Almost exactly four years after the first batch was pledged in September 2022, the state-of-the-art RCH 155 wheeled howitzer has been delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. GAU can now independently confirm this through a reliable source.
As early as the beginning of July 2026, Nicholas Drummond, an advisor to KNDS Deutschland, the manufacturer of the RCH 155, hinted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the first RCH 155 had been delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announcing that the artillery system can now be described as “combat proven”.
A few weeks later, during a visit to KNDS Deutschland, Germany’s Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, also hinted that a delivery had taken place. In a brief statement made during the visit, he mentioned, for example, that the wheeled howitzer had been very well received in Ukraine.
Given the – to put it mildly – eventful history regarding delivery dates, and because neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian side has, to date, published any photos or video footage showing the RCH 155 in Ukraine, GAU has so far refrained from confirming the delivery.
In the meantime, however, a source independent of both the currently relevant political and industrial circles has confirmed the delivery to GAU, bringing what had seemed like a never-ending and complicated chapter in Germany’s assistance to Ukraine to what is hopefully a happy conclusion.
RCH 155 – the world’s most advanced howitzer
The RCH 155 is currently the most advanced self-propelled howitzer in the world. It combines the well-proven, highly automated Artillery Gun Module – including a 155 mm/L52 gun system – with the GTK Boxer chassis.
The wheeled howitzer can hold 30 155 mm shells, 144 modular propellant charges and, depending on the ammunition used, has a firing range of up to approximately 70 kilometres.
With the RCH 155, it is now possible for the first time to engage targets whilst moving. However, according to information from the industry monitor “hartpunkt”, this is only possible on certain types of terrain at a maximum speed of 30 kilometres per hour (as at the end of 2025).
The RCH 155 has been ordered for Ukraine in three batches, each consisting of 18 units. Ukraine will therefore receive a total of 54 of these modern and highly autonomous wheeled howitzers. According to the German Ministry of Defence, the German government is investing a whopping €890 million to fulfil the order.
From one delivery date to the next
But it was precisely at the delivery stage that the problems began. Although industry experts had already predicted in 2022 that the first systems would not be delivered until 2025 at the earliest, Nicholas Drummond – mentioned earlier as an advisor to KNDS Deutschland – announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) in August 2023 that the first wheeled howitzers were expected to be handed over to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2024.
However, nothing came of it. Just a few months later, in an article published by DER SPIEGEL in November 2023, a high-ranking KNDS employee was quoted as saying that the first units were now due to be delivered at the end of 2024. This was the first delay, which, even in the best-case scenario, amounts to around three-quarters of a year.
However, this deadline was not met either. Following a further minor delay, the first RCH 155 was officially handed over in January 2025 in the presence of the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, and Germany’s Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius.
Still, this was merely a formal handover of the first system, which was initially to remain in Germany for several more months so that Ukrainian soldiers could be trained on it.
Originally, the first training round was due to begin in January 2025, both at KNDS Deutschland in Kassel and at the Bundeswehr Artillery School in Idar-Oberstein, and was expected to last until around March 2025 or April 2025.
This is also consistent with an interview published in November 2024 between hartpunkt and Ralf Ketzel, then CEO of KNDS Deutschland, in which he stated that the first RCH 155 would be delivered in April 2025.
But this deadline too – as you might have guessed – passed without any explanation or indication of the reasons.
It was not until the Ukrainian edition of Deutsche Welle (DW) interviewed the then CEO of KNDS Deutschland in August 2025 and also asked him about an article published by GAU in June 2025 concerning the delays that he admitted to further delays, citing, amongst other things, changes to the system resulting from training programmes that had been carried out. However, he added that other items would also have to be removed from the list, including integration into the Ukrainian battle management system.
Once all the issues had been resolved and the changes implemented, delivery would begin, which was expected to take place in a few months’ time.
However, there was yet another delay here – the fourth known one to date – as it was not until July 2026, almost a year after the DW interview with Ketzel, that any indication was given of the handover or deployment of the first RCH 155 in Ukraine.
Now, some two months after the first indications emerged, GAU can finally independently confirm the deployment of the RCH 155 in Ukraine, which will hopefully bring this difficult chapter to a positive end.
According to Drummond, Ukrainian users are consistently able to hit targets at a range of 40 kilometres with the very first round fired from this artillery system. Whilst we are still awaiting detailed reports on the system’s performance, these are already outstanding figures – figures that older Soviet artillery systems in particular, but also some relatively modern Western-supplied systems, can only dream of.
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