A photo appeared in the public domain, which shows that during the fighting in the Avdiivka direction, the warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the help of kamikaze FPV drones hit a russian self-propelled 2S34 Hosta 120 mm self-propelled mortar system, which is quite rare for the russian army.
The circumstances, time and place of such an attack remain unknown at this time. However, this may be a reason to remember what the 2S34 Hosta self-propelled mortar is, and how often the enemy lost such artillery systems in general.
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The 2S34 Hosta self-propelled artillery installation was adopted by the russian army in 2008. At the same time, its mass production started. The 2S34 Hosta is essentially a "hybrid" of a self-propelled gun and a 120-mm mortar.
This system can be called a deep modernization of the 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer using developments in the 2S31 "Vena" self-propelled mortar.
According to the declared characteristics, the Hosta self-propelled mortar can fire at a range of only up to 13 kilometers, while the rate of fire is 10 rounds per minute with ammunition - up to 40 rounds. Crew - 4 people, combat weight - 17 tons.
Probably, it is precisely because of such unremarkable characteristics that the russian army did not order the production of a significant number of the 2S34 Hosta: The Military Balance 2022 guidebook claims that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the russian troops had only 50 such artillery systems. This may explain why there are so few references to the use of the Hosta self-propelled mortars in the war against Ukraine.
For example, the same Oryx managed to count only one destroyed self-propelled mortar of this type, and two more the 2S34 Hosta, which became trophies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during March-April 2022.
Previously, Defense Express reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to use extremely interesting incendiary high-precision ammunition against the russian invaders.
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