“The audacity of the wheeled cannon is the maximum efficiency,” Beaudouin told Defense News. “You sacrifice nothing in terms of firepower, rate of fire, precision and range, and you’ve got a truck, armored all the same, but which is able to be nimble, which is very stealthy.”
Beaudouin was part of the French Army’s decision to buy an upgraded Caesar, so he might be suspected of bias toward wheels. But at least nine other countries, including the U.K. and Germany, decided to invest in self-propelled wheeled howitzers in the past year. Analysts said the Ukrainian experience is driving military planners’ interest.
…
Interest in wheeled self-propelled artillery flows from a desire for a “much higher degree of mobility and survivability” than towed guns, said Daniels. Military staff who see wheels as an attractive option over tracks “often define survivability in a broader way, as opposed to seeing it purely from the physical protection offered by onboard armor,” he added.
…
“Ukrainian use of shoot-and-scoot artillery fire suggests that the future lies in highly mobile artillery, be they tracked or wheeled,” Jones said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14513149/Russia-nightmare-Ukraine-best-artillery-guns.html
I think many of us in western democracies have not studied Russian history well enough to understand that the recent behaviour is not new at all, and it was always going to come to this.
I think many of us really believed that a Russia that seems to be playing the game our way would not simply revert to bloody-handed tyranny against the world and all reason.
An America that really understood Russian culture would never have signed the Budapest Memo, imo. Call me Russophobic if you want, but they’re a grim and cynical folk and it’s been that way long enough to confirm the diagnosis.
When France turned into a republic it had been a monarchy for more than a millenium, yet it did happen. Historical precedent can only tell you so much.
What you’re saying plays right into Russian state propaganda that says their culture requires a strong leader and dedication to a common propose as opposed to Western individualism. In truth, Russian liberalization is possible, but it will be much harder if the west does not extend their hand.
That wasn’t my intention - I don’t know what is possible for Russia in the future, only that they don’t show any signs that they’re trying to change.
Obviously it takes two to tango and the US has not done enough to smooth things over. The world is too imperfect for tidy solutions or easy answers. All I’m saying here is that nobody who knows Russia is raising their eyebrows at the way they’re acting.