain domestically produced, but the Ukrainians have a good gun there, and they want it on an equally impressive chassis. Tatra seems to be fitting the bill nicely. I do have a soft spot for the old Soviet-era KrAZ workhorses, though.
During WWII the German army had a 150mm artillery piece with about a 17 mile range. They were also experimenting with rocket boosted shells with about a half more range than the non-boosted shell. So about a 25 mile range.
I imagine driving that thing off road is a nightmare. The gun weigh is so far back, the rear drive-axle is bearing far more than the forward drive-axle Unless it has wide foot rear outriggers, the chassis is not going to handle the stress for long. Even cross supports and double chassis will struggle to get 5 years
Tatra has a chassis design that is central (like a large pipe). Although not on all Tatra trucks, the central design may mitigate damage that would destroy a common 'ladder' design chassis.
Load is far back yesterday. However carried by last two axles. When gun is cradled the centre of gravity moves forward. Not much different to a quarry truck carry a small ten ton load
It really does not punch above it's weight, it's just an old gun mounted on a truck with somewhat medicore systems, It's the absolute budget hotwitzer with basic capabilities such systems have, that came into service out of pure desparation.
It has a good fire control system and that's the most important bit for a competitive artillery piece. If an old gun can fire accurately and move (any old truck big enough would do) quickly out of range then it is a good artillery piece.
NATO already have swedish Archers beside Caesars since someone had bright idea of stirring up trouble in Europe and made Sweden with Finland join NATO for real. Bohdana would be still great costeffective addition though.
They are good but available in tiny numbers. Problem is only USA has large stockpiles of ground kit. Ukraine making these counters Russian escalation claims. Note so far Ukraine has only been given dozens of mobile artillery.
'Making do with what they've got...' like the best NATO has to offer, the best tanks, best missiles, best training, best secret services, best intel, best tactics and best weapons. And they still lost 3 entire armies while Russia currently puts all the Ukraine pensioners, teenagers, disabled, females and males, through their meatgrinder.
@@marklanahan7289 your Fanclub recruting prison inmates should be basic knowledge at this point. The massacre of Moura, is reported by the UN. Its not like russia did not already Show its willingness for terror in syria
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I just thumbs downed and left a bad comment on an ai channel, saw Simon and audibly cheered. You're a superhero Simon!! ❤
Nothing like a British man casually throwing shade at French 😅
Somewhat related to the Bohdana is Kraz. The company that originally build the military truck for the Bohdana. Kraz could significantly increase its production of military trucks after 2014. But somehow they still managed to get bankrupt despite demand for the trucks. I think a short documentation about Kraz would also be nice.
FYI: "h" is not silent in Bohdana.
Whoever had the foresight to preserve the prototype should get a medal.
The old Austro-Hungarian Empire had a decoration called the Order of Maria Theresa that would be given to battlefield commanders who disobeyed or disregarded bad orders, took the initiative, and achieved victory.
@@andrewcrowder4958Hmmm. How about “Who dares, wins” SAS I believe.
You can't build something like that without plans, you know, paper or computer files with all the dimensions and other specs. You don't give someone a pile of metal and a completed unit and say 'copy that.'
@@GreeceUranusPutin Depends on how many off the shelf parts are used to build it. If it's just a matter of how to assemble a bunch of bits and pieces that you can place an order for or have plans for you absolutely can.
of course you can, it is just orders of magnitudes harder. The phenomenon is called 'reverse engineering'. Its the reason why abandoned tanks were blown up by their german crew in WWII.
Makes me feel a bit proud that a country in war chose Tatra chassis for their howitzer.
There is no better truck for it and Tatra has long history of wheeled howitzers.
And the most common version of the Caesar howitzer uses Tatra 8x8 chassis too.
they kind of had no choice to be fair.....Ukrainian own KRAZ truck factory has been bombed into ruble by the Russians
@@crabyman3555, that would be rubble, Ruble is the Russian Currency, basically what you said was,
"Ukrainian own KRAZ truck factory has been bombed into money by the Russians".
