Belgium plans to supply three Caesar cannons to Ukraine, as part of an international coalition aimed at strengthening kyiv’s artillery capabilities in the face of Russian aggression.
The Council of Ministers will soon be presented with a file for the acquisition and donation of three Caesar cannons to Ukraine for an amount of 12 million euros, we learned at the office of the Minister of Defense, Ludivine Dedonder.
The Caesar, produced by the French group Nexter, is a truck equipped with a 155 mm caliber gun. It is capable of firing six shots per minute, at a distance of up to 40 km. More than 300 of these guns have been sold – in various configurations – to the French, Danish, Czech, Thai, Indonesian and Middle Eastern armies.
The French army used the Caesar extensively in Iraq, from September 2016 to April 2019 in the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Since February 2022, France has also delivered 30 of these machines to Ukraine. Very mobile and fast, these allow the gunners to fire in the direction of their target and leave immediately so as not to be located by enemy troops and suffer return fire.
The “artillery” coalition
On January 18, France formed a coalition “artillery” to support the Ukrainian army alongside the United States. Twenty-five countries are part of it, including Belgium. The objective then stated was to provide 72 additional Caesars for Ukraine in 2024, in addition to six which were already going to be delivered. France must take responsibility for twelve using resources from its Ukraine Support Fund. Belgium entered this coalition in May and will take charge of three.
The Caesars that will be given by Belgium to the Ukrainian forces are not the pieces that it ordered for its own army. As part of the STAR plan, Defense will acquire a total of 28 cannons of this type, delivery of which is planned from 2027… and which it intends to keep.
The war in Ukraine and the role of artillery
The war in Ukraine, known as “high intensity”put artillery back at the forefront of conflicts. “Mass becomes one of the keys to success, both in number of launchers and in tonnage of shells”explained the French Ministry of the Armed Forces in January.
In addition to the supply of artillery pieces, the coalition has the short-term objective of supplying sufficient ammunition to Ukraine, which in this area has a very unfavorable balance of power with Russia. In addition to deliveries from its own stocks, Belgium has also established a partnership with industry to support Ukraine in this area and joined at the end of February with 200 million euros to the Czech initiative aimed at provide kyiv with the ammunition it sorely lacks.
war in ukraine
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