07/13/2023 8:40:09 PM PDT
· 22 of 47 rangerX
to doorgunner69
Also in Tucson. Working on airplanes outdoors at the airplane museum tomorrow.
Have to wait till monday to go punch targets out at three points. Weather here is no big deal. You get used to it
My caveat was that you have sufficient tubes and mechanics. However you’d be amazed at what even organizational maintenance folks can accomplish. My howitzer battery maintenance guys routinely did depot level jobs to keep howitzers running in the cold war days in Germany. Pretty tough to get artillery parts in a cavalry squadron.
Never done a retube on a M777; after my time in the Army. On a M198 towed 155mm howitzer, direct support maintenance could do the job in a day or 2, if authorized and if parts are on hand. Still is typically a depot level job. Again a day or two. Normally, we would get a howitzer to replace one going to depot maintenance so that we kept our combat readiness. Recoil mechanism on the 777 looks more complicated than M198, so retube might take a little longer. Still days, not weeks, assuming barrels and mechanics are available.
777 is not a great howitzer. USMC offloaded one to Pima Air Museum in AZ. After looking at it, no obvious issues, but expect it’s out of service life due to max number of retubings, or cracks in the carriage. It replaced the M198, which was twice the weight. Same heavy recoil at half the weight means metal fatigue is a major issue on the 777.
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.