They're worth the same anyway, give him a break
@@lucasokeefe7935, LMFAO, Lucas when you want to reply to the comment of a certain person, hit the 'Reply' button under that persons comment, not the button of the original comment poster so everyone knows who you are replying to, it is not that hard to figure out but as you were unable to figure it out I thought I could help you with that, you are correct with your comment in that the Russian Ruble is worth about the same as the remains of a bombed out building. Cheers.
I was an artilleryman in the Danish army for 17 years, so I don't say this lightly: We need to do everything in our power to never get into a conflict where standard artillery sets the agenda. When you hear "front line", "trenches" and "artillery" in war news, shit has gone horribly horribly wrong.
The Ukrainians have no choice but to fight the war they're in with the means they have. But for the collective west, who is "a little bit" more casualty adverse than Russia (and by necessity Ukraine) need to focus on dominating the sky utterly and completely. Standard artillery should be considered a tool for "mopping up" after the airforce has turned everything into a parking lot.
Easy to say than done. Ukraine has practically the armed forces of the West. The West probably won't do much better fighting the Russian juggernaut
@@mostlymessingaboutThe ruzzian what? rofl
@@mostlymessingabout Ukraine does not have the armed forces of West
It's Airforce & Armored units are nowhere near, not even close to what NATO posses, The only thing that scares NATO is Russia's nuclear arsenal, all the rest, like Russian ground army, airforce etc... is Just food for NATO
@@mostlymessingabout What russian Juggernaut?....you must be the life of the party. Russia is no juggernaut by any means. All their vehicles are old and outdated. they have no doctrine to follow and 0 proficiency when it comes to crews or tank on tank combat.
@@mostlymessingabout by juggernaut do you mean that giant convoy that was stalled totally for days getting picked off by farmers?
"Shoot and scoot" does not mean getting out of range after firing (15:06). It simply means moving from the original firing position so return fire from the enemy won't hit you.
And Taiwan is over in the corner whispering to South Korea "Hey, you think you could license those designs and build us some of those?"
south korea already has the best self propelled howitzer in the world...known as the K9 Thunder since 1998. It has gone through many improvements since. The entire K9 fleet operated by the ROK Armed Forces is now undergoing upgrades to K9A1, and a further upgrade variant K9A2 is being tested for production. As of 2022, the K9 series has had a 52% share of the global self-propelled howitzer market, including wheeled vehicles, since the year 2000. Turkey has used them for 20 years called the Firtina I and Firtina II....Poland has used them to replace all their russian guns and they call them the' Krab" (which poland donated a few dozen to Ukraine. Finland started buying them from south korea 8 years ago and they call them "Moukari". India bought a bunch and call them "Vajra"....Norway has bought a bunch and call them "Vidar"....Estonia bought a bunch and call them "Vou"....australia bought a bunch of them and call them the "AS9 or the AS9 Huntsman" ...and now the "AS10 AARV"...Egypt bought a slew of them and call them the K9A1EGY.....Romania just bought 54 of them and call them the "K9 Tunet"
@@jtf2dan honestly the Ukraine war and Poland's (and more and more the rest of NATO) buying spree has put South Korea on the map. I also expect if they get their 5th gen fighter working there might be a lot of interest using it for air cover for the many F-35's so many countries have bought, but can't get a F-22. If they can keep the price down below the F-35 you can expect many, MANY interested buyers
Is it still the best ?
What about the new german boxer RCH 155 ? @@jtf2dan
You should look at Singapore's massive arms industry too.
@@jtf2dan While the K9 one of the best alongside the German Boxer RCH 155 and the Archer artillery platform all those systems are more expensive per unit. By comparison the Bodhana gives a more than respectable performance for a dirt cheap price meaning Taiwan if they wanted could theoretically by a whole lot more of them.
I think the more important part of the package is their artillery app. They use it with every artillery piece, new and old and it helps them make more accurate shots, faster and with the use of drone
*"You're not my real dad"* is fucking genius. Well played, scriptwriter.
This is the very same principle as the french _CaESAr_ .
