Future Artillery 2024: Ukraine is most interoperable country in Europe

A US-donated M109A6 Paladin 155 mm self-propelled howitzer firing in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on 18 May 2023. (Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Ukraine was described as the most interoperable country in Europe at Defence iQ's Future Artillery 2024 conference held in Paris from 21 to 23 May.

Janes learnt, under Chatham House rules at the conference, that this is because Ukraine can use US artillery rounds, unlike European NATO members. This is made possible by the US sending the fire tables along with the artillery shells it donates to Ukraine, meaning Ukrainian gunners can enter the data into the fire control computers of the guns that use the ammunition. Other European countries however can only fire shells they have produced. The US aims to achieve similar compatibility with European NATO members.

It also emerged at Future Artillery 2024 that the European Union (EU) does not have the capability to supply Ukraine with enough 155 mm artillery shells. The European Commission announced in a press release on 15 March that European production capacity for 155 mm rounds had reached one million per yearby January 2024, and that will rise to two million by the end of 2025. However, the one million rounds have not been fully delivered and Europe does not have enough explosives for two million, Janes learnt at the conference.

In comparison, US Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, Doug Bush, told Janes