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A Belarusian D-30 howitzer breaks off its truck and rolls across a parade ground...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is racing to boost its production of artillery shells by 500 percent within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War as it invests billions of dollars to make up for shortfalls caused by the war in Ukraine and to build up stockpiles for future conflicts. The effort, which will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers, is part of “the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years” for the U.S. defense industrial base, according to an Army report. The new investment in artillery production is in part...

Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday, saying the arms would bolster forces fighting Russia's invasion. "The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page.

Ukraine's armed forces released a video on Sunday (May 15) saying it said showed servicemen firing new U.S. M-777 howitzers at the front line in the east of the country. The video showed its soldiers firing an artillery gun. Reuters could not independently verify the video. The U.S. embassy in Kyiv said on Sunday that Washington has delivered all but one of the 90 artillery pieces they were due to send. The M-777 howitzer consignment is part of a huge outlay of weapons from Washington to help Ukraine fend off Russia's invasion, which began on Feb. 24. The M-777 is...

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has announced a years-long delay for the delivery of U.S. howitzers, citing limited American production capacity, in a blow to the island democracy’s military upgrades. A second delivery of Stinger antiaircraft missiles may also be affected. Neither delay has been directly connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but American military aid to Kyiv’s forces is reportedly depleting weapons stockpiles and straining production. Unless an alternative is agreed to, delivery for the first batch has been pushed back from 2023 to 2026 at the earliest, during which Taiwan would remain reliant on decades-old artillery systems. Recently...

"More than half" of the howitzers the United States has designated to go to Ukraine have arrived as of Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. The U.S.'s military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded Feb. 24 includes 90 155 mm howitzers, large artillery guns that are operated by a team of about 10 people; 72 tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers; and 183,000 155 mm artillery rounds. “Without giving whole numbers, more than half of those howitzers are in Ukraine,” Kirby said during Wednesday’s briefing. He also said the first group of Ukrainian officers to be trained on the howitzers,...

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 an amazing first, an artillery cannon took out a cruise missile. An M109 Paladin 155 mm howitzer made history recently by shooting down a fast-moving maneuvering cruise missile with a “hypervelocity projectile” able to travel at speeds up to Mach 5, according to an Air Force announcement. Historically, armored vehicles such as tanks, howitzers or infantry carriers have not operated with an ability to destroy fast-moving, long-range cruise missiles, yet the successful demonstration breaks new ground. The shoot-down, which took place at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, destroyed a “surrogate” Russian cruise missile target using the Air Force’s...

CHINA has introduced a new howitzer weapon to its western borders following a fatal military clash with India in the Himalayas earlier this month. A howitzer is short cannon-type weapon that is capable of firing projectiles at high trajectories. The particular model that China is rolling out is called a PCL-181. These vehicle-mounted weapons are relatively new, having made a public debut at a military parade in Beijing in October last year. The cheap, light howitzer China is rolling out in Tibet The PCL-181 Click here to go to yuck tube.

U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground conducts developmental testing of multiple facets of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery project, from artillery shells to the longer cannon tube and larger firing chamber the improved howitzer will need to accommodate them on November 18, 2018 (U.S. Army photo)The future of Army long-range precision officially has a name. The Army confirmed on Monday that it plan on designating the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program's brand new 155mm self-propelled howitzer as the M1299, Army Recognition reports. Developed in response to increasing concerns of near-peer adversaries like Russia and China, the ERCA gun nailed targets...

Konstrukta photos When the DANA began rolling off Czechoslovakian assembly lines in the late 1970s, there wasn’t much else like it. The enormous, 152-millimeter self-propelled howitzer had eight road wheels instead of tracks. Most mobile artillery pieces at that time were tracked, like tanks, and the DANA was the first gun its of its size to roll on wheels — while carrying an innovative auto-reloading mechanism for the cannon. The Czechoslovak People’s Army wanted the DANA so it wouldn’t have to rely as much on the Soviet industry for its needs — and the wheels made for a speedy and...

The Russian Navy has not yet made any decision on the production of a prototype of the promising Koalitsiya-F 152mm shipborne howitzer, the press office of Russia’s Uralvagonzavod armor producer said in an interview with Flotprom online media organization. Koalitsiya F Howitzer turret 152mm Russia Navy Koalitsiya-F 152mm naval gun system The information about the Koalitsiya-F howitzer appeared in the media back to 2006, the press office added. "Russia’s Burevestnik Central Research Institute [an Uralvagonzavod subsidiary] has worked out proposals concerning the development of the Koalitsiya-F 152mm shipborne system and submitted them to the Navy," the press office said. "As...