In fact, these two weapons are so similar from a distance that the Russians have *confused* them on several occasions, both on the battlefield and in their propaganda.
This is also a quite similar concept as the more automatized Swedish _Artillerisystem 08 Archer_ .
"Every tank is a Tiger," you know.
If it works, it works. A 155mm shell is one hell of a shell. Much cheaper than a missile, easily supplied by NATO, cheap to produce and (with the AP shell) multifunctional. Easily mounted on a (relatively) light platform (I mean, no modern tank even comes close to 28 tons). No wonder it is a much used idea.
The video mentions that. Did you get to the part where the Ukraine version holds together after much use?
I saw the Caesar last year. Beutiful artillery piece. Very effective.
I was about to say the same. Those are roughly the same specs as the Caesar cannon, especially the firing range. Which, yknow, for a country which had to rebuild its military industry for the ground up, is a pretty good performance.
Beautiful piece. Reminds me of the Swedish Archer and has its own style
Looks clearly more like the French CAESAR, that Ukrain is equiped with 50 units.
So many similarities.
3:14: Crimea is a peninsula. The isthmus connecting it to the mainland is the Isthmus of Perekop (according to Wikipedia).
You had a slight minor mistake on your map at around 17min… Sweden is already a NATO member
They also claim that Warszawa is in the Czech Republic at 15:32 - goes to show the diligence around information on this channel
@@oslonafono they don't? They just list off Nato member capitals in no particular order
@@blodstainer The map highlighted Czech as he said Warsaw. Its not really a big deal. Its not like there was misinformation or deliberate lying like on the channels that complainer watches.
@@oslonafo "goes to show the diligence"
You're not my dad
The US and other countries have for years made precision guidance kits (PGK) for 155m shells that replace the standard fuze with a GPS guidance system and small fins that are able to give otherwise dumb artillery rounds the precision and first round kill capacity approaching that of the $100k Excalibur 155mm round. The PGK itself only runs about $7.5k per unit. A base bleed 155mm round would add about $2k to the price, and a rocket assisted round about $5K-$10k. So for the price of a single Excalibur round, Ukraine could fire 5-10 GPK rounds. There would be no need for a ranging round. In fact in a German test that fired 9 GPK tipped 155m rounds all 9 landed within 10m, 8 out of 9 rounds landed within 3m of the target, 5 within a single meter, and 1 went through the roof of the old clapped out SUV being used as a target from a distance of 40 km. No corrections were applied between rounds. All were simply programmed with the same GPS coordinates.
Besides being cheaper than the Excalibur, PGKs are simpler and faster to make and so many more artillery rounds could be fired with this level of accuracy and precision.
If enough of these PGK could be delivered to Ukraine, within a few weeks Russia wouldn't have any artillery pieces or heavy mortars left since the combination of anti battery radar and these guided rounds means that every time Russia's shorter range artillery pieces fired a round, a Bohdana (or Caesar, Archer or Panzerhaubitze 2000) with longer range than the Russians would drop a guided round down their throats and then scoot just in case Russian happened to have an artillery battery within range.
"Hey, remember all those Toyotas with heavy machine guns and things bolted on? Yeah, what if we scaled it up and used precision engineering instead of a dude with an angle grinder?"
Yup, soldiers win fire fights, tanks win battles, but artillery win wars.
Logistics win wars.
@@sidgarrett7247money wins wars.
Technical on steroids.
@@sidgarrett7247 True, artillery isn't worth much if it runs out of ammo and fuel, or if its crews starve or freeze to death.
Or if the enemy has access to air superiority cheats.
15:31 Mentioning Warsaw and highlighting Czech Republic ;) :D
I was looking for this comment. :D
1:35 - Mid roll ads
3:00 - Chapter 1 - Building the bohdana
8:55 - Chapter 2 - Weapon of war
13:10 - Chapter 3 - Future of an emerging asset
Simon's left the studio?? Crazy times we live in.
7:27
I think it's important to point out a few things.
1. Zmiyiniy Island is a very small island, but its a pretty large target. More importantly, it is a stationary target (duh).
