Ukraine Receives First RCH 155 Howitzers After Delay

Military Sentinel, Kyiv – Ukraine has received its first German-made RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzers inside the country, according to German Aid to Ukraine (GAU), an independent tracker of military assistance, ending a saga of delays that stretched more than four years from Berlin’s original 2022 pledge.

Confirmation After Months of Silence

GAU said on September 5 that it had confirmed the delivery through a source outside political and industry circles, after holding off on reporting the news for months. The tracker’s caution stemmed from the fact that neither Ukrainian nor Russian sources had published photos or video of the system inside Ukraine, and the program’s history of missed deadlines had made earlier claims difficult to verify.

Signs of a delivery had circulated for weeks. Nicholas Drummond, an advisor to manufacturer KNDS Deutschland, suggested on social media in early July that the first RCH 155 had reached Ukrainian forces and could be called “combat proven.” Shortly after, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to KNDS Deutschland that the howitzer had been “very well received” in Ukraine, though he stopped short of directly confirming a delivery.

A Program Years in the Making

The RCH 155 was first pledged by Germany in September 2022, but the program has been dogged by production and integration delays. A symbolic first handover took place in January 2025, when Pistorius transferred a unit to Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, at manufacturer KNDS’s Kassel plant — though that vehicle initially stayed in Germany for crew training rather than shipping to the front. Ukraine is set to receive 54 RCH 155s in total, enough for three artillery battalions, with six vehicles remaining in Germany, at least initially, for training purposes. The order is structured in three batches of 18 units each.

System Overview

The RCH 155 — Remote Controlled Howitzer, 155mm — pairs a highly automated 155mm/L52 gun system, known as the Artillery Gun Module, with the wheeled GTK Boxer armored vehicle chassis.

• Ammunition capacity: 30 shells and 144 modular propellant charges
• Range: up to roughly 70 kilometers (43 miles), depending on ammunition type
• Rate of fire: exceeding eight rounds per minute, aided by an automated loading system
• Crew: just two to three personne
• Fire-on-the-move: the system can engage targets while the vehicle is in motion, though as of late 2025 this is reportedly limited to certain terrain types and speeds up to roughly 30 km/h

Manufacturer representatives have framed this capability as a battlefield differentiator. Speaking at the GLOBSEC 2026 forum, KNDS Executive Vice President for International Development Marcel Grisnigt said the ability to fire without stopping increases survivability in an environment “dominated by drones, counterbattery fire, and rapid targeting cycles.

Strategic Context

The RCH 155 supplements — rather than replaces — Ukraine’s existing fleet of tracked PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers, from which the RCH 155’s gun module is derived. International partners have already delivered 36 PzH 2000s to Ukraine, 25 of them from Germany alone, with 18 newly manufactured units due from mid-2027.

The program has drawn interest beyond Kyiv. By fielding the system, Ukraine has become its operator ahead of Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, and Berlin is separately moving to acquire more than 200 RCH 155s domestically under a roughly €3.4 billion contract, with deliveries expected to begin as early as 2028 — meaning combat experience gathered in Ukraine could shape how the Bundeswehr eventually employs its own fleet.

With deliveries now reportedly underway, the next indicators to watch will be visual confirmation from the battlefield, the pace at which remaining units from the first 18-vehicle batch arrive, and whether the fire-on-the-move capability holds up under sustained combat conditions against Russian counterbattery and drone threats.