Special Operations Forces adjusted a missile strike on the modern Russian 2S43 Malva self-propelled gun.

The press service of the Special Operations Forces reported on this.

During the aerial reconnaissance, the operators of the 140th Special Purpose Center discovered a camouflaged artillery position and a 2S43 Malva wheeled artillery system in the Russian rear.

The operators transmitted the target coordinates to a friendly artillery unit, successfully guiding the missile strike.The first missile strike directly hit the self-propelled gun, with subsequent cluster munitions causing widespread fragmentation damage.

Objective control footage reveals no signs of flames or ammunition detonation near the artillery system. However, the close proximity of the vehicle to the impact site likely caused significant damage to the artillery components, which are typically exposed in the open position.

This marks only the second documented instance of damage to the relatively rare artillery system, which began mass production at the end of 2023. The previous strike was carried out by operators from the Flying Skull attack drone unit.

Additionally, the strike resulted in injuries to military personnel and caused damage to an ATV utilized for logistical support of the artillery unit.

The system identified by the special forces as Malva may in fact be the newer 2S44 Giatsint-K system, which is based on the same chassis and is largely unified with it.

Militarnyi first reported on its appearance in December 2024, analyzing military chronicles from Russian reports from the front line.

The wheeled system, replacing the 2A64 152mm howitzer, is now equipped with an artillery component from the 2A36 Giatsint-B long-range gun, addressing the limited firing range of the “Malva.” The upgraded system can engage targets at a range of up to 30.5 km with conventional high-explosive fragmentation ammunition. With the use of active-reactive shells, this range increases to 33.1 km.

The released footage also shows that Russian artillerymen are using updated corrected 3OF95 Krasnopol-M 152mm projectiles to accurately hit long-range targets.

Militarnyi previously reported that the massive use of reconnaissance and strike drones paralyzed the frontline area, which led to a change in artillery tactics. As a result of the widespread use of drones, Russian self-propelled artillery crews have begun using stationary firing positions dug into the ground.