[Chainmail]

Way too often we have "experts" such as yourself show up on the Free Republic and then flail away at those of us who have actually done this for a living. Sure, absolutely, massive towed guns have been used throughout history. If you have the time and the manpower and the enemy can't reach you while you're emplacing, they worked fine. Anything larger than 120mm aren't suitable for lifting by helicopter for any usable distance. Yes, I know that we lift 155mm howitzers now but they are too large and too heavy for any real range with a helicopter because they are so large and heavy and because the helicopter can only carry so much fuel. I know what I'm talking about because I commanded a 155mm artillery battalion and moving those beasts and their ammunition by helicopter was hazardous, difficult and rough on the equipment.

Self-propelled howitzers provide mobility, speed (compared to towed, anyway) rapidity in emplacement, crew assistance in the form of projectile handling, loading and aiming and can use much smaller crews and fire far more rapidly. Further, SP howitzers can be used for more rapidly shifting fire fans than a towed howitzer, covering more area for attack. SP guns do require more maintenance support than towed artillery but the mobility and speed of firing is worth the effort.

We have the technology, so it's time to use it. Modern howitzers aim using ring laser gyros which sense the turn of the Earth so precisely that we can aim within less than one mil in traverse and elevation. We now have ballistic programs that can iterate the flight of the projectile through all of the elements of its trajectory including the latest weather effects and provide a firing solution that dead-nuts-on for the first shot as long as we're given a good target location. We have laser rangefinders now, so the targets provided are pretty darn good. As I mentioned earlier, I have worked on an armored system which will be capable of accurate firing on the move for our future battlefields - we are in the 21st Century now and our prospective enemies all have large, modern armies. We have to be able to offset their advantages in mass and mobility, so we have to use the best equipment possible.

It's fine to look back to the past to gain an appreciation for history but do you seriously think we should use towed 240mm howitzers today? Heck, we had massive railway guns too but do you think those are a great idea today?

Why not go back to horses as prime movers?

[Southack]

I don’t see a need for larger artillery than our standard 155 mm at this time. Rockets, aircraft, and drones are for longer distances or harder targets.

Really, I just took issue with your bizarre claim that “you’re not an engineer and probably never served in artillery.. Eight inch guns are a little large for towing...” when we towed greater than 9 inch artillery into battle in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam.

It’s as though you didn’t know that we towed larger artillery, yet were pretending that others didn’t know what they were talking about.

Now you know.