2. The island is fairly flat and very baren. There is practically nothing there, and more importantly, there is no natural shelter.
3. The island is just within range.
4. This is perhaps the most important part: there really is no air infrastructure on the island and Russians would never commit an real warship to the task of protecting the island. (After what has happened to the flagship of the Black Sea fleet)
5. Bohdana is a fast maneuverable thing, for an artillery price that is. It can be fiered from Ukrainian controlled territory, with plenty of ground support (spotters, camouflage, correction, local guides)
All things together make Bohdana, or a similar spg, a perfect tool for bombardment of Zmiyiniy island. The fact that it was so successful only prooves that if tou ahve a perfect tool for the job, the job will get done. To put it bluntly, the russians were a big beetle, sitting on a bullseye of a target of an olimpic shooter.
Bombardment of Zmiyiniy is a good real-world test, but it should only be treated as a proof of concept. It should not be used to predict future battlefield success.
Though I'd say Fuck Yeah Ukrainians!
Why no fuzzy dice? A truck always needs fuzzy dice.
And a hood ornament !
I always find it funny that despite being shown time and time again that easily repairable assets that can use off the shelf non-military parts in a pinch are a major positive, militaries still go with the "oh no, we're just going to buy these parts from this company and this company alone, and their high standards mean we will gladly pay whatever they ask for them" solutions.
Or maybe that's just the US?
you realize that's what the US does? a lot of US vehicles basically use off the shelf parts that they can easily buy from OEM manufacturers in the country, whats bad about that is what were once civilian companies will start to mainly focus on their defense contracts because it is lucrative and sustaining. it's why a lot of civilian companies basically started from defense companies selling off their civilian subsidiaries
The world is made of people who fail to learn from history, and of those who watch others fail to learn from history.
No, it's not just the US. The military-industrial complex spans continents and enacts the same processes in every country it gets its grimy paws on.
it's not just the US but the US is known for that since military spending is less restricted and subject to much less scrutiny than in other western countries. the US government has pretty strong ties with the military-industrial complex (for obvious reasons) and part of sustaining those ties is making deals that would not be made if they were subject to real competition. in other western countries bidding and price comparison are much more important and not doing them properly can result in quite significant political scandals. I'm from finland and we have a strong culture of government transparency which includes that.
I think you need to learn more about the US army supply chain
This statement is usually used in referring to Mortars but yeah, the Bohdana is a despenser of "High Angle Hell"!
Many thanx Simon 👍👍
Field Artillery…always has been and always will be the king of battle!
This ol 13F agrees!
only downfall to artillery, uncontested air space, and close in air support eat those nice shiny barrels like candy
@@CKPill and the 13f downrange as well 😝
@charliesschroedinger yeah good team, still Death from above till I die. Peace
@@CKPill right on!
07:26 is that you giving a helping hand Simon
Great spot :D
9.00-10.00 that would make an awesome basis for a movie. Command tells the engineering team to dismantle it, but the lead engineer disobeys orders and drives it across the country to a friend of his in the military that worked with him testing the prototype, and as things are getting really bad, shells for the Soviet calibre guns is running low, they have received a shipment of shells from Europe but have no way to fire them effectively, then this crazy engineer shows up with this one prototype that out ranges the Russians and the day is saved cause they have plenty of ammo for it.
A great Megaprojects video! (from a viewer and fan for many years)
A great source of hope for those of us who support Ukraine.
There was mention of the French Cesar unit but w/ about the Archer from Sweden, it's older. A Tatra truck chassis? ✓ out the Czech Dana. It's been around even longer & is in it's Dana II version.
There's also Slovakia's Zuzana / Zuzana 2 and Czech's newer version of DANA called DITA (has multiple rounds simultaneous impact) / MORANA (aka DITA v2, prototype). The advantage of cz/sk artillery systems is the crew can stay inside, better protected. Also DANA M2 / DITA / MORANA are operated by just 2-3 crew members compared to 4-5 on other systems.
It's not a matter of age but features.
Artillery is one of the most valuable tools a military has, maybe even THE most valuable
It’s the king of the battlefield. Infantry is the queen.
