Posted on 04/22/2022 6:00:05 AM PDT by GonzoII
WASHINGTON – The first U.S. 155mm howitzers from the latest $800 million military aid package for Ukraine have arrived in Europe as American troops there begin training Ukrainian forces on the artillery, a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday.Some – but not all – of the 18 howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds that the U.S. is sending Ukraine as part of the aid authorized April 13 by President Joe Biden have arrived in Europe as the U.S. delivered another four flights of military aid during the past 24 hours, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In that time, U.S. troops have begun training some Ukrainian forces on how to use the American howitzers, the official said. The training is expected to last “about a week."
The official declined to say where in Europe the training is happening, but said it is not occurring inside Ukraine. After completing the instruction, the Ukrainian troops will return to the fighting and teach other troops how to use the American howitzers.…
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
RELATED FROM: FORBES The Dutch Are Sending Huge German Armored Howitzers To Ukraine
Shouldn’t Ukrainisn forces already know how to use 80 year old technology?
Does anyone know the reason “The Moron” advertises the exact details of the support given to Ukraine??? Seems pretty stooopid to me.
Apparently Russia is jamming and spoofing GPS over Ukraine, which is why our drones are no longer working, and even our new “Ghost of Kiev” Drone probably won’t work there either.
I haven’t seen which version of the US 155mm howitzer they are sending M114, M198 or M777
In any case, the Russians will out-range these pieces without special shells - rocket assist etc.
“Shouldn’t Ukrainisn forces already know how to use 80 year old technology?”
Unlike Russian/Ukrainian artillery, ours requires a Computer Science degree to operate...because it’s sleek!
Most US secrets are secrets from the US public, but not from adversarial nations. So its really publicly available info from various sources - not generally the media at large - think trade publications and other obscure sources.
Under the "rules of war", that would a legitimate military target. Fair game.
I saw a video of a Saudi crew firing a 155 during the Gulf War. Running around, bumping into each other, everyone shouting. Funnier’n heck.
Panzerhaubitze 2000 long-range armored howitzers to Ukraine. Also known as the Pzh 2000, 61.5-ton tracked vehicles155-millimeter caliber heavy artillery systems are quite common across the globe, but they’re hardly all created equal even if the shells fired are of similar diameter.
With the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which began development in 1987, German firms Rheinmetall and KMW set out to make the gold-plated Porsche of armored self-propelled howitzers to replace the Bundeswehr’s U.S.-built M109 Paladins. Thus the new vehicle integrated technological enhancements to nearly every aspect of what could have been a boilerplate design.
The resulting 12-meter-long vehicle, which incorporated elements of the Leopard 1 and 2 tanks, can still accelerate to a respectable 41-miles per hour thanks to its turbocharged 986 horsepower MTU 881 diesel engine.
The main armament is a long-barrel rifled 52-caliber 155-millimeter gun is fed shells by an ornate auto-loading system, as you can see below. The human loader need only insert appropriate strength charges prior to firing, though the gun can also be fully manually loaded should the autoloader malfunction. A total of 60 shells can be stored, typically including smoke and illumination rounds as well as high explosives.
The gun’s chromium-lined, laser-hardened barrel also has substantial heat tolerance, allowing it to sustain high rates of fire which would quickly overheat the barrel and require lengthy cool-downs in other howitzers.
Rapid fire attacks can be more lethal, as most casualties caused by artillery occur in the first few minutes of a bombardment, when personnel are surprised and exposed and have yet to make it into cover. That means firing, 20 shells in 1-2 minutes is much more effective than 20 shells in 10 minutes. Furthermore, rapid high-volume fires enhance survival, allowing artillery to quickly complete their fire missions and reposition to avoid counter-battery attacks from opposing artillery.
Here, the Pzh2000’s autoloader and barrel synergize: it can rapid fire 3 shells in just nine seconds, tolerate around 20 rounds in 2 minutes, or maintain 8 rounds per minute long-term. Furthermore, it’s fire control system can execute Multiple Release Simultaneous Impact (MRSI) strikes in which it discharges up to five or six rounds in succession with variable strength charges, which can all land at the same target at roughly the same time - ensuring a vicious initial strike before troops can make it into cover.
Another key characteristic is range: the longer, the more targets which can be hit, and the fewer enemy guns with range enough to shoot back. The Pzh 2000 has a maximum range of 22 miles using ordinary DM121 shells, but that increases to 29 miles using more expensive base-bleed shells, and up to a whopping 35-42 miles using DM702A1 rocket-assisted projectiles.
The Panzerhaubitze also boasts an elaborate fire control system informed by multiple sensors: a weather sensor to gauge climate factors (temperature, wind, humidity etc.), a combination of GPS and international navigation to precisely gauge the howitzer’s position and inclination; and even a phased array radar to gauge the speed and trajectory of the shell upon firing, and use that data to correct aim for subsequent rounds. These datapoints are all calculated by a fire control computer to generate a firing solution.
Even greater accuracy can be achieved using guided shells. Those can include American 155-millimeter munitions like the relatively cheap M1156 PGK GPS-guidance kit, or the fancier German SMArt 155 shell, which floats down on a parachute. Using a built in IR sensor, it scans for tanks below and discharges an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) into the thin top armor of armored vehicles detected.
The Pzh 2000 also has more elaborate protection than many armored howitzers, which are not supposed to engage enemy forces within sight under ordinary circumstances, but aren’t always so fortunate. Its welded steel armor is thick enough to repel 152-millimeter artillery fragments and 14.5-millimeter machine gun rounds used by Russian armored personnel carriers. The crew can also optionally fit add-on top armor to protect against mortars and cluster submunitions.
The vehicle is also engineered to improve survival odds if penetrated - particularly by ensuring ammunition is stored in separate compartments from the crew, as well as using blast-vents in the ceiling to allow some of the explosive pressure of a penetrating blast to “leak out” the vehicle.
Remember that this same Moron is responsible for outing SEAL TEAM 6 and their ultimate demise in EXTORTION 17.
Have you forgotten that?
Its not 80 years old. Thats a new-ish gun as these things go, from 2005.
And every gun system plus its fire control can be very different. One can know how to work A gun but not necessarily THAT gun. And then there are battery and battalion level fire control and operational arrangements
M777 it has been mentioned.
All modern howitzers are outranged by large MLRS systems like the Uragan. But they are still used.
" That means firing, 20 shells in 1-2 minutes is much more effective than 20 shells in 10 minutes."
That's a lot of 155 artillery coming down on you in two minutes. –and that's just from one unit…
They use a 6000 mil (16.7 mils. degree of angle) system and we use a 6400 mil (17.8 mils/degree of angle) system - so, yes, they have to be trained and not mix the systems.
I was in artillery for 27 years and one of my claims to fame was training US personnel on the Soviet D30 122mm howitzer. I had my own captured version several years back and my own Marine gun crew to man it.
Are we going to train them in our deadly Time on Target techniques or will they stay true to their Rusdian origins and simply line them all up and shoot.
Musk will figure a way.
Rockets are a "to who it may concern" weapon and artillery is the 20 plus mile sniper system.
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