Crew of the latest 2S22 Bohdana ACS reveals its features

The servicemen who fought on the experimental, and now on the serial Bogdana, spoke about the advantages of the latest version of the self-propelled guns and the experience of its use on the front line.

An interview with the soldiers was published by the press service of the 1st Special Purpose Brigade named after Ivan Bohun.

The soldier of the “Bohun” Brigade with the call sign “Papa” began his service in the Kherson region as a crewman of the first prototype of this howitzer on the KrAZ chassis. Now he is the driver of the latest generation 2S22 Bohdana, which is made on the chassis of the Czech Tatra 8×8 truck.

“Compared to the first, experimental, there is something to pore with, the new one is much better. The computer works better, the Tatra is more comfortable, and its patency is better. Inside the cabin, everything is as if in a good foreign car, there is climate control. During the shot, the cabin is very stable, it is not thrown or pushed, nothing flies inside,” the driver says.

Answering the interviewer’s question about the autoloader, the soldier stated that it still does not exist.

“Without an autoloader, the firing rate is divided by two. If there was an autoloader, there could be about six rounds per minute. There are about three shots with only crew forces,” the “Papa” said.

To the question about the use of a self-propelled howitzer in battle, the military spoke about the past fire mission, on which his crew had to be fired over a long distance. Initially, the self-propelled guns fired conventional M107 155mm rounds at a distance of 14-15 kilometers. Then the crew received a new task and worked with long-range rocket-assisted shells for 37 km.

During this task, artillery fire adjusted the air reconnaissance unit of the 95th Air Assault Brigade using the Leleka-100 UAV. This suggests that Bohdana is operating in the eastern direction, Luhansk region.

Speaking about the danger to the self-propelled guns on the battlefield, the soldier notes that the enemy is constantly hunting for it, actively using drones, for example, Orlan-10. According to him, high-quality masking of positions and high mobility of Bohdana help to save Ukrainian artillery.

Liberation of Zmiinyi Island

“Papa” participated in the Battle for Zmiinyi Island as a driver of the Bohdana self-propelled howitzer prototype. His crew bombarded a small island in the Black Sea that had been occupied by Russian invaders since February 2022.

“It was very difficult there: the distance was almost maximum, the weather condition was very bad, it was difficult to fire. In total, we fired 48 shells on the island. We were then paired with two French Caesar self-propelled guns,” the soldier says.

At the end of July, Militarnyi reported that the developers revealed the exact characteristics of the 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled guns during an international defense exhibition in Turkey.