I'd argue a working communications network takes that spot.
Napoleon was a Corsican gun captain. When he was taking France to war he had the finest guns, and the most even burning powder, in Europe. The French artillery in his hands changed the way wars were fought, and it was Wellington, among others. who understood that reverse slope dispositions were required to prevent the artillery from destroying a defending army.
If equipment win battles, logistics win wars.
Yes only you need expert foward observers in person or via drone.
Information is the most valuable thing in war.
It's all about accuracy and mobility, the Bohdana has both. If this keeps up, Ukraine may become a major arms supplier, irony in its best form.
Once this war is over they'll probably be able to sell a lot of their equipment to get some quick cash to rebuild their economy. How much they sell depends on how the war ends and how big of a threat Russia is still.
@@7stormy334 There is nothing to sell, most equipment is way past the expire date, even if they had twice as much equipment that was twice as functional they'd need to keep it all
@@SimonTmte good point I had forgotten that part of the reason a lot of stuff was sent to Ukraine was that it was going to expire soon anyway.
not that ironic. They produced 35% of the weaponry in the soviet union - and some of the most advanced stuff.
@@squee222 your are 100% correct when you said that they produced the weaponry. But that is distant past.
New subscriber! Whenever i stumble into your channel, im impressed so keep up the fine work.
*Mad Respect* from N.Michigan, U.S.A.
Not a new idea the Swedes bolted an artillery gun to a Volvo dump truck.
One of my favorite lines on this kind of thinking is from the space startup XCOR: "NASA would have spent six months and millions of dollars designing a $2,000 igniter that does the same thing a spark plug does. We drove to the auto parts store and bought a spark plug for $1.95."
I drove a Volvo and audi and saab...Volvo feels like it's a tank. Very well built. I found a 2003 saab old guy low milesish 75k
It runs like a Swiss watch. Sweden
Made a hell of a car. Shame Ford ruined saab and jaguar.
@@sethb3090 yeah ... and if that wouldn't sound like the idiot that got himself and some other unfortunate Killed witht the Titan Sub, that could be something positive but otherwise it sounds more like something from a Techbro with Dunning Kruger Syndrome
@@enisra_bowman there were a lot of problems with OceanGate other than off the shelf parts. Spark plugs are simple and reliable, intended to work flawlessly millions of times, and all it needs to do is ignite the rocket engine when it's supposed to.
@@sethb3090 I don't know whether NASA was foolish as you said, or maybe there was a spec mismatch? For instance, maybe the spark plug needed to work in conditions that are not within the capability of a car spark plug? Maybe the failure mode needed to be different? Maybe it had to be more robust? More reliable? For instance, one of NASA's rocket engine could be restarted in space. There, we are talking about temperature that is extremely high and extremely low. And the air is very thin if there is any air at all. I don't know whether a car spark plug would work in that condition. Thinking about it. Just to design a testing environment to test a car spark plug in that condition would cost a lot of money. Like, a chamber that has the same kind of gravity, air density and composition, temperature that mimics the extremes of outer space etc. And this test can't be avoided as you surely don't want to try it out for the first time when the spacecraft is actually up there to see if a car spark plug would work in that condition.
Love the new look: mic, background. Very BBC-ish, which is, for me, a major compliment. You have that gravitas.
Vertical grades up to 60%!?!? Wowzers 👀
I have been following the war since the beginning and I had no clue about this. Secret indeed!
Simon I speak for many when I say the war in Ukraine is certainly revealing many new weapons, and vehicles. It’s an entire testing ground.
Reminds me of the Swedish Archer system: a big honkin' artillery gun mounted on a heavy-duty truck which can go just about anywhere, pretty expeditiously, with an auto-loader to speed up the shooting before scooting to avoid the inevitable return fire.
Also a great big target according to Ukr artillery crews who vastly prefer towed pieces like the M777.
Thanks for another great video! We all appreciate your excellent work.
Artillery is the King of Battle.
