In Rain and Mud, French Artillery Unit Shows Lessons from Ukraine War: The Evolving Art of Artillery in the Post-Drone Era

Despite the significant focus and rapid proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles and associated technologies across the modern military spectrum, the experience gleaned from the protracted fighting in Ukraine has yielded a crucial, perhaps counterintuitive, confirmation for European armies: the centrality of traditional, heavy artillery has not diminished; in fact, its importance has been amplified. This realization is a cornerstone of the current doctrinal shifts being implemented across various French units, including the thirtieth-fifth RAP (Régiment d’Artillerie Parachutiste).

Reaffirming the Primacy of Indirect Firepower

The operational tempo and attrition rates observed in the Ukrainian conflict underscore a battlefield where area denial and deep strikes remain paramount. While drones excel in reconnaissance, targeting smaller, dispersed elements, and conducting immediate, low-cost strikes, they face inherent limitations in sustained, heavy bombardment and the ability to engage targets beyond the immediate line of sight that are heavily protected or positioned far behind the front. Lt. Col. Renaud Durbecq, the operations and training chief for the thirtieth-fifth RAP, articulated this clearly: artillery platforms, particularly modern self-propelled howitzers, represent the primary weapon system capable of delivering decisive destructive power at the maximum effective ranges. In essence, the drone often points the way, but the howitzer delivers the decisive blow to hardened positions or massed formations that an unmanned system cannot physically neutralize. This role—providing long-range, massed, and responsive suppressive or destructive fire—solidifies artillery’s position as the indispensable backbone of land combat power.

The Range Threshold Versus Unmanned Superiority

The dynamic between drones and artillery is increasingly less about competition and more about an integrated, layered capability. The drone’s utility often terminates where the maximum range of the primary artillery system begins. The colonel noted that the guns can engage targets in areas that are frequently beyond the operational envelope or effective sensor range of most reconnaissance drones. This establishes a critical engagement zone where the artillery platform reigns supreme. The lesson learned is not to replace artillery with drones, but to use the expanded sensor network—which includes drones—to feed data to the artillery systems more rapidly and accurately, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of the long-range fires before the enemy can effectively mask or reposition. The paradox is that the more drones there are, the more critical precise, long-range artillery becomes to counter sophisticated threats or destroy targets deep in the enemy’s rear area that are too large or too well-defended for smaller drone munitions.

Operationalizing Lessons from the Ukrainian Theater

The French military is not merely observing the conflict; it is actively engineering rapid doctrinal and technical changes based on the evolving nature of warfare demonstrated there. The transition is characterized by urgency, as evidenced by the speed with which the thirtieth-fifth RAP has integrated new concepts and equipment.

Integrating Field-Hardened Tactical Shifts

The adjustments being made are pragmatic responses to the high-attrition, technologically saturated battlespace seen in Ukraine. Beyond the core artillery mission, a major area of focus is the protection of the firing element itself. The feedback from the front lines highlights the constant threat posed by enemy reconnaissance and attack drones targeting mortar and howitzer crews once they are stationary or in the process of reloading. To mitigate this immediate threat, the regiment is incorporating a suite of defensive measures that blend active jamming, physical concealment, and layered counter-capabilities. The adoption of handheld electronic warfare jammers, specialized nets for obscuring thermal signatures, and even decoys are direct tactical adaptations designed to increase the survivability of high-value artillery assets in a contested environment. These measures are less about high-end technology and more about low-cost, high-impact survivability protocols honed in harsh combat.

The Necessity of System Reliability Over Novelty

In an environment where operational availability dictates combat power, the emphasis has visibly shifted toward proven dependability. Lt. Col. Durbecq stressed that for a frontline user, the paramount quality sought in any weapon system today is reliability. While cutting-edge features and artificial intelligence enhancements are certainly part of the future roadmap, the immediate reality demands equipment that functions flawlessly regardless of mud, rain, dust, or extended operational cycles. This philosophy influences procurement and maintenance priorities, favoring robust, easily maintained platforms over systems that might offer marginal performance gains but suffer from poor operational uptime in the field. The experience in Ukraine has shown that a complex system that breaks down is less valuable than a simpler, older system that fires every single time it is commanded to do so.

