Ukraine’s top artillery maker warns of production halt

Ukraine’s Kramatorsk Heavy Machine-Tool Building Plant, the maker of the Bohdana self-propelled howitzer, says it has not received a state order in nine months and may have to halt production and furlough workers if a new contract does not arrive soon, the company’s representative told Oboronka in an interview published September 3.

The plant, known by its Ukrainian acronym KZVV, said Bohdana systems now make up about 70% of Ukraine’s artillery, with more than 1,000 guns produced since the war began. Even if a new government contract arrives immediately, the company said it would still need to partially pause production for several months while it orders components, since preparing materials for a new batch takes roughly six months on its own.

KZVV representatives said the plant currently prices the self-propelled Bohdana at €2.5 million ($2.9 million) and the towed version at €1.6 million ($1.9 million). A new gun carriage in development, intended to replace Soviet-era Hyatsint carriages currently used on the towed version, will raise that price to roughly €1.8 million ($2.1 million) once it enters service, according to the company. KZVV said it plans to codify and unveil the new carriage in the coming months.

The company separately confirmed a German order for 200 Bohdana howitzers mounted on Mercedes truck chassis, a variant it calls Marta, worth €750 million ($871 million). KZVV said the Marta uses a shorter, 39-caliber barrel and is intended to replace shorter-barreled Western 155mm systems that Ukraine has found expensive to maintain, along with remaining Soviet-era 122mm and 152mm guns. Deliveries under the German contract are scheduled for 2027, the company said.

KZVV also confirmed it has localized production of the British 105mm L-119 howitzer in partnership with BAE Systems, a lightweight gun weighing 1.9 tons that the company said can be moved into forward positions using ground robotic platforms. The company said it is still waiting for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense to decide whether it will order the weapon.

“We think it’s needed,” a KZVV representative said of the L-119.

The plant said it can manufacture gun barrels ranging from 25mm to 203mm and currently produces barrels in 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 105mm, 122mm, 125mm and 155mm calibers, depending on government orders. KZVV has also supplied replacement barrels to BAE Systems for British-origin artillery systems used by Ukraine, including the M777, AS-90, L119, FH-70, Krab and Archer howitzers, as well as the Tridon air defense system.

On ammunition, KZVV said it now produces 155mm long-range, medium-range and short-range shells, but that Ukraine still lacks domestic production of gun propellant, forcing continued reliance on imported powder. The company estimated that building a facility capable of producing nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose and propellant for long-range shells, at a capacity of 8,000 tons annually, enough for just under 1 million long-range rounds a year, would cost about €800 million ($929 million).

KZVV said the plant currently operates across 20 sites, including in two countries outside Ukraine, employing about 7,000 people, 85% of whom relocated from eastern Ukraine. The company said it evacuated roughly 50,000 tons of equipment out of Kramatorsk during the war’s early months under Russian missile fire, a relocation effort that took 150 people 14 months to complete.