The war in Ukraine seems to be getting bloodier by the day.
Social media continues to show footage depicting how Putin’s forces are getting slaughtered thanks to U.S. and Western weapons.
And one thing is clear: things will only get worse for Moscow as time goes on.
The War in Ukraine: Social Media Edition
Aerial video footage shared on social media in recent days shows two Russian self-propelled howitzers being taken out by the Ukrainian military.
The two howitzers are seen parked behind trees at the side of a dirt road.
The weapons are struck by an Excalibur shell.
The footage shows multiple strikes taking out the two vehicles, which were parked back-to-back.
Ukraine Weapons Tracker, a Twitter account that monitors the war in Ukraine, notes how the two projectiles appear to land at practically the same point, destroying both of the vehicles in quick succession.
“Two Russian 2S19 Msta-S 152mm self-propelled howitzers, parked back to back, were destroyed by the Ukrainian army using two M982 Excalibur 155mm high-precision projectiles – both landed practically on the same point,” the account writes.
More on the Excalibur
The M982 Excalibur is an American-made extended-range guided artillery shell. The weapon was manufactured as part of a joint project between BAE System and Raytheon.
The shell is fitted with GPS guidance systems designed to make it one of the most advanced and accurate artillery shells in the world, and with a range of up to 40 miles – according to U.S. tests – it has proven a valuable addition to Ukraine’s arsenal since they were first pledged to the country by the United States in 2022.
In April this year, a report revealed that more than 3,000 of the shells have been sent to Ukraine so far – and they have received heaps of praise from Ukrainian military officials.
Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military general, shared a video clip of the Excalibur shells in action on his Facebook page last month. In the clip, a Ukrainian soldier is seen praising the American shell, describing how crucial they have become for conducting quick and accurate strikes on Russian positions – specifically, taking out Russian equipment.
“Constant firing by our gunners against Russian positions on the Right [western] Bank [of the Dnipro River] for 24 hours a day, led to the enemy losing a huge amount of equipment which had been shelling Mykolaiv,” the man in the video says.
The Excalibur is also designed to maintain its accuracy even while traveling long distances.
BAE systems said that the “key feature” of the Excalibur is that it can achieve accurate, precision strikes no matter the distance of the target, maintaining a Circular Error Probability of less than 10 meters. That means an Excalibur shell can reach a target within a circular space of 10 meters.
#Ukraine: Two Russian 2S19 Msta-S 152mm self-propelled howitzers, parked back to back, were destroyed by the Ukrainian army using two M982 Excalibur 155mm high-precision projectiles – both landed practically on the same point. pic.twitter.com/1RIS3ZH4Y6
— ???????? Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 23, 2023
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
