Following the Russian invasion of Crimea and the Donbas in 2013/2014, Ukraine began a general effort to modernise its armed forces. One area in which such effort took place was artillery, with a development effort launched to develop a domestic 155mm self-propelled gun.
A prototype was constructed in early 2018, which began testing on the 7th of August that same year. State trials of the prototype took place starting in December 2019 and lasted well into 2021. By the outbreak of the 2022 full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, only this single prototype existed.
To prevent it from falling into enemy hands, the order was given to destroy it in the early days of the conflict. Despite the order to destroy the system, the manufacturer only ever disassembled it. It was later reassembled when it became clear that Kyiv was no longer under immediate threat and then saw action during the battle for Snake Island.
Full-scale production of the system began in mid-2023, with at least 30 units produced before the end of the year. Ukraine has since managed to increase the system’s production capacity to 18-20 systems per month, with 154 systems having been built in 2024. According to statements by Ihor Fedirko, the executive director of the Ukrainian Council of Gunsmiths, production capacity is now primarily constrained by the availability of the Tatra Phoenix truck chassis on which the current production model is based.
To alleviate this production bottleneck, two programmes were launched in Q1 of 2025. First was the serial production of the towed Bohdana-B, and second is to start production of the 2S22 on a secondary truck chassis, but this has not left the planning stage as of writing this article.
Variants
First of all, a disclaimer. As of writing this article, no official naming scheme exists for the 2S22 family. This article is instead a way for me to share my personal naming scheme for the 2S22 family of self-propelled and towed guns.
- 2S22 Mod. 1; This is the initial prototype that was constructed in 2018 on the basis of a KrAZ-6322 chassis.
- 2S22 Mod. 1.1; Scale model of a potential production variant shown off at IDEX-2023.
- 2S22 Mod. 1.2; A render of what seems to be a 2S22 equipped with an automated loading system akin to the BAE Archer and mounted on a larger 8s8 chassis.
2S22 Mod. 2; The first production variant of the 2S22 was first spotted in May of 2023 based on a MAZ-6317 6×6 chassis.
- 2S22 Mod. 2.1; The Mod. 2 equipped with a shell rammer.
The shell rammer seen is an adaptation of the one from the 2S5 Giasint-S, and while it is installed on all new production models, it is not often used by crews who find it to be too delicate and awkward to operate when the systems are dug into covered firing positions. Video courtesy of a Bild report of Ukrainian crews training on 2S22.
- 2S22 Mod. 3; The second production model of the 2S22 built on a Tatra 815-7 8×8 truck, which is rumoured to have been salvaged from Ukraine’s modernised fleet of Burevii MLRS after they ran out of ammunition.
- 2S22 Mod. 3.1; The Mod. 3 equipped with the same shell rammer as on the Mod. 2.1.
- 2S22 Mod. 3.2; While still based on the Tatra 815-7 the chassis for this model are no longer those of the Burevii 220mm MLRS but are instead newly imported models. Additionally the vehicle has now recieved a new domestically produced cab instead of the Puma L2 from Excalibur Army seen on Mod. 3 and 3.1 models.
- 2S22 Mod. 4; The third serial production variant based on the Tatra Phoenix 8×8 truck chassis. This is the most numerous variant of the 2S22 in Ukrainian service and also the one currently in production. Unlike the previous 2 models, this one comes with the shell rammer as standard.
- Bohdana-B; The first reports that Ukraine was developing a towed variant of the 2S22 came out in December of 2023. Later in August of 2024 Ukrainska Pravda reported that development of a towed 2S22 was still ongoing but that the developers were also looking into reusing the carriages of legacy Soviet towed guns. Among potential candidates were the 2A36 and 2A65 with the D-20 also considered for a potentially shorter-barrelled variant.
Then in September of 2024, the Bohdana-B was shown off to the public for the first time mounted on the carriage of a Soviet Legacy 2A36. It would, however, not be until the 24th of March 2025 that the first Bohdana-B showed up in a Facebook post by the 47th Artillery Brigade. The photos show the system being used during training with the brigade. Additionally, a short video was posted by Twitter (X) user @Lorik1734296 showing a Bohdana-B being towed by a Daewoo Novus cargo truck, which matches the photos posted by the 47th brigade.
On the 29th of March 2025, the German newspaper Bild published a video report of Ukrainian crews training on 2S22 mod. 3.1, Mod. 4 and Bohdana-B.
Representatives of the Bohdana-B’s manufacturer stated in an interview with the media centre of the Ukrainian Ground Forces that the current use of the 2A36 Giasint-B’s carriage is planned as a stop gap solution to get the system into production as fast as possible. A new domestically designed carriage is planned to enter production by the end of 2025.
Known operators
| Units | Variant |
| 16th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 26th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 32nd Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 40th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 43rd Artillery Brigade | Mod.3 |
| 44th Artillery Brigade | Mod.3.2/Mod.4 |
| 45th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 47th Artillery Brigade | Mod.3/Mod.4/Bohdana-B |
| 48th Artillery Brigade | Mod.3/Mod.4 |
| 49th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 55th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 406th Artillery Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 10th Mountain Assault Brigade | Mod.3 |
| 18th Slovyansk Brigade | Mod.4 |
| 57th Motorized Brigade | Mod.2 |
| 100th Mechanized Brigade | Mod.2 |
| Lyut Brigade, Dnipro-1 Regiment | Mod.4 |
| Khyzhak Brigade | Mod.4 |
Sources
- Tests of the Bohdana self-propelled guns began today
- Tests of Bohdana self-propelled guns have begun
- Ukraine produces up to 20 Bohdana self-propelled guns per month
- Experimental Bohdana self-propelled guns were used against the occupiers
- Bohdana self-propelled howitzer switched to Tatra chassis
- Bohdana: search for the optimal chassis or an attempt to fill the Defense Forces with artillery?
- Bohdana-B Video
- Bohdana-B: prospects for towed artillery for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- Ukraine is developing a trailed version of the Bohdana