The Rapid “Dronization” of the Parachute Artillery Regiment

While confirming the continued importance of traditional tube artillery, the thirtieth-fifth RAP is simultaneously undergoing a profound, accelerated transformation toward becoming a highly digitized and unmanned-systems-enabled formation. This parallel evolution is perhaps the most striking feature of their current modernization effort.

Exponential Growth in Unmanned Assets and Personnel

The pace of this integration, termed “dronization,” is described as being at “breakneck speed.” Within the span of just one year, the regiment has witnessed a staggering fivefold increase in the number of unmanned aerial vehicles within its inventory. This massive influx of new hardware necessitates a corresponding surge in trained operators. The number of personnel qualified as drone pilots has tripled over the same period, reflecting a strategic decision to embed unmanned capabilities deep within every tactical element, not just centralize them in specialized reconnaissance units. This distribution aims to give immediate, organic access to overhead intelligence to every firing battery.

Strategic Implications of Doubled Flight Hours

The growth in assets is matched by an increase in operational experience. The flight hours logged by the regiment’s drone fleet have doubled, indicating a transition from basic familiarization training to genuinely realistic, complex mission profiles. This doubling of usage is critical because it allows the regiment to move beyond simply operating the hardware and begin stress-testing the integration of the drone feed into the actual artillery targeting loop under simulated combat load. The accrued flight hours generate invaluable empirical data on performance margins, battery life degradation under stress, data-link resilience, and the specific ways in which the enemy might attempt to degrade or spoof the signals—all direct takeaways from the evolving electronic warfare seen in Ukraine.

Countering the Ubiquitous Unmanned Threat

A significant portion of the adaptation demonstrated during the wet exercise focused explicitly on the defensive measures required to maintain combat effectiveness against the overwhelming proliferation of enemy drones. This required creative, rapid-response solutions built on existing platforms.

Implementing Immediate, Hybrid Counter-UAS Measures

The regiment is not waiting for entirely new, purpose-built countermeasures to enter service. Instead, it is fielding an array of immediate solutions designed to disrupt enemy surveillance and attack drones in the immediate vicinity of the artillery positions. These solutions are categorized as a hybrid approach, combining low-tech solutions with targeted electronic disruption. The deployment of physical screening elements, such as specialized nets, is intended to break line-of-sight for optical cameras, while the use of handheld jammers provides a localized electronic shield capable of interrupting the command and control links of smaller Unmanned Aerial Systems targeting the howitzers and mortars. This layering of active and passive defense is a direct response to the persistent, nagging threat posed by cheap, disposable unmanned systems.

The Ingenuity of Retrofitting Legacy Armaments

Perhaps the most illustrative example of this rapid, field-expedient engineering is the development of a mobile anti-drone weapon system. This system, cobbled together in a remarkably short timeframe of only four months, marries outdated yet reliable kinetic hardware with modern digital targeting. It involves mounting an older, nineteen-seventies-era twenty-millimeter anti-air cannon onto a robust, nineteen-eighties-era four-wheel drive truck platform. Crucially, this analog weapon is being modernized through the integration of a contemporary thermal camera and a dedicated fire-control computer system. This creation embodies the principle of using existing industrial and materiel bases to quickly meet emerging threats. Furthermore, the design is already slated for an immediate upgrade, which will incorporate artificial intelligence for enhanced target detection and tracking, all while being placed on a more modern Scania truck chassis, ensuring future mobility and integration potential. This specific system is the experimental **PROTEUS** anti-drone cannon.

Focus on Firepower Platforms: The Caesar Howitzer’s Role

The main instrument of the regiment’s long-range striking power remains the Caesar self-propelled howitzer, a system that has seen extensive use by Ukraine and whose performance characteristics are now being scrutinized under the lens of high-intensity European warfare.

Evaluating Mobility, Range, and Lethality in Practice

The Caesar, a product of the KNDS manufacturing group, represents a critical nexus of mobility, reach, and firepower for the French Army. Following the feedback loop established through direct observation of the system’s deployment in the East, the regiment’s leadership is assessing its overall performance envelope. The system’s inherent advantages—its ability to rapidly “shoot and scoot” due to its truck-mounted chassis, combined with a range that outstrips many peer systems—are key to its survival on a contested battlefield. The howitzer is capable of delivering up to six rounds per minute, with a projected range of approximately forty-two kilometers, making it a formidable asset capable of deep strikes. The exercise in the mud provided a critical check on the system’s cross-country mobility and the reliability of its automated laying systems when chassis stability is compromised by soft ground.

