How to hit and run correctly
Ordering M777 howitzers
Yes, information has arrived that the US Army is ordering M777 howitzers.
There are several reasons for this: the service life of the barrels is not very high, which if you shoot from them (and what else should howitzers do during war), then this resource ends, the barrel wears out, and its further use is more dangerous for the one who shoots than for the the one being shot at.
Plus the second reason is the counter-battery radar, missiles, shells and especially - drones "Lancet" type.
Of course, the howitzer itself is a very durable thing and designed to withstand overloads, but its aiming mechanisms have quite thin parts that can be disabled by a “cracker” of 2-3 kg of TNT.
And they take it out, yes.
Therefore, the American command decided to spend certain amounts of money on resuming production of the M777 towed howitzer, which has proven itself well in the Middle East and Ukraine.
But here the question immediately arises: to what extent is the towed M777 the best artillery for modern warfare?
We have already raised this topic more than once. And over time, our calculations only confirm the initial beliefs that towed artillery is a thing of the past. Well, or a good remedy against various terrorists who imagine themselves.
But recent Ukrainian experience shows that artillery mounted on self-propelled chassis, whether wheeled or tracked, is much better suited against high-end opponents armed with artillery detection radars.
Just numbers, and American ones at that.
Let’s take the same M777 and M109 “Palladin”, the same 155 mm, but on caterpillar tracks. Even the base is almost the same, the M776 155 mm gun with a barrel length of 39 calibers, which is the main element of the M777, is essentially an ejectorless version of the M284 barrel used in the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled guns.
So, M777 and M109 in numbers.
Crew/crew, people: 8/4 (for M109A7).
Rate of fire norm/max, rds/min: 2/5 and 1/4.
Travel speed over rough terrain, km/h: 24/56.
Deployment speed, min: less than 3/less than 1.
Folding speed, min: less than 2/less than 1.
Here we can say that the rate of fire of the guns is approximately the same, because these figures are all with reservations. Both guns can fire one or two shots per minute indefinitely, but a rate of fire of 4 times per minute is no more than 8-10 shots. Next stop, you need to cool the barrel.
But let's remember: howitzers can approach the firing line, position themselves, fire 8 shots, pack up and go back to their starting points. And this will take the M109 4–5 minutes, and the M777 7–8. And these are more important indicators, because a self-propelled howitzer has a huge advantage in firing time.
A modern army (any army) is equipped with counter-battery radar systems that can track artillery and target it with their destruction systems in the shortest possible time. The conflict in Ukraine showed this very clearly.
Towed guns are more vulnerable here, since not only do they require more time to deploy, but also in the event of a successful enemy artillery attack, the losses of completely unprotected soldiers are many times greater than those of self-propelled gunners, protected at least from shrapnel and bullets.
Here the message is clear: a towed battery will suffer much greater personnel losses than a similar self-propelled gun structure.
Contract
And now the US Army is beginning the process of resuming production of the M777 howitzers. A contract with the famous company British Aerospace for the production of titanium parts for new howitzers has been concluded. That is, there will be new howitzers, the only question is which ones.
Here you need to look at the structure of the artillery of the US Army. There's only three type of artillery systems: self-propelled 155 mm M109 in several modifications, towed British 155 mm M777 and 105 mm M119. This is somewhat different from the Russian Army, which has 8 types of self-propelled artillery and the same number of towed artillery. Unification, put at the forefront by example.
And in the artillery unit of the US Army, two types of howitzers are used: towed and tracked.
The M109A7 Paladin Tracked Howitzer is a 155mm howitzer mounted on a heavy armored chassis. The M777 Towed Howitzer is a 155mm gun mounted on a light wheeled artillery mount that is towed from site to site by a truck (what the Army calls a "tractor"). Paladins are used by the US Army's heavy armored brigades, while the lighter M777s are used by light infantry, airborne, air assault, mountain and Stryker brigades.
That is, given approximately the same firing range and the same ammunition load, the main difference factor here is the weight, which determines the mobility of the artillery system.
The M777 weighs just eight tons, due in part to the use of lightweight titanium, and can be carried by aircraft such as the C-130J Super Hercules, V-22 Osprey and the CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
However, the truck-gun system is not protected from enemy fire and does not have a high speed of movement due to the towing device, which is the Achilles heel of any towed artillery system.
The M109 weighs almost 40 tons and can only be carried by S-17 and S-5M transport aircraft. But, thanks to its tracks, it has good maneuverability, and the crew and gun are protected from small arms fire weapons and artillery fragments.
In general, this clearly suggests the conclusion that the best solution may actually be a howitzer that is mounted directly on a truck, which makes shooting and moving around the battlefield easier and faster.
