Mystery shrouds Russia's mass production of 'Russian Crab' guns

However, Defense Express stresses that there has been no official confirmation from Moscow authorities concerning the deployment of these "Russian Crabs" on the Ukrainian front by the invaders' troops. The contradictory Russian messages are confusing, as they're simultaneously claiming that the arms industry has begun mass production of these guns, though only last year, as reported by the Ukrainian portal, Rostec's Deputy Director General announced during the Army-2023 forum that mass production of Coalition-SV had kicked off, making the new assertion somewhat questionable.

Consequently, it's plausible that the message delivered a few months ago was simply propaganda, and the Russian gun was still undergoing trials. There is still no evidence to confirm that the current statement about commencing mass production is wholly valid; therefore, it's prudent to approach Russian proclamations with skepticism.

High expectations have been inevitably placed on a mechanism that was initially unveiled by the Russian army back in 2006. This piece of equipment is expected, per Moscow's claims, to "revolutionize combat". Let's remember that the Russian military's most recent representative of 152 mm artillery originally looked quite different from the current version.

The major transformation was the shift in the barrel design. Originally, the design featured dual-barrel technology, but eventually Russia resolved to utilize a traditional single-barrel layout.

During the Coalition-SV's development phase, in its infancy, the Russians planned to fix two barrels onto a common turret and mount the weapon on a T-14 Armata tank chassis, which is another display of convoluted declarations regarding the onset of mass production.

Ultimately, the 2S35 Coalition-SV was mounted on the trusted T-90 tank chassis. The gun was fitted with a notably fast automatic loader, which enables it to fire up to 6 rounds per minute. The latest Russian design boasts an impressive range of roughly 19 miles, though some sources suggest it could reach up to 50 miles.