People dont get how intensely dangerous it is for the crews themselves to do direct fire, usually in range of your own ordinance. Though this is from experience on M-777 . 2-11 FAR 2 SBCT now IBCT.
Newer model dosent recoil nearly as far. These are the old Variable Recoil models from the look of it. Definitely A2 models. Also never saw a reason to have 2 guys in trails and a third gunning, happy they kinda changed that to just one in trails.
Welllll..... Speed vs Safety. They were decently fast but that AG putting in the Jack Strut made an extremely unsafe move having his whole body under the trails. Seen that fall on someones leg and I would rather take a few extra seconds to ensure we keep a guy in the fight especially if its just for training.
yeah... I was at Ft Richardson and Ft Greely Alaska in the 80's with the M102. frozen ground you couldn't dig proper spade holes and ice gets in the wheel brake sprocket.... saw some wild and hairy stuff... especially direct fire
There are no AP rounds for artillery in US inventory. There was a 105mm HEAT round available in the past (M662) but I don't personally know whether that's even been produced, let alone issued, in recent decades. In contrast, larger 155mm artillery would have much better effect by simply using HE and either aiming for weak points or (if possible) airbursting rounds directly over the engine decks of MBTs. Shells of that size have enough explosive mass to threaten any tank that currently exists.
if there were British army soldiers next to them they would just call this l118 because this Howitzer was originally made in the United Kingdom then exported to the United States
Not really. This m119 has a 4 feet of recoil which makes it a little slower. A3’s now have 2 feet so it’s faster to open the breach. Opening an closing the breach is easy and wouldn’t make a difference in time if it were auto eject
This is a M119 105mm howitzer. Unless it's an old T-62, you won't do much to a modern tank... With a direct hit from a M777 155mm howitzer however, you could potentially knock out the crew of a modern MBT and maybe even rupture its armor!
There was one time we were observing some enemy mortar fire on our FOB in Iraq so I hit the ground behind a pile of gravel that was to be used for road surfaces in the motorpool. A few rounds impacted about 150 meters from where I was. As I lie there in the gravel, I remember thinking to myself, "Hey, I finally blend in some of the terrain here."
They're doing tables not a training exercise, all rounds and fuzes should have been verified before the test began. And if their proctor didn't let them do that to prepare, then he's a jerk lol
Come on USA.... its about time to innovate these 105s and build with self eject. Too many bodies, too much personnel tied up in one gun. WW2 German 88s offered auto ejection.
The Light Gun, both the L118 and L119 (M119) are designed as a very light no-nonsense heli portable gun, they are kept as simple as possible and are very easy to maintain in the field and any unnecessary frills like 'auto-ejection' (which I haven't seen on modern any gun/howitzer) are not incorporated. The gun crew is usually six and the crew member who operates the breech and unloads the spent cartridge also rams the round, so if you got rid of him, you would have to build in an auto-rammer, more weight and another failure point. One other point, these guns have the ability to fire High Angle - in this mode the gun barrel points almost straight up - an auto-ejection system could cause some problems and probably damage equipment and possibly damage the crew. "Too many bodies, too much personnel tied up in one gun". Often in training, ammunition expenditure is limited and it does seem like a full crew of six is surplus to requirements, however when you start upping the rate of fire, ammunition handling becomes a problem. Ammunition has to be securely packed to withstand transportation over dubious roads, so when the ammo truck dumps 30 rounds of ammo on your gun position (which wont last long given the standard 'treatment'' of a target is 5 rounds Fire for Effect) that's a lot of unpacking of sturdy crates to do. The shells come in a steel box, two to a box (box weighs about 70lbs), the boxes are built to take some rough treatment so have to be kicked open, then the shells are in cardboard tubes that have to be eased out, and prised open (a total bastard in the rain), the shell then can be dumped with the rest. The cartridges are lighter but come in bigger boxes which once again are steel and are resistant to a casual attempt to open them, once the box is opened the cartridges are found to be encased in big plastic tubes and the caps on these can be a bugger to rive off. The amount of litter from the packing is unbelievable and you have to deal with the 'empties' on a rational basis - in other words keep a tidy platform - or the crew would grind to a halt in a pile of empty steel boxes and carboard tubes. Now that's just for plain HE - if you have exotic shells (smoke, illuminating, HESH or marker) then you have the added complication of different fuzes, which - yes you have guessed it - come with a lot of protective packaging. All in all ammo humping is heavy work and if you are one of the three ammo numbers you are guaranteed bleeding hands and ripped fingernails. Now I'm lucky enough to never have been involved in a real shooting war, however I have been on exercises were the rounds fired were just not funny and especially as End-Ex looms (and the ranges are due to close) the ammo expenditure moves away from conservative and reasonably sane levels to outrageous almost Battle of the Somme levels (returning unboxed ammunition is a admin and logistic nightmare). One particular Brigade level exercise (two light gun regiments and a FH70 regiment) ended up with the last set of Fire Orders as something like 'Fire Mission Brigade, Lone Sniper in a Tree, expend ammunition'. My gun (one of eight in our Battery) fired off about 35 rounds in minutes, a lot of which needed unpacking and at one point I had the RSM and the Padre helping my ammo numbers in the unboxing and prep. TLDR You need hands and muscle to back those hands to bust caps. Ubique.
Well my unit moved onto the L118 from the 5.5's (WW2 vintage) so the Light Gun was a dream. I crewed on an L119 during a Crew Commanders course at Larkhill and while it's much of a muchness, I didn't like the ammunition system as much as the L118's.
@@ronhall9394 If deployed as a direct fire weapon, there is not enough calibers to be a excellent field gun. I prefer the ancient PAK 40 over this. As a indirect fire weapon it is truly accurate at four miles maybe five. Lastly I don't like the exhaust gas in my face. It has no fume extractor which is a bummer. That said the gun is not the all singing all dancing the U.S. Army promised to be. It is over nearly 50 years old and not a timeless machine. However these guys got a mission to do and criticism is not allowed.
While you're sitting your ass on your couch, you're the coward. You don't have the balls or physical strength to be in the Army. I bet your a fat fuck eating cake obese boy.
