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- "Grad" to try: how the rocket artillery of the Russian Federation is fighting in the Pokrovsky direction
"Grad" to try: how the rocket artillery of the Russian Federation is fighting in the Pokrovsky direction
The offensive of our troops in the Pokrovsky direction is supported by artillery. MLRS "Grad" of the 5th brigade of the 51st Donetsk Army of the Southern Military District destroy area targets with fire: from enemy strongholds to his vehicles on the roads. Izvestia visited the positions of the rocket launchers and saw how the gunners are working at the front today.
On the firing positions of MLRS "Grad"
On a dusty road among the ruins of one-story villages overgrown with bushes, two motorcycles escort us to firing positions. One of them has an improvised electronic warfare unit, and the second motorcyclist has a 12-gauge shotgun on his back. Air defense posts are sometimes visible on the roadsides, from which they cover the road through villages liberated in long battles to the current line of contact. Some particularly dangerous areas are covered with anti-drone nets, and in some places you need to rely only on speed.
The Grads are now mostly operating from permanent disguised positions. And as long as the car is working properly, they try not to take it out, even in the dark. As if to confirm this, among motorcycles and buggies, an armored tractor is pulling a Grad car on a rigid hitch towards our rear. It is almost impossible to recognize the most famous Soviet MLRS in a structure completely covered with grilles and nets until it comes close. It was just dawn, and it is clear that the car was taken out of the positions after dark, with the expectation of reaching a safe area in the dark.
The enemy uses cannon artillery in the Pokrovsky direction very rarely, most often in critical situations. The number of kamikaze drone strikes has decreased slightly in recent weeks.
At the next intersection, our motorcycle escort stops, and instead of the direction of travel, they point to a shelter in which to hide the car. While waiting for the commander, a fighter with a gun listens to the drone detector, resting the butt against his shoe. It can be seen that there is an additional cartridge on the lifter of his semi-automatic rifle. I ask how they got to the fashionable technique in American weapons video blogs called ghost loading.
"I don't know such words, we're normal guys here, we don't do any dubious loadings," the shooter jokes.
It turns out that they came to this experimentally with the proliferation of rifles with under-barrel magazines in the army. The reliability of the cartridge supply in such systems is associated with a disadvantage: a long recharge. Therefore, as mass UAV raids spread, a way to increase the charging capacity is important: one round in the chamber, another on the lifter, plus a full magazine is a good win in combat conditions. But you need to know how to do it on each specific model of the gun, such things are not provided structurally.
The first combat mission
The camouflaged vehicle is invisible even up close and with a raised missile block, as it is called, a "package". The youngest fighter of the calculation with the call sign Kid is working at the sight. He's a gunner, but he's training to be a combat vehicle commander.
— I joined the army this year, I chose contract service instead of urgent service in order to be closer to home and defend my homeland. I'm a local, I've been living here all my life, I haven't been anywhere since the beginning of the war in the 14th year. We were constantly in basements, then it became quieter in my city. And in the 22nd year it all started again, the comrades who turned 18 began to leave their studies, many died," says the Kid.
At the beginning of the fighting in Donbass, he was seven years old, and he hardly remembers peaceful life. Therefore, when asked what he would like to do after his retirement, he hesitantly replies that he would like to rebuild his apartment and work as a welder or builder.
You can see that the Kid is worried, but it turns out that it's not about filming on video. Today is his first combat mission. He used to shoot only at the firing range.
— The first days at the front were scary, the "birds" were flying, the explosions. And then, maybe, I got used to it, it became calmer. But I haven't fired a Grad in combat yet, today is the first time," says the Kid.
The commander of the combat vehicle with the call sign Malek hails from the occupied part of Ukraine, came to Donbass and joined the militia in 2015, on the front line of his military from the first day of the operation.
"When there's an offensive, when there's a sea of fire, and the adrenaline goes through the roof, such episodes are memorable," Malek says. According to him, they are working more often now than last year, although not as much as at the beginning of their career, as conditions have changed.
Deputy platoon commander Svarog talks about the main objectives: concentrations of infantry and light equipment, enemy rotations. Those are the area targets that can be quickly covered with a salvo of multiple rocket launchers.
— We rarely have counter-battery work either. But now their artillery has rolled back and is almost not working. Basically, the enemy uses drones: kamikaze during the day, Baba Yaga at night, and sometimes kamikaze, too," says Svarog. He hails from Makeyevka, has been in the army since 2016, and was a carpenter before his service.
On command, five missiles leave at the planned target. The kid runs out of the cockpit as a "real gunner" and briefly accepts our congratulations. Those who were standing in the distance and listening to the possible appearance of drones are already running up to the car: after the release of the missiles, it is necessary to disguise themselves as quickly as possible. Even the traces of a jet stream on the ground are covered with branches, and everyone quickly goes to shelters or to transport. "The expense is five. I've finished my work with the filmmakers," a report can be heard from the speaker of someone's walkie—talkie.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