It's amazing when engineers with actual hands on practical combat knowledge design an artillery system without the deficiencies of legacy systems, so they can make it easy to repair/maintain/move/operate in the real world! This makes an absolutely huge difference in the long term future, and success! Practical experience/knowledge really rocks!
Russia has never had a "major blue water" type of force. Russia's main blue water forces are its submarine squadrons of the Northern Fleet. Most of the Russian Navy is not much better than a coastal defense force. The one exception is the Admiral Kuznetsov, which has to be towed about because it does not have its own motive power due to - well - being an asset of the Russian Federation, which is a fate similar to a death sentence for equipment and munitions.
Being good and simple to repair and just reliable is what's needed for solid weapons systems.
Man i love that truck. Love to have one.
That is one hell of an engineering marvel. Being able to hit targets that far away is astounding
Funny, I thought Ukraine's secret weapon was Russian incompetence? Guess that isn't so secret, Megaprojects on...
No, It's NATO expansion, and the US love of overthrowing other countries, and starting civil wars.
Don’t trust western media too much
It is sending wounded men back into the line that can't defend themselves. It is a sad situation for z and Ukraine. Hitting z oil refineries every day...those will never be rebuilt. Z is selling off its land now to China....so broke.
i keep hearing how russia is losing...but still have crimea , and eastern portions of ukraine still.... not bad for being 'incompetent' , but im sure somehow ukraine is "winning"
@breadmoth6443 yessir... you gotta be some sort of naive to think Russia is losing.
They have the two things on their side Ukraine does not. Time and bodies to fill the uniforms
The number of military and geopolitical experts willing to spend their time here explaining how to win or lose the war is staggering.
@15:32 You said Warsaw. That's in Poland but on the map you highlighted Czechia.
People get brothers mixed up sometimes.
I'm a armored cav man, not a cannon cocker, but it seems like a pretty sweet piece. And if it gets top marks in the Rule of Cool department.
First. A huge warographics, megaprojects, etc. Fan. Excited to be early 🙌 😊
I was skeptical about the video title but this turns out to be an interesting and infromative video about an impressive artillery piece - that it is Ukraine designed and made makes it all the more impressive !
11:05 - Legend! 😅
👏 👏 👏 👏
I am a retired Australian Artillery man, we practiced conventional war tactics and part of that was Fire and Movement or shoot and scoot during the cols war
Bohdana - The Little Howitzer That Could.
great now the nafo bots will be repeating this name endlessly until the next idiot slogan comes out
Bohdana: Ukraine's Secret Weapon
Lancet: Are you sure about that?
In the early 2000's Ukraine was the 4th largest arms exporter in the world after the US, Russia and China, hopefully they can get back to that level of production. Ukraine also built a very solid tank the Oplot including a NATO compliant version Turkey was considering, it is superior by quite a bit to the Russian T-90 but they never could afford to build it in quantity for themselves, the majority were supplied to foreign customers. They also produce a very nice APC and IFV but again they cannot afford to produce them in large numbers.
Ukraine mostly sold stuff it got from USSR and had joint projects with Russia (aircrafts, turnines, ICBMs), but it's own efforts were problematic - Oplot to Thailand for example, it took not 4, but 8 years to make ~50 tanks, so no wonder that next batch they got elsewhere. IFV's were returned by Iraq, contract terminated and later similar problems were found when Ukraine itself ordered some.
During war all military factories were damaged to some extent and there's growing manpower deficit in economy, so while potential is still there it's much more likely that Ukraine wouldn't be exporting much military stuff.
@@Daokl( not 4, but 8 years it because)It was a Russian sabotage.
Some of the spare parts were made by a contractor from Belarus, but already in those years Russia had a huge impact and it blocked the transfer of these spare parts on time. As far as I remember, these are the trunks of the gun and rubber products.
Ukraine had to increase the production of these products.
(IFV's were returned by Iraq) Only one model. Yes, it was a big failure of the contract was gorgeous 400+ and they show themselves well in use. But even also Iraq 2nd by the number operahtor after Ukraine. And yes, they solved that problem.
And Thailand after (not 4, but 8) by 200+ BTR-3 it same factory
How secret can it actually be if it's on YT?
