Msta-B
The 2A65 Msta-B is a Soviet-era 152 mm towed gun-howitzer that entered service in 1987 and remains the backbone of Russian divisional artillery — now heavily committed in Ukraine, where its towed configuration leaves it acutely exposed to drone-cued counter-battery.
The 2A65 Msta-B is a Soviet-designed 152 mm towed gun-howitzer — the divisional workhorse of Russian artillery since 1987, now fighting a drone-saturated war in Ukraine that its manual, towed configuration was never built to survive.
Overview
The 2A65 Msta-B (GRAU index 2A65; "B" for Buksiruyemaya, towed) is a 152.4 mm towed gun-howitzer developed in the late Soviet period as the modern towed counterpart to the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled system. It equips Russian motor-rifle and artillery brigades for general-support indirect fire and, alongside large numbers of older pieces drawn from storage, has formed the quantitative backbone of Russian tube artillery throughout the war in Ukraine. The type has no NATO reporting name, though some Western reference tables use the placeholder "M1987." As a towed system reliant on a six-to-ten-person crew and a manual firing cycle, the Msta-B embodies the vulnerability of unarmoured, slow-to-displace artillery in an environment saturated with reconnaissance drones and loitering munitions.
Development
The Msta-B was developed by the Barrikady ordnance bureau in Volgograd (with Titan as a co-manufacturer) and entered Soviet service in 1987, according to the US Army ODIN/WEG database. It shares the 2A64 152 mm ordnance with the tracked 2S19 Msta-S, creating ammunition and barrel commonality across the towed and self-propelled tiers of the divisional artillery. Serial production ran through the late Soviet period and into the Russian Federation era; the exact production total is not publicly established, but the type was built in large numbers and remains in active Russian service alongside substantial quantities drawn from long-term storage to replace combat losses in Ukraine.
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