The newest Russian 2S43 Malva self-propelled artillery system was spotted on the battlefield for the first time

Russia's latest 152mm self-propelled artillery system, the 2S43 Malva, was spotted in the Belgorod region.

Here's What We Know

OSINT researcher Kriegsforscher reported that it had first spotted the Russian Malva self-propelled artillery system, which belongs to the 9th Artillery Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces. The system was detected by a long-range reconnaissance UAV in the Belgorod region.

The Russian army received the first batch back in October 2023, and earlier in July of that year, Malva completed a three-year cycle of state tests.

In fact, the Malva concept is copied from Western models, in particular, from the French CAESAR system.

Flashback

The 2S43 artillery system was developed at the Burevestnik Central Research Institute in the 2010s. Testing of the vehicle began in 2020. The system is armed with a 152mm rifled 2A64 gun with a barrel length of 47 calibres. The maximum range of fire with conventional high-explosive ammunition is 24.7 km. However, with active-reactive projectiles, it is about 29 km.

It is worth noting that the aforementioned French Caesar or Ukrainian analogue Bohdan, thanks to its longer barrel, is capable of firing at a distance of up to 40 kilometres.

Source: Kriegsforscher