For hundreds of years, artillery crews fired at enemy infantry and fortifications, with the enemy artillery often too far away and too difficult to hit. This effectively ended in the 20th century with the development of increasingly effective counter-battery technologies.
Today, artillery units are typically equipped with systems such as the American AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar or the Russian Zoo-2, which allow them to detect enemy artillery shells in flight and, using ballistics, pinpoint their point of departure. Thanks to these technologies, artillery suddenly became much more dangerous to enemy artillery.
The concept of using artillery against other artillery was developed for warfare against advanced armies with modern weapons systems. A good artillery counter-battery team, supported by reconnaissance units with UAVs, can detect incoming enemy artillery, calculate its firing positions, target and open fire on the enemy battery position before the initial salvo of enemy artillery is fired.
In other words, a modern artillery unit can expect return fire within seconds. However, the war in Ukraine, with its large number of artillery barrels on both sides, resulted in both Ukraine and Russia successfully using counter-battery radars to destroy enemy artillery.
Unlike the M109A7 Paladin, which can immediately hit the road after being fired, the M777 gun crew must first prepare the weapon for transport, then the truck must drive up to the gun position, then the weapon will be hitched to the truck, and they will both drive off. The Army says this so-called "move time" is less than three minutes.
The war in Ukraine also made clear that towed artillery is particularly vulnerable to counter-battery fire. A 2023 report from the Royal United Nations Institute for Defense Studies found that Russian artillery operating in Ukraine could complete a counter-battery mission in just three minutes. While the M777 takes two and a half times longer to complete a combat mission. Yes, the M777 can move from a firing position in less than three minutes, but for this to happen, the movement process must go without a hitch. All this leaves no room for error.
Option: make the artillery and the truck one.
French howitzer CAESAR
Between the M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzer and the M777 towed howitzer, there is a middle ground: a truck-mounted howitzer. There are several examples of truck-mounted howitzers, including the French CAESAR, the Swedish Archer, and the Israeli ATMOS 2000.
A howitzer mounted on a truck does not require time to deploy and fires directly from the spot. As a result, travel time is reduced from minutes to seconds. British defense contractor BAE Systems says the Archer can fire within 30 seconds of rolling into position. More importantly, he can leave within 30 seconds of the ceasefire.
The Nexter company, which produces the CAESAR howitzer, claims that the self-propelled gun can reach the line, fire six shots and return to its original position in less than two minutes. Both guns have a higher rate of fire, with the Archer achieving a fire rate of 9 rounds per minute.
ARCHER artillery system
Transport moment
Howitzers mounted on trucks easily exceed the weight limit of 30 tons or more, which makes them unsuitable for transportation by helicopter. As a result, they may not be well suited to light infantry and air assault units, which often travel long distances by helicopter.
But US Army units armed with the Stryker infantry fighting vehicle are in any case limited in their movement by transport aircraft. A truck-mounted howitzer could be just the thing to not only keep U.S. Army gunners alive, but also keep up with fast-moving Stryker vehicles.
Hack and predictor Aviator
The US Army, one might say, is not fighting in Ukraine, but the American military is drawing conclusions from the lessons of the Northern Military District. And chief among them is that artillery must be nimble to survive, and that seconds can mean the difference between artillery crews making a retreat and artillery crews being destroyed by the enemy. If the army wants to stay one step ahead of the enemy, it should seriously consider mounting the cannon directly on a truck, as many countries have already done.
The fact that this issue is already being widely discussed in the American specialized media suggests that experts have already made certain conclusions. The press in the United States is almost like the People's Republic of China, where you can't say everything and not always, but it's best when you need to. And since in the States they say that the American ground artillery needs a certain modernization, then you can be sure that this is not only agreed upon, but also, most likely, lobbied for in full, because the creation of a new artillery system is This is not a matter of a couple of months in time or a couple of hundred thousand in terms of budget.
So there is an opinion that it is a matter of time before the US Army gets a howitzer on a truck chassis. As for how to use this fast and mobile tool, manuals will be written quickly.
And it is worth noting that there is no such thing in the Russian Army, and is not even expected yet. All that is on the wheeled chassis is the Nona, a unique weapon, but completely incomparable with the 155 mm howitzer. Yes, we have “Acacias”, “Carnations”, “Msty”. On tracks. Heavier, more protected, slower. You can increase cross-country ability, which is better for tracked vehicles, but a howitzer on a cargo chassis does not necessarily have to climb into impassable quagmires. But with its speed data it will leave the area of fire much more quickly than the same “Gvozdiki”, which crawl at a speed of 25–30 km/h and have little chance of a successful outcome if detected.
But this, I repeat, is much better than the crews of our D-30 and Msta-B scattered by explosions.
It would also be nice for our side to learn lessons from the SVO.
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