Stalin-era howitzers deployed to defend Kursk region

The Russian army has begun using 130-mm M-46 howitzers from the 1950s to defend the Kursk region; footage of the weapons was shown by the Russian Defense Ministry, and the Agency drew attention to the artillery.

"The footage shows the combat work of M-46 gun crews of the Sever troop group in the border area of ​​the Kursk region. M-46 gun crews equipped firing positions in the border areas of the Kursk region to destroy mobile armored groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the press release of the Russian military department says. Previously, such howitzers were used in other areas of the front. The 130-mm M-46 cannon entered service in 1951. In the mid-1970s, the USSR replaced this howitzer with the 152-mm Giatsint-B cannon.

Russia has begun to de-mothball its howitzer stockpiles amid heavy artillery losses during the war with Ukraine. At the start of the full-scale invasion, 665 M-46 howitzers were stored in military warehouses. In the summer, the Russian army increased the speed of de-mothballing these guns, delivering half of all stockpiles to the front, the Highmarsed project noted. As Forbes specified, Russia can import shells for such guns from the DPRK or Iran, since it does not produce them itself.