BAE Systems delivers 500th M777 Howitzer (Most to US MIlitary)

Defence Talk ^ | April 17, 2009 | Jeff Head

[Jeff Head]

Sorry, didn’t know you had that NG experience with the artillery. Based on our past discussions, I thought you had been pretty much CVA sniping the entire time. Learn something new every day! LOL!

[GreyFriar]

Having spent half my army career in field artillery, being located behind friendly lines doesnt mean much when your guns are outranged by overwhelming enemy artillery and mutiple rocket launcher batteries that are used for counter-fire, i.e. to kill me and my battery. Our main survival technique was to emplace, fire a couple of missions and then displace to a new location and let the counter-fire hit where we were. That is much easier done with SP artillery than towed. And if the truck is damaged, the towed artillery piece is not going anywhere. And in a high-combat area the helo/Osprey assets aren’t going to be dedicated to moving towed artillery every couple of hours.

[cva66snipe]

Sorry, didn’t know you had that NG experience with the artillery. Based on our past discussions, I thought you had been pretty much CVA sniping the entire time. Learn something new every day! LOL

I signed up for a year in 1984. Talk about culture shock? LOL. Some guys I was in Voc/Tech school with were in the unit and talked me into signing up and I needed the money too. One was the Ammo Officer another was a hauler. It was a real learning experience. The ammo hauling there led to a civilian job driving a rig for a while till I found a better job.

[philman_36]

That is much easier done with SP artillery than towed.
Yet self propelled artillery isn't what we have here. It's fixed artillery pieces and they have to get moved into position. The capabilities of this weapon are what the article addresses and it's well worth the price, IMO. Besides, once they are in position they can still be towed, fulfilling the shoot and scoot aspect you mentioned...fire a couple of missions and then displace to a new location...
The pic shown simply shows one means of emplacement...by air/helo.
It's even called a Towed howitzer (The howitzer can be towed by an air-braked 4x4 vehicle greater than 2.5t.) from a variety of sources.

And if the truck is damaged, the towed artillery piece is not going anywhere.
Which negates your first premise of losing both a helo and an artillery piece to enemy gunfire because you still lose both in any case through the loss of movement capability (though a truck costs much less than a helo) and in the loss of artillery piece. 'Cause if the truck gets hit the artillery probably will too.

[exg]