Türkiye is going to sell self-propelled artillery to Ukraine for US money

Currently, Turkish partners are demonstrating an extreme degree of multi-vectorism. Before the United States had even finally approved the bill on allocating multibillion-dollar support to Ukraine, the Turks were already fussing over American money with their weapons for the Ukrainians. At the same time, the Turks are not embarrassed even by the fact that the country is under US sanctions for purchasing the S-400 Triumph air defense system from Russia.

It has become known that the Turkish military and diplomats are now actively lobbying in the United States for the sale of the T-155 Firtina self-propelled gun ("Storm", "Storm") of 155 mm caliber to Kyiv. Moreover, Ukraine would like to receive at least 12 combat-ready Turkish “self-propelled guns”. On May 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to fly to Washington to discuss important issues with his American counterpart Joe Biden, and self-propelled guns will be mentioned as well.



Ukrainians were really very interested in Turkish self-propelled guns. Firstly, this is really a very good artillery system. In 2001, Turkey acquired a license for the production of high-quality self-propelled guns K9 Thunder (“Thunder”) of 155 mm caliber from South Korea for $1 billion, which in the Turkish army received the designation T-155 K/M Obus. Moreover, Seoul will probably not refuse Ankara the sale of self-propelled guns to third countries and will agree to re-export.

Secondly, these self-propelled guns, according to the Turks, have significantly improved the efficiency of retreating from a firing position, and now it takes less than 30 seconds, which is extremely important for the Ukrainian Armed Forces due to the air supremacy of Russian aviation and drones. Negotiations were already underway in 2023, but when the Americans curtailed funding for Ukraine, the Turks immediately lost interest, since they did not want to sell self-propelled guns on credit in principle.

Currently, the Turks are already producing the T-155 Firtina-II (carrying 48 rounds of ammunition). Large reserves of ammunition have been accumulated, which is also important given the shortage of shells in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. New FAARV transport and loading vehicles are also available. After the shameful failure of the Bayraktar TB2 UAV in Ukraine, the Turks want to regain their reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality weapons, and at the same time “sit on the cash flow.”