Posted on 12/08/2005 3:29:45 PM PST by Clive
FORT SILL, Oklahoma -- The new M777 155mm howitzer coming into service with the Artillery in November will extend the range and lethality of fire missions supporting ground operations.
Captain Jeffrey Pederson (left), takes part in war games at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The Triple 7, as gunners call it, is a lightweight 155mm towed howitzer that is air-portable and air-droppable. The design is the result of a joint British-American project, with the guns being manufactured in the United States.
Firing conventional munitions, the gun has a range of 30 km. With precision munitions, such as the Excalibur round, the range can reach 40 km, with the first rounds being effective. The increased accuracy of the Excalibur round is due to the built-in global positioning system guidance system.
"With the equipment we've been using until now, it would sometimes take up to eight minutes after receiving a fire-mission request to have effective rounds hitting the target. With a digitized Triple 7, effective fire can be achieved in under two minutes," said Major Paul Payne, Chief Instructor in gunnery at the Field Artillery School in Gagetown.
Conventional munitions will still require ranging and bracketing to get rounds on target, giving an aggressor with mobility time to move away from the impact area as adjustments are made. With the Excalibur round, commanders and forward observation officers can deliver lethal blows with the first and subsequent rounds.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Andrews, an instructor at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, has assisted with training the first Canadians who will use the Triple 7. The 19-year veteran, who has had many tours in combat zones, does not hesitate to describe the Canadian gunners as " a well motivated and well disciplined group of soldiers ... very professional."
Staff Sgt Andrews has a depth of experience as an artilleryman and sums up the Triple 7 this way: "This weapon is high speed, and can always stay in the fight no matter what happens. It's awesome."
After extensive trials and shoots, the first new guns built for the Canadian Army were delivered on November 26, in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan. The gun represents a major leap in technology and its first use in an area of conflict will be with Canadian gun crews.
A joint Canadian-American New Equipment Training Team (NETT), established at Fort Sill, was CFB/ASU Shilo for the arrival of the M777 to conduct further training and live shoots.
Following the shoot, the Canadian component of the NETT will be established in the Field Artillery School at the Combat Training Centre, Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.
Article and photos by Master Corporal Dennis Power
To learn more about this unit you can point your browser to: This file over at Snipercountry
Semper Fi
Coolbeans.
Thanks!
(You can tell I was just a line dog on the howitzer..)
Thanks for posting that incredible photo. If anyone did not look at the picture closely, the shell is in the frame, traveling rapidly downrange.
Or 2 meters at a range of 2,000 meters, etc. That's the beauty of it. It's short for milliradian.
Under uniform and ideal conditions, you always obtain maximum range at 45 degrees, 800 mils, elevation with any type of gun.
Coolbeans.
Being that I have a mind like a seive, this will all leak out right about... now.
;-)
But I've bookmarked the info for later use if need be.
Whats your opinion on the 175s we had in Nam.
Very cool. I suspected it was metric in some way.
Because there may be a time when we have few or no AC (aircraft) available ovet a given area. Artillery can also sustain a bombardment as long as they have ammo. AC need to return to base and rearm.
Aircraft have to refuel as well, so the time to loiter over an area depends on fuel consumption and the range from an airfield if aerial refueling isn't available.
That would be cool to see in slo-mo.
I would think either a skid or a chute could be used.
>>Cannoneers have steel balls.
When you're talking about other FReepers, it is considered proper FR courtesy and etiquette to ping them.
Should have figured you'd already been on the thread.
Ballistic winds, temperatures and densities are first calculated using density weighting tables (see Department of the Army, 1982); these represent the bulk effects of all wind, density and temperature conditions encountered over an entire trajectory (Department of the Army, 1997). Horizontal displacements are then calculated for each ballistic effect using parameters unique to particular weapon systems.
Figure 1: Impact without adjustment for 20-knot tail wind (adapted from FM 6-15, 1997) 
It sure had legs, but wasn't very accurate. With today's GPS-guided round it would be impressive.
Bore life was real short too.
Do you have a single report of actual artillery being fired against US troops since the end of major combat ops? Artillery, as opposed to mortars?
The graphic you posted reminded me of a program tat was shipped with the Tectronix terminals back in the days when Unix and a little program called CPM were in vogue.
The Tectronix Corp were trying to sell what at that time was a fairly sophisticated terminal. To illustrate the graphic capabilities of the display someone wrote a small program to draw a parabola when given two sets of XY coordinates. The display had a small cannon on one side of the screen and an outhouse on the other. The object was to load the cannon with enough powder to send a cannon ball of a given weight to the outhouse which was placed at different distances and elevations from the site of the cannon. Success resulted in one of those comic book style explosions where pieces of the outhouse were scattered all over the screen.
Thanks again
Semper Fi
Do rockets count?
Decent substitute: Sprinkle Hoppe's #9 on the upholstery.
I once ran a tear gas chamber for a whole day at my unit. Then I took off my MOPP suit and went over to the car of a fellow lieutenant (I really didn't like this guy too much) and shook the suit violently inside the open (fool) drivers side window. All that CS DUST absorbed into his seats and everytime he sat down a small cloud puffed up around his ears. Made for some pretty interesting driving techniques and even more colorful language that floated from his vehicle....
I once knew an Air Force guy named Capt. Kidd. His first name was Rich.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.