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Steep fire contributes significantly to the fire superiority of modern armed forces. The relevance of fire support continues to increase; studies have shown that up to 60 percent of failures in the First World War, up to 70 percent in the Second World War and up to 80 percent of the failures in the most recent conflict in Donbass (Ukraine) were caused by steep fire systems (artillery and mortars).

It is precisely these systems that have fallen out of focus in NATO armed forces after the fall of the Iron Curtain. So it is not surprising that in this area NATO is significantly inferior to the armed forces of Russia and China, both in terms of quantity (number of systems) and quality (range and impact). Even though many of the Russian and Chinese systems are made up of aging equipment, modern, powerful systems are increasingly being put into service. These include, for example, the Russian 2S35 self-propelled howitzer, which is said to have an effective range of up to 80 kilometers with conventional explosive ammunition. In comparison, effective ranges of just 30 kilometers can be achieved with the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) and the DM121 Boattail high-explosive projectile used in the Bundeswehr.

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