MOSCOW --- The Russian Land Force's artillery brigades will begin receiving state-of-the-art Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled guns in the near future, chief of missile and artillery troops Maj. Gen. Mikhail Matveevsky said Friday. "The planned purchase and supply of these complexes into the artillery brigades will begin in the near future," Matveevsky said. Koalitsiya-SV was first unveiled at the Victory Day parade on May 9, 2015, in Red Square, Moscow. Matveevsky underscored the automated weapon's innovative multi-round simultaneous impact firing capabilities, delivering several volleys at various trajectories to engage a target at the same time. "The combat capabilities of the complex are...

The U.S. Army in the coming years will build hundreds of new mobile howitzers, and largely, the project has been a success. Except there will be a problem if the self-propelled howitzers catch on fire. The Paladin M109A7 PIM — the latest in America’s line of tracked artillery pieces — has an automated fire-suppression system known as an AFES. But during survivability tests, the AFES “did not protect the entire crew compartment” and that “howitzer crews are at increased fire risk” according to a report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General released in August. Oil, lubricants and the heating system inside the Paladins are all...

ARLINGTON: New threats from Russia and China mean the Army must take on new missions — but it’s got almost no new money so the Army is looking at ways to modify existing systems to do some radically new things. So imagine howitzers firing precision-guided cannon shells to shoot cruise missiles out of the sky or to sink ships on the South China Sea. Imagine networking existing sensors in new ways to counter Russian heavy jamming. Imagine eight-wheel-drive Stryker armored vehicles acting as mobile anti-aircraft guns. “One of the highlights that I was trying to emphasize is repurposing existing capability,”...

Marines with Lima Battery, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, fire M777A2 Lightweight Howitzers aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms during Exercise Steel Knight, a combined arms exercise conducted by 1st Marine Division Marines. Dec. 2012. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl Jason Morrison. Larger image is viewable at www.MILPOD.com

Scoot and Shoot “à la Française:” Caesar SP Gun Transforms French Artillery (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published May 7, 2013) By Giovanni de Briganti DRAGUIGNAN, France --- The French army has almost completed the wholesale transformation of its artillery, a process which has seen the merger of its air-defense and field artillery units and the gradual replacement of its towed (TRF1) and self-propelled (AUF1) 155mm howitzers by the Caesar truck-mounted, air-transportable gun of the same caliber but with substantially longer range. In terms of units, the reorganization will be completed this summer with the disbandment of the 8th Artillery Regiment, the fourth...

NEW DELHI -(MarketWatch)- India's defense ministry has approved a proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzers from U.S.-based BAE Systems Inc. for about 30 billion rupees ($560 million), a senior defense ministry official said Saturday, as the South Asian country continues its efforts to modernize its armed forces. The proposal to buy the M777 artillery guns was cleared Friday by the Defense Acquisitions Council, chaired by defense minister A. K. Antony, the official, who didn't wish to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires by phone. He said the signing of a final contract could take some more months after completion of...

The G6 - Still Outgunning the Competition 15:38 GMT, March 15, 2012 Twenty five years after it astonished the global defence community, South Africa’s G6 self-propelled Gun-Howitzer still sets the standards against which all long-distance artillery are being measured. “The G6 was ahead of its time when it was first launched in 1987,” says Stephan Burger, the CEO of Denel Land Systems. “Through our continuous research and investment in the gun we have ensured it remains ahead of the pack as the most versatile and reliable artillery system in its class.” “We are still outgunning all our global competitors by...

IDF to replace outdated howitzers after decades of service By YAAKOV KATZ 17/07/2011 American M109 howitzers have undergone a series of upgrades since they debuted in the Yom Kippur War. The IDF is looking to replace its aging M109 155 mm. self-propelled howitzers, after decades of service and participation in a number of wars. Israel received the American M109 howitzers in the 1970s and they debuted in the Yom Kippur War. They have since undergone a series of upgrades and today are fitted with air purification systems so crews can continue operating in the event of a chemical or biological...