Another video of the
M777 howitzer artillery system use by the
US military and is considered a real deadly killer. The M777 howitzer is a towed 155 mm artillery piece, successor to the
M198 howitzer in the
United States Marine Corps and
United States Army. The
M777 is also used by the ground forces of
Canada and
Australia. It made its combat debut in the
War in Afghanistan.
The M777 is manufactured by
BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems division.
Prime contract management is based in Barrow-in-Furness in the UK as well as manufacture and assembly of the titanium structures and associated recoil components.
Final integration and testing of the weapon is undertaken at
BAE's facility in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi.[3]
Design
The M777 began as the Ultralight-weight
Field Howitzer (
UFH), developed by
VSEL's armaments division in Barrow-in-Furness,
United Kingdom. This company was bought by BAE which ended up responsible for design, construction and assembly (through its US-based,
BAE Systems Land and Armaments group). The M777 uses about 70% US-built parts including the gun barrel manufactured at the
Watervliet Arsenal.
The M777 is smaller and 42% lighter, at under 4,
100 kg (9,
000 lb), than the
M198 it replaces. Most of the weight reduction is due to the use of titanium. The lighter weight and smaller size allows the M777 to be transported by
MV-22 Osprey,
CH-47 helicopter or trucks with ease to provide increased mobility and more compact storage over the M198. The minimal gun crew required is five, compared to a previous nine.[4]
The M777 uses a digital fire-control system similar to that found on self-propelled howitzers such as the
M109A6 Paladin to provide navigation, pointing and self-location, allowing it to be put into action quickly.[citation needed]
The Canadian M777 in conjunction with the traditional "glass and iron sights/mounts" also uses a digital fire control system called the
Digital Gun
Management System (DGMS) produced by
SELEX with components of the Indirect
Fire Control Software Suite (IFCSS) built by the
Firepower team in the
Canadian Army Land Software Engineering Centre.[5] The SELEX portion of the system, known
as LINAPS, had been proven previously through earlier fielding on the
British Army Royal Artillery's
L118 Light Gun.[6]
The M777 may be combined with the
Excalibur GPS-guided munition, which allows accurate fire at a range of up to 25 miles (40 km). This almost doubles the area covered by a single battery to about 5,000 km2. Testing at the
Yuma Proving Ground by the
US Army placed 13 of 14 Excalibur rounds, fired from up to 24 kilometres (15 mi), within
10 meters of their target,[7] suggesting a circular
error probable of about five meters.
Golf Battery,
2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, out of
Camp Pendleton,
Calif., dropped the 155 mm
M982 Excalibur round on insurgents 36 kilometers away — more than 22 miles — in
Helmand province, marking the longest operational shot in the history of the M777 howitzer. This record shot, made in June
2012, was also the first time the M777 had fired the Excalibur in combat.[8]
In 2014 the US military began fielding several upgrades to their M777 howitzers including new liquid crystal display units, software updates, improved power systems, and muzzle sensors for onboard ballistic computing.
Future upgrades include a touchscreen
Chief Section Display, a new
Mission System
Computer, and a digital radio.[9]
Variants[edit]
M777 – gun with optical fire control
M777A1 – digitisation upgrades with the addition of an on-board power source, satellite global positioning, inertial navigation, radio, Gun Display
Unit (
GDU) and Section Chief
Assembly (
SCA).
M777A2 –
Block 1A software upgrade.
Addition of an Enhanced Portable Inductive
Artillery Fuze Setter (EPIAFS) to enable Excalibur and precision munition compatibility.[10][11]
United States[edit]
Army[edit]
18th Field Artillery Brigade (
Airborne) at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina was the initial Army test bed unit for the XM777
Lightweight 155mm Howitzer which included
1st and 3rd Battalions
321st Field Artillery Regiment. Gun
Section 2, 2nd
Platoon (5th Section)
Bravo Battery, 2–11th
Field Artillery (FA) was the first US Army unit to fire the M777A2 in combat at 08:23 (
Baghdad Time) on 2
January 2008 in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. 2–11 FA deployed
December 2007 with
2nd Brigade Combat Team (
BCT),
25th Infantry Division out of
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. In June
2007, the M777 in its A2 configuration was assigned to the
U.S. Army's
3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment. 3-321 FA deployed to
Afghanistan in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom in December 2007 and has become mission capable since January 2008 making 3–321 FA the first U.S. Army unit to utilise the M777 in combat in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In
April 2008, the M777 was deployed for testing with the 2nd battalion,
- published: 20 Mar 2016
- views: 0