I was in CBTRY 3-321 at Bragg when this Howitzer was being tested before it became the M777, awesome Arty gun. loved the 60 round sustain FM and going up against a mod M198 and a Royal Ordnance ULF. HUWAAAHHHH.
It's even more dramatic being a grunt up front and hearing the gun fire faintly in the distance... and then seconds later you hear the round soaring in overhead right before impact
Good question! They have rings in the bottom of the shell and the neck of the shell fits tight into the chamber. It's like squeezing your finger into a trap. The more of it you put in, the tighter it gets. But on a rare occasion if they don't ram it into the tube hard enough it has fallen back out.
No. Artillery is... Artillery. We fire rounds to cause large scale impact on enemy forces in support of infantry units. Different school, tactics and training. We don't kick down doors if that is what you are asking. When a fire mission comes down the crew aims the gun and shoots indirect fire for support of ground (infantry) units, on a busy base it was roughly 40 rounds a day per gun for combat fire missions.
Gun did fine. Most parts were replaced that were critical. I had them swap one gun at this base with the gun (here in the video) at that base. Couldn't get my parts to the base where it was hit, so we swapped. The gun crew and myself worked all day long on the repair and fired it that night, three days after the gun was hit. Gun had a mortar round hit 4 feet from it. I have pictures of the damage. If you would like to see the before/after pics, message me your contact details. Thanks!
B 3/321 was my first unit. Back then they were a training unit at Ft. Sill at the USAFATC. From there I went to Bragg with the M198 Howitzer and the 18th ABN FA Brigade. I guess its called 18 Fires now.
Believe me, all of those guys have really good hearing protection, you'd permamently lose most of your hearing if you stood next to a howitzer while firing with those charges. You'd probably pass out as well. During my service I once accidentally was outside the FDC so I didn't hear the standby before firing from smaller 105mm howitzers nearby, and even though they were much smaller AND I was about 50 yards away I wasn't prepared, and the sound of the first round hurt like hell. Powerful stuff.
@MarquisProdz The accumulator is the recoil system that makes sure the breach does not hit the gun and recoils properly (no hard recoil) It's pressurized with nitrogen and a special oil.
The m 777 fires a 155 mm artillery shell seen on the pallet in the video it has no attached propellant the propellant is loaded separate and completely combusted upon firing
Done it a few times. They have scopes on them and you simply use it like a sniper rifle. We had to direct fire an enemy attacking us from the mountain about a mile away taking pop shots at us with small arms fire and mortars. 15 enemy KIA, no friendly casualties. We just turned the guns around, load in a MAC 4 charge, aim and fire away!
I would HIGHLY recommend going into the weapons mechanic field. I don't remember the exact MOS for the Marine Corps but we actually both go through the same school at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. I think its 1311? idk. Been a long time. But you'll enjoy it and through the Army I got great incentives, pay and bonuses. Absolutely LOVED my job! Message me if you would like to know more. From one soldier to another... Thank you for your service!
I was just wondering if you need any special qualifications to be a gunner like being good at math or anything like that? I've never been in the military but I've always loved these types of guns: the way they fire, the sound they make, etc. From old Napoleonic War cannons to WWI and II artillery to modern guns. They're all amazing. Would be great to know. Thanks! I know If I ever did join this would be my career choice plus it's alot further away from the regular hot stuff I would imagine? Less risk of death or am I wrong?
Well its the same concept as your rifle at home, stick a shell in it and see if it falls out. If it's not too old it should stay right there. There are several contact points that wedge it in there so it stays, the neck at the top of the round (where it begins to bow out) and the copper rings at the bottom. The tolerance when putting a round in your gun or in a guntube on one of these is so tight it just sticks into the chamber.
I wouldn't recommend not wearing them. Its is extremely loud. When I was sleeping inside of a cement building next to the gun pit in Blessing and the guns would fire it still sounded like someone was firing a shotgun down the hallway outside of the room. These are the biggest guns the army has and they are no joke.
It has a lot of surface contact when it is rammed into the chamber at the neck and base of the round, kind of like when you put in a round in any of your weapons, it holds snug in place. The (copper) ring at the base of the round seals it in place mainly, the charges just fit in there as well, it is larger at the back of the chamber than it is at the front, making everything to fit tight into place.
ok thank you. Sorry that was kid of a dumb question. I just didnt know if you guys had the weapons on or around you while firing the howitzer. Great video and thanks for your service, couple more years till i will be doing this.
Also, the NLOS Cannon (Developed by the U.S aka the XM1203) was an alternative competitor to the M777. There are many other systems around the world in development that are similar including the mobile artillery. But the NLOS can be moved electronically and carries a variety of powder charges and shells which can be selected from a computer. Due to politics and budget plans the M777, developed by the British, was chosen as the replacement for the M198 used in the U.S Army and Marine Corps.