Have you heard of it before? I hadn't and I've been watching the war since the start.
@@7stormy334I have. But I'm ex military. Specifically 13F. Knew it existed. Though never saw one on video before this
@@7stormy334ypu dont follow it very good than. Twiter is full of drone videos of it
I didn't know it was secret. it's been mentioned lots of times.
@@Ollies2CentsWardill - You did read the video title right?
Outstanding contents. Extremely informant. Absolutely enjoyable presentation.😊thanks
Who's that at 7 minutes and 26 seconds? Gaslighting that I can appreciate 😂
Great point on the future marketability of the Bohdana!
positive comment.
Positive reply!
That's pretty badass. Maybe license it out so other countries can help build them?
# Yes, we have no Bohdanas #
Great segment of the "little cannon" that could.
Ukraine was the weapons factory of the USSR. All the halfway usable USSR weapons were designed in Ukraine. Factories like Antonov or Motor Sich have survived to this day. The "tractor works Kharkiv" was a legend in the USSR. All the soviet tanks were designed there until the russkies tried to design their own tank, the T-14 Armada, which - of course - is a desaster. Even the Iskander missile was originally developped in Ukraine which is why Ukraine has its own Ghrim-2 missile, unfortunately too few. The Boghdana is just one of the ukrainian-made weapons. The drones are the best in the world. Slava Ukraini.
Interesting video. At 7:37, it's not a 2s22 but a Caesar howitzer.
Recently I've found it really difficult to listen to Simon. Even though I've watched hundreds of his videos before. I've thought about why I can't enjoy his content anymore. I can't quite put my finger on it. The best answer that I've come up with is that over the years his content has become less and less personal. I feel like not only he's not an expert in any of the things he talks about, but also he doesn't even care enough about them. He's become an absolute and total mouthpiece. His writers write stuff and he just reads them. I don't even think he's thinking about what he's saying even while saying it. It really becomes obvious how much he lacks passion for what's he's saying when you for example compare his video about a certain tank to an actual tank expert and historian who just loves to talk about tanks.
Anyway, I don't really put the blame on him. He's been very honest that he's doing all this for the money. So he's just maximizing his profits by turning himself into an empty vessel that just reads what's in front of him.
it is what it is. maximizing effectiveness kills the soul
Well passion projects don’t pay rent
@@Chikitrikis-47 pretty much what I just said. Maximizing profits
Here in the US, soldiers call artillery "King of Battle" with us infantrymen being "Queen of Battle". Indeed, together we rock this kingdom
See that big white space above the US on your map? That's Canada. Canada is also in NATO. In fact Canada was instrumental in the formation of NATO. Oh, and Canada has sent 155 shells to Ukraine.
155 shells sure is a sad number, i think it is a number that is used in a matter of hours...
To quote Napoleon. "God fights on the side with the best artillery."
Love the Bohdana! It's unfortunate that Ukraine's own KrAZ truck company that provided the prototype chassis has struggled with corruption, technological advancement, production capability, and market performance. It would have been nice to see the chassis remain domestically produced, but the Ukrainians have a good gun there, and they want it on an equally impressive chassis. Tatra seems to be fitting the bill nicely. I do have a soft spot for the old Soviet-era KrAZ workhorses, though.
to say that there is a "secret weapon" or a "wonder weapon" in this type of conflict is pretty cringe
Remember how all the bots were talking about the infamous hypersonic missiles? That was cringe.
Yeah, the cover has been blown by this video.
@@fredbyoutubingcringe is what Ukraine showed as kinzhal that was taken down
During WWII the German army had a 150mm artillery piece with about a 17 mile range. They were also experimenting with rocket boosted shells with about a half more range than the non-boosted shell. So about a 25 mile range.
How is a weapon which is featured in a UA-cam video "secret"?
Lets go! Monday Megaprojects!
I imagine driving that thing off road is a nightmare. The gun weigh is so far back, the rear drive-axle is bearing far more than the forward drive-axle
Unless it has wide foot rear outriggers, the chassis is not going to handle the stress for long. Even cross supports and double chassis will struggle to get 5 years
Tatra has a chassis design that is central (like a large pipe). Although not on all Tatra trucks, the central design may mitigate damage that would destroy a common 'ladder' design chassis.
