COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — The Caesar self-propelled howitzers currently produced in France for Denmark will not be delivered. The reason: Denmark will donate its land fleet of 19 Caesar self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. Thus the creation and equipping of Denmark’s 1st Brigade will be delayed.
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Denmark has been waiting for years for these ground artillery systems. But Ukraine’s requested help from the “free world” is changing Denmark’s plans, says Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the Scandinavian country’s defense minister. He emphasized again that the situation in Ukraine “is cruel”.
Denmark’s decision to send all 19 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine was supported by Denmark’s foreign policy council. Denmark was to receive the French howitzers by the middle of the year. Mr. Eleman-Jensen emphasized that Kyiv needs precise artillery systems, namely the Caesar brand.
Denmark’s decision means that it will impair the country’s combat capability in terms of building joint forces with those of NATO. The 1st Brigade, numbering 4,000 men, was to be the “Danish donation” for NATO special operations. The decision, as written by the Danish website Avisen Denmark, has presented Danish politicians with a difficult dilemma.
However, Denmark is working to solve the problem regarding the country’s internal defense in a short period, writes the Danish website. Mr. Ellemann-Jensen confirmed that the 1st Brigade will get new equipment, it just won’t be the 19 Caesar systems in question.
When the Danish 19 Caesars will be delivered to Ukraine is unclear, but the Danish defense minister believes it could happen within the next six months. Despite the mistakes made by Caesar during the hostilities against the Russian armed forces, Ukraine wants to receive the Danish artillery weapons.
“It’s not a solution that’s completely seamless. It’s a system that’s fraught with some bugs and we’ve made the Ukrainians clear about that. They still want to get this equipment,” says Mr. Elleman-Jensen.
The Danish Minister of Defense confirmed that the errors in the system will be corrected. BulgarianMilitary.com recalls that in the middle and end of last year, quite a few artillery systems delivered to Ukraine began to fail. The main reason for this was the increased intensity of the use of the guns by the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as some software errors with the non-recognition of ammunition.
“This means that the bugs have to be fixed before we can deliver it, but we also expect that to happen relatively quickly,” they say in Denmark.
Caesar howitzers are powerful, long-range guns mounted on an armored truck that can engage targets up to 40 kilometers away. Artillery can fire six shots in less than a minute.
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