@robbyb113 NCO. He is the fire chief for that gun. Gives all commands to the crew and verifies every procedure with the gun. Powder charge, round type, fuze, priming, and checks for proper deflection and quadrant. Typically an E-5 or E-6 will be the crew chief. However, E-4's training to be a crew chief will do it occasionally. But no, never an officer.
Given the charge and steep angle, approximately how far away are the rounds landing... how high to the apex... I figured you'd be able to hear the explosions, unless they were dummy rounds?
When you join any armed forces you are assigned a job or an "MOS" (Military Occupational Specialty) and their "job" is an artillerymen or a 13B just like an infantrymen would be an 11B. I was a 91F or a "weapons/artillery mechanic" so these men man the guns at all times and fire in support of ground troops on missions, whether it be Air Force, Navy, Army, or Marine Corps troops on the ground. We provide fire support.
If you watch videos of the old M198 155mm Howitzer firing, you'll see that the crew has to HAND LOAD a round into the tube by carrying the round to the breech. With the M777A2 Howitzer shown in my videos, they now have a hydraulic loading tray to sit the round on and then the crew just has to ram the round in. A little easier. Just type in "M198 Howitzer Firing" on youtube and you'll see what I mean.
No. I had it transported from another FOB to repair it because at the time the one it was at was too dangerous for helo's to be flying in and out of, so we sling loaded it to this one, and the helicopter crew let the sling drop and hit the primer handle... another part to add to my list of parts needed to fix it. They also regularly broke our sights.
Thanks for 1080p, I could formerly imagine being there. Were these something like "training ammo", or real one? And do you know much much one round cost?
No training ammo, live HE rounds. We fire for practice and calibration to ensure both the weapon system and computer systems are working to hit the target area. The zone we fire to is a sort of "practice" grid that is safe away from any populated areas.
No. Not if the accumulator (the device that returns the tube back into battery) is working properly. Plus there is a stop to keep it from hitting if it does fail. Never seen it happen though.
not to mention (like you said) BAE deconflicting air and setting up hot roz's while getting ground clearance both green and blue. meanwhile jag is sticking their fingers in the cde and the battle cpt and battle NCO are asking a million questions because battalion wont send up the fire mission through afatds...yeah, a good bit of "math" goes into it.
Not a soldier but I am just curious. When you ram the shell in at such a high angle, wouldn't the heavy round slide back out the breech? Or is there a lock in there? Been really amazed at these artillery pieces especially the moment the weapon fires. Great job guys. Really amazing work.
I'm actually curious as well. I'm guessing the sound of the gun firing is deafening. Are earplugs optional/permitted? I'm going in as 13-Bravo in a few months.
It's kind of stupid really, the new regulation says that they have to lower the gun after each round when firing high elevation shots, because the round would "fall out" of the chamber... If you ram it hard enough it won't. But yes you saw correctly. I can't remember off the top of my head what mil they have to lower it to.
yes true but i was thinking maybe extending the thing so you dont have to lower it to load it and adding a lever to shove the whole thing in and bring it out instead of a long stick... i dunno id probly have to draw it
That has a very long reload time and requires a lot of people to operate it, but it looks and sounds awesome! I'm guessing a lot of math is involved to get the shell on target. Does the shell temporarily go into space?
nope. Live rounds. Even stateside they rarely ever use training rounds. Not sure on cost. Think it is about $500 for an HE round. But different rounds vary.
Doesn't even come close to reaching space lol, however you do have to deconflict with jets to fire. As for the math ya it takes a good bit. However in the world of Artillery this is only one part of the equation. Targeting data comes from the Forward Observers, the FDC puts all the information in a nice little package for the cannon cockers to deliver rounds.
This is true! We have to clear the air space in and out of the firing and impact zone to ensure we don't accidentally hit a plane or helicopter in the area.
There is no shell, what you are referring to would be a casing. The M109 (105mm) howitzer uses a shell, or cased round like a large rifle cartridge. This is the M777 howitzer (155mm). These are a lot like the cannons from the civil war (figuratively speaking). Those cannons in the civil war were loaded with powder, a ball (or other projectiles of sorts) and a blasting cap. If you watch the video again, you'll see them ram the round in, then the guy standing on the gun to the left loads in the white MAC charges (our gunpowder) and then when he pulls the lever down a magazine on the back of the breach inserts a cap or primer into the breach and he says "set" letting the gun chief know that the gun is loaded and ready to fire... followed by the command "stand by" and "fire." The round is sent downrange, the plastic and powder from the MAC charge disintegrates out of the end of the barrel and the only thing left is the primer case (small brass piece about the size of a rifle cartridge) which is kicked out and replaced with a new one upon reloading the next round. Does that answer your question?
+Hi There I wouldn't want to be standing next to it when it goes off, I've seen what happens to people hit by these. One minute they're there, the next they're gone. If they stand within it's critical blast radius (50 meters in diameter) most of the time they are vaporized to tiny pieces. It's nasty stuff.