Load is far back yesterday.
However carried by last two axles.
When gun is cradled the centre of gravity moves forward.
Not much different to a quarry truck carry a small ten ton load
Within seconds, your bias comes flying out. Shame.
"when them bluebirds stop singin', they mustaaa'be thinkin', that 'nervegassss can beeeee a lovelllyyyy thiiiinnnngggg'.
Didn’t this thing eat a lancet the first day it was deployed…?
Glory to Ukraine, Love from America!!!!!!!!!!!!
Avoid defeat and victory in one sentence is a mouthful
Equipment doesn't matter if there's no one left to use it. Ukraine 's average soldier age is now 45.
Yes, because the conscription law was only recently changed to reduce the lower limit to 25. There are plenty of people left willing to fight.
Ukraine are only mobilizing old men above 25 since they need those young men to have children
15:33 - that's actually Czech Republic (Prague) in the context of the video rather than Warsaw :)
Excellent presentation
I miss the days when Simon's channels showed zero political bias. I relied on them as a 'safe haven'.
Oh gawd, this annoying click baiter.
“Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl”- Frederick the Great.
It really does not punch above it's weight, it's just an old gun mounted on a truck with somewhat medicore systems, It's the absolute budget hotwitzer with basic capabilities such systems have, that came into service out of pure desparation.
It has a good fire control system and that's the most important bit for a competitive artillery piece.
If an old gun can fire accurately and move (any old truck big enough would do) quickly out of range then it is a good artillery piece.
I love stories like this - tools that punch way above their weight, on the good guys' side.
Make video on FAB-3000
Really enjoyed the video! Just a small note, you mentioned warsaw but shown czech republic ❤
megaprojects and their clickbait title
Thanks, Megaprojects.
I laughed sooooooooooo hard just seeing the video title 🤣 copium/hopium -> HELLUVA DRUG
Another Russian Bots😂😂
NATO already have swedish Archers beside Caesars since someone had bright idea of stirring up trouble in Europe and made Sweden with Finland join NATO for real.
Bohdana would be still great costeffective addition though.
They are good but available in tiny numbers.
Problem is only USA has large stockpiles of ground kit.
Ukraine making these counters Russian escalation claims.
Note so far Ukraine has only been given dozens of mobile artillery.
Ukraine is turning tide since last 3 yrs😂😂
Was YOU not convinced that the Su-57 and S-500 were the BEST in the world.
So what happened there then .Junior.?🤔🥱🤫
Sure, Jean. And I'm sure a multi-year war was all part of Putin's plan.
At 1:11
Pictures on screen....
Those look fairly reminiscent I'm Sweden's Archer. Big artillery on the back of a truck....
Ukraine lost in the end
Artillery, still king of the battlefield after all these centuries.
Anyone else put off by this channel using more and more cheesy AI-generated-looking thumbnails?
@MoneyPrinter123. Welcome to the future idiot
No because most people aren't easily offended soyboys
@Wyomingchief no kidding, weak pathetic fools are the only kind of people who get scared by a tiny picture
Seeing Simon and sunlight in the same frame feels strange.
'Making do with what they've got...' like the best NATO has to offer, the best tanks, best missiles, best training, best secret services, best intel, best tactics and best weapons. And they still lost 3 entire armies while Russia currently puts all the Ukraine pensioners, teenagers, disabled, females and males, through their meatgrinder.
Stop watching Kremlin TV its fillin you full of poo
A wagner fanboy. Funny how people support a prison mercenary group that Lovestory to slaughter villigers in mali
@@sH-ed5yf cope
@@sH-ed5yf what's your source?
@@marklanahan7289 your Fanclub recruting prison inmates should be basic knowledge at this point.
The massacre of Moura, is reported by the UN.
Its not like russia did not already Show its willingness for terror in syria
Never forget Bonaparte how that the king of the battlefield is "artillery".