Posted on 11/26/2022 1:04:44 PM PST by Its All Over Except ...
Same concept, they have to be repaired. Barrels wear out, things break, etc.
A typical 155mm howitzer barrel is designed to last 1500 Equivalent Full Charge (EFC) rounds. That is 1500 rounds fired at nearly maximum range. If firing at less than max range, you might only have 0.7 EFC rounds per shot. If firing some rounds such as Excalibur or extended range HE, you may see 1.2 EFC rounds per shot. If these guys are firing 100 to 150 rounds per day, it stands to reason that tubes need to be replaced every 1 to 2 months, or accuracy suffers. It’s an artillery war, so you have to do the barrel changes. Every army has the same problem.
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Thanks, Redlegs understand, the FR armchairs here have no idea. The main problem is also the 155 round,very heavy, comes on pallets, requires forklifts, large heavy 5 ton trucks and much support equipment.
Ammo supply a logistical nightmare…and I doubt the Ukies have the trained armorers following the guns around. More than likely they are being abandoned and left sitting where they became “ red X’d”.
I expect many to end up on display in Vlad’s war museums.
Most of Ukraine’s artillery is still the old Soviet stuff.
Wasn’t there a story about the Ukrainians overloading them with charges or something.
In a way MLRS/HIMARS are replacements for the 8-inch.
Its about the same weight of warhead vs an 8-inch shell.
Kind of hard for the russians to pick up these peices to display in a museum if they keep 'strategically withdrawing'.
An 8” howitzer is 203mm.
At least the M110A2 guns of the bn I was in were 😉.
I was in bn FDC, it was all manual; charts and darts, charge sticks and firing tables, a record of fire sheet and a field phone to the battery on a field desk, sitting under canvas and camo nets, the FDO sitting under a grease penciled standard of fire chart, with a stop watch around his neck... dang if I don’t bmiss it still 35 years later, sniff!
The article states clearly that the depots for the western stuff are in Poland.
So its a long drive over. But depot is depot.
Also note most of the western artillery they’ve got isnt the US M777’s. That seems to be about 1/3 of the total. The rest is a zoo of Polish, Czech, French, German, etc. A common feature is the ammo, but thats mostly it. Some of the barrels between some of the Euro models also, maybe.
Also, note, Ukraine has its own depots for its own artillery, which is ex-Soviet, and IIRC represent most of the guns in service. Ukraine has an arms industry and at one time actually made much of the equipment they’ve been using. They do apparently have to source barrels/barrel liners from Poland or Romania.
Why would the Ukrainians use 777s like ordinary artillery, when they can used them for precision guided munitions to take out command centers, ammo depots, tanks, etc?
The whole point of "smart" artillery shells is you don't need to use very many of them to get the same result as hundreds of "dumb" shells.
[...send a message to Ukraine, by giving them this crap?]
Yes! And the message was “Our crap is so much better than the russian crap.”
The US has @1,000 pieces of M777 in service or in reserve.
If you dont like these, maybe the lot of them should be sent to Ukraine. I think they would be glad to have them.
Rhe same concept is not the same system. You know that.
[Kind of hard for the russians to pick up these peices to display in a museum if they keep ‘strategically withdrawing’.]
The russians can’t even manage to “withdraw” with their own equipment much less the Ukrainians’.
Ukraine has a considerable arms industry. Kharkiv at one time (not that long ago) had the largest tank factory on earth. Ukraine made artillery, artillery ammo, atgms, ballistic missiles, APCs, you name it.
I doubt they have a problem doing basic maintenance for a few hundred western artillery systems. Or trucking it back to Poland as needed.
It seems they shoot them at max range a lot. Which is natural, range is one of their advantages over Russian artillery.
“So its a long drive over. But depot is depot.”
You are both delusional. Living in fantasies of the GWOT, where America ruled the skies and the electromagnetic spectrum. Where we could just lift in, and lift out, any malfunctioning systems, and immediately replace them with 2 more. By helo, in the air space we 100% controlled, from Global Hawks on down.
Thanks, both of you, this is really a breakthrough in my understanding.
Listening to you 2, on this topic, is like clearly hearing a British Colonel sincerely state to his troops, in 100% sincere belief, “We are going to [Crimea, Sudan/Khartoum, Gallipoli], and we are going to kick WOG arses, because we are BRITISH!”
Jesu Christo, this is NOT the GWOT. Anybody who thinks you can just haul large complex systems back and forth to depots for repair in Ukraine in late 2023...with NO helicopters, with trucks that are even easier targets, stuck in mud, with electric RRs way back, and out of electricity...
Say, I have a new thought.
I can sell you both half-shares in an amazing tunnel under the Hudson River. You will be rich in no time on the income from tolls. Just give me your bank information and we’ll get started.
/sarc
Q: What is the range of 152mm? 155mm? 105mm? 120mm mortars?
Good grief, the level here....
How much 155mm is in U.S. stockpiles in CONUS today?
Worldwide, today?
Production in the USA, today?
If you don’t know, and don’t know why it matters, why are you opining? Jeeeezusss....
Typo above:
for repair in Ukraine in late 2023
s/b 2022
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