Manufacturer Perspective on System Evolution and Feedback

For the industrial base supporting the platform, the frontline experience is invaluable for guiding iterative improvements. Olivier Fort, a former artillery colonel now holding a significant role at KNDS overseeing the marketing of the Caesar cannon, indicated that the feedback loop from user regiments like the thirtieth-fifth RAP, informed by Ukrainian experience, is driving the next generation of tactical innovation. He suggested that various other tactical developments observed in the Ukrainian war that have proven successful could very well be integrated into future French doctrine and materiel upgrades. This demonstrates a commitment from the defense industry to rapidly adapt production and design based on the most current, validated combat data, rather than relying on pre-conflict projections.

Doctrinal Evolution and Future Training Regimens

The physical act of firing the weapon in the rain was just one component of a broader doctrinal push toward preparing the regiment for sustained, large-scale conflict, moving beyond the smaller expeditionary operations that characterized the preceding decades.

Preparing for Sustained High-Intensity Engagements

The commitment to high-intensity warfighting, a shift anticipated by some senior French leaders years prior, is now being actively operationalized through rigorous, extended training deployments. The thirtieth-fifth RAP has deliberately incorporated a lengthy, six-week training deployment cycle at Canjuers. This extended duration is specifically designed to condition the soldiers and the equipment for the physical and logistical demands of protracted engagements, a stark contrast to the shorter, scenario-driven exercises of the past. The goal is to build muscle memory for operational endurance, logistical sustainment under stress, and the mental fortitude required for continuous high-tempo operations that characterize modern high-intensity conflict.

The Extended Scope of Current Field Deployments

Lt. Col. Durbecq expressed that he was “very satisfied” with the current iteration of the Caesar system, particularly noting its balance of mobility, range, and sheer destructive capacity after factoring in the practical lessons absorbed from the Ukrainian theater. However, the evaluation process is continuous. Every salvo fired in the rain and mud of the French ranges contributes to the ongoing refinement of doctrine and platform suitability. The focus remains squarely on ensuring that the tools provided to the regiment are not only technologically advanced but also inherently dependable, a quality that outweighs almost any other feature in the crucible of combat.

Broader Implications for European Defense Posture

The observations made during this demonstration and the continuous flow of intelligence from the East have ramifications extending far beyond the immediate operational readiness of a single parachute regiment. They are shaping the investment strategies and philosophical underpinnings of European NATO members.

The Transfer of War-Tested Knowledge Across Allied Formations

The presence of foreign military delegations at the Canjuers exercise underscores the international interest in France’s rapid assimilation of Ukrainian warfighting lessons. The knowledge being forged in these adverse conditions—how to fight a layered air-defense and drone environment, how to maintain artillery effectiveness through extreme weather, and how to integrate emerging unmanned systems—is a highly valued commodity across the alliance. This process facilitates a kinetic, real-world test of interoperability concepts, allowing allied nations to potentially adopt similar tactical adjustments, thereby enhancing overall collective defense capabilities against a potential peer or near-peer adversary. The lessons learned here become shared currency within the NATO framework.

Investment in Resilient Battlefield Connectivity and Agility

The broader strategic takeaway relates to the future design of networked forces. The acknowledgment that air superiority is not guaranteed—a fact confirmed by the lack of persistent aerial coverage during the downpour and by the stalemate observed in Ukraine—forces a strategic pivot toward ground-based resilience. This includes rethinking the reliance on a constant, perfect data stream. Future budgets, shaped by these observations, must allocate resources not only for advanced sensors and communication suites but also for the redundancy, encryption, and physical hardening required to ensure that critical command and targeting data can still flow effectively, even when satellite links are contested or the weather is hostile. Agility in deployment, as proven by the Caesar’s mobility, coupled with the ability to fight through periods of degraded connectivity, is now the gold standard for European land power projection. The French artillery unit’s exercise in the rain and mud was more than a training event; it was a vital update to the entire continent’s defense manual for the current era of warfare.