Zuzana Howitzer Production Could End for Failing to Integrate Ukrainian Experience

The production of the wheeled Zuzana 155mm self‑propelled howitzers in Slovakia will likely end soon.

The Future Army reported on this, citing Denník N. Robert Kaliňák, the country’s Minister of Defense, had earlier suggested the same possibility.

The report refers to the Zuzana 2 version, which is currently in serial production and is being supplied to Ukraine with funds from partner countries.

The main reason cited is the experience of the war in Ukraine. Customers allegedly prefer more mobile, smaller, and lighter howitzers in which the main gun and ammunition are housed in an automatic turret while the crew sits forward in an armored cab.

By contrast, in Zuzana 2, most crew members are located in the rotating turret near the ammunition and have only a small chance of surviving if an enemy round or drone strike hits.

“Zuzana 2 had a chance to establish itself in the world at the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. Kyiv initially ordered eight units, which were quickly delivered from those already produced,” the media notes.

Then, in October 2022, Germany, Denmark, and Norway ordered and paid for 16 more new self-propelled artillery units for Ukraine.

“Three years have passed, and not all of them have been delivered. The last four are expected to be transferred by the end of this year,” Future Army writes.

It is reported that the manufacturer failed to consider the experience of Ukrainian artillerymen after the combat use of the Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzer against Russian invaders.

Now, the Slovak state-owned defense company Konštrukta Defense will focus on producing the new Eva M2 howitzers, which have a 6×6 chassis and are significantly lighter.

At the end of February this year, an explosion took place at a range in Slovakia during the testing of the Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzer.