The war in Ukraine is also a giant arms fair Analysis by The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal features an article alleging that the deployment of billions of dollars worth of equipment in the Ukraine war has also given manufacturers and militaries a unique opportunity to analyze the battlefield performance of weapons and learn how best to use them.

The Ukrainian crew of a high-tech German artillery system can shoot three shells within seconds that will simultaneously hit the exact same spot more than 25 miles away.

That is, when the big gun hasn’t broken down.

The Panzerhaubitze howitzer is part of an arsenal of weapons being put to the test in Ukraine in what has become the world’s largest arms fair.

Companies that make the weapons being used in Ukraine have won orders and resurrected production lines.

For all the Panzerhaubitze’s technical prowess, the war has shown the importance of being able to fix weapons on the battlefield. A simpler howitzer, the M777, has proven more reliable, but also more vulnerable to attack.

Debate around the performance of the two howitzers, and many other weapons, could help shape military procurement for years to come. At a major arms fair in London this month, exhibitors said they were frequently asked about the performance of their weapons in Ukraine.

The U.S. and European nations have sent billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine from existing military stockpiles, and countries are now starting to replace some of that inventory amid a broader rise in military spending. Global military spending rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to a record high of $2.24 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.

Artillery guns and the shells they fire, drones, missile-defense systems and multiple-rocket launchers are all heavily used in Ukraine. Some of this equipment—made by the likes of BAE Systems, Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin and RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies—is now receiving orders or interest from potential buyers, arms makers say.

While some countries are beginning to replace equipment sent to Ukraine, companies say that military procurement is typically slow, meaning many orders won’t materialize immediately.

The Panzerhaubitze, made by Rheinmetall and the German arm of KNDS, has secured orders from Berlin to replace units sent to Ukraine, while Kyiv has also signaled interest in buying the big gun.

The constant use of the Panzerhaubitze, though, has led to breakdowns, according to Ukrainian artillerymen. One of the machines operated by the Bakhmut crew caught fire and had to be taken back to Germany, and the electronics in the automatic loading process malfunctioned in another. It is now loaded manually.

The weapon’s makers attribute problems to a combination of being fired too much and a lack of servicing. “If they take care of the electronics, it works,” said Armin Papperger, Rheinmetall’s CEO.

Some military analysts say another lesson is that not enough time was spent training Ukrainian operators in the haste to get them back onto the battlefield. The Ukrainian artillerymen received five weeks of training on the Panzerhaubitze. German operators typically train for four months.

Other Western howitzers have also had problems amid constant use. An operator of the Polish howitzer, the AHS Krab, said one machine was being used so intensively that its barrel tore off. A spokesman for its manufacturer, Huta Stalowa Wola, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Papperger said the war is showing how fast barrels wear out. Rheinmetall has now tripled its production of gun barrels for armored fighting vehicles.

Ukraine has put some Western equipment to the test in a more intense environment than it has previously been deployed.

The CV90, for example, saw combat in Afghanistan and Liberia, but “it’s totally different to what we are seeing in Ukraine,” said Dan Lindell, director of combat vehicles at the Swedish unit of BAE Systems that makes the armored carrier.

Lindell said BAE has had more inquiries about the vehicle based on its performance in Ukraine. The Swedish and Ukrainian governments have also signed an agreement that could lead to production of CV90s in Ukraine.

Other weapons that have received praise in Ukraine, including the high-profile endorsement of President Volodymyr Zelensky, are the Himars mobile rocket launcher and Britain’s long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

Rocket launchers, including the U.S.’s Himars and M270S, have impressed the British army’s Sanders most in Ukraine, he said, citing their precision, concentration of firepower and range.

Companies that make some of those weapons have won fresh orders and boosted production. Since the war began, the U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin $630 million in contracts to manufacture Himars for itself and allies.

Meanwhile, RTX is increasing production of its Patriot missile defense system to 12 a year, and plans to deliver five more to Ukraine by the end of next year. Its software has been tweaked to enable it to destroy hypersonic missiles.

“Successful operation allows manufacturers to write ‘proven in combat,’ which helps sales,” said Nicholas Drummond, a former British army officer who runs defense-industry consulting firm AURA Consulting Ltd.