I am more interested in why shell / powder bags are not sliding back out before breech closed while at an extreme angle. Is there a catch inside breech area to hold in place?
It narrows in the chamber, the round itself has a catch, the powder just sort of sits behind it but is slightly bigger than the breach chamber to allow it to "stick" inside.
If you bolted this gun to a concrete pad that didn't move and fired numerous rounds using the same angle, how close would the rounds land to each other?
the mission computer paired with the gyro system actually autocorrects for recoil. no need to put it on a concrete pad. the reverberations could crack the frame or other components. but the M777A2 is accurate within about 5 meters from target area at about 15+ miles with a "normal round" and the excalibur round we can not only extend range but we can keep or increase accuracy at roughly 25 miles with the guided round.
elitesoldier357 A couple of more questions when you get the time. 1. Are you saying that this gun, shot from hard pack dirt/gravel, can expect each round to land about 15 feet from each other after traveling 15 miles, if that is what is wanted? Does the gun have to know where the last round landed, (ie a forward spotter on the ground relaying information on where the first round landed) to make the second round land about 15 feet away? 2. When the round lands on the ground, what size crater would it leave? 3. Are the rounds designed to take out people, buildings or what? If they are designed to take out the enemy, what kills/injures the enemy? Is it the concussion or air blast wave from the round? Is it the metal shrapnel from the round? A combination of the two?
SanFranciscoBay 1. Yes. In most cases it is shot from dirt. The gun needs to flex when it recoils. And accuracy depends on what we want to hit, and what we intend it to. The round itself is usually accurate to 5 meters of what we call the target area, but we can also intend for it to be a larger area. What I mean by this is that we can call it in on one person or a small group for a precise kill. But lets say we have a sniper isolated in an area. We can drop rounds in a 100 meter grid to eliminate him or at least to suppress him. The gyro and the mission computer do the work after the round is fired, to compensate for the movement and recoil for the next, it knows using gps and complex electronic systems to relay that information to the chiefs display, gunners display, and assistant gunners display to show them which corrections they need to make, this is now automatic whereas before FDC or someone else would have to recalculate for the movement or not at all. The gun doesn't know where the round landed, it only knows where it moves. If that makes sense. 2. If you can imagine living in a neighborhood where houses are fairly close together, say a suburban area, if it was to land out in the street, your house and the 4 or 5 around you would be gone. And the blast would be felt for over 3 miles. With shrapnel going everywhere. 3. We have an arsenal of rounds. I can't remember off of the top of my head what the numbers are for all of them but the most basic ones are HE, close range HE, White Phosphorus, Smoke, Infrared, Illumination, Rocket Propelled variants of these for added range, and Excalibur (guided artillery round). Each one serves a purpose, and each one can also be fitted with a specific fuse to take out what we want. Say for instance we take a normal High Explosive (HE) shell and we want to hit a truck, we would set a fuse for direct impact. Say we want to take out insurgents above ground in open space, we can set a fuse for pre-detonation, where it will detonate above ground and causing a larger blast and spray shrapnel down on the enemy (works just like we did with the A-bomb, we figured out that above ground detonation was more devastating than in-ground detonation.) We can also delay the fuse as well to make it detonate .05 seconds after impact, think of a round coming through the top of a house. When it hits the roof instead of detonating on top, it enters through the roof and just a fraction of a second later it detonates INSIDE, causing a massive explosion outward. Its like detonating a fire cracker on top of your hand (might get a burn) as opposed to wrapping your hand around it and lighting it (might need a new hand). What mainly kills the enemy is the "blast overpressure" which is the detonation of the explosives causing such violent waves of percussion through the air that it will crush organs and vaporize entire bodies in most cases. Outside of that is the danger area, possibility of being hit by shrapnel or other flying objects. Hence the term "Danger Close" meaning the troops are in that danger zone, so keep your head down and get behind something. I am not really sure whether it would be concussion or air blast as you refer to it, kind of a bit of both i suppose. It exerts such an atmospheric pressure that our bodies can't withstand it, its more of g-forces I suppose. Not easy to describe. But the being inside of that "50 meter blast radius" means you are almost certainly dead from the violence of the explosion. THAT is what does most of the work. We also have other rounds I have read about but haven't seen used. Scatter artillery rounds (drop clusters of grenades or mines) and NUCLEAR rounds to name a few. Yes, the M777A2 will fire nuclear artillery rounds if we were to load them. But as far as I know that hasn't been used in action of course. Just tested.
elitesoldier357 Thankyou so much for taking the time to respond. Fascinating piece of equipment. I asked in a tank video a similar question to this but using a tank round: "If you were being attacked from close range, say 1/4-1/2 mile away, say the enemy was shooting at you from the hill side on the right side of the screen, do you have a shotgun type round that fires small lead balls that you could shoot at the enemy or would you use smaller weapons like the M16, 50 Caliber, Mortars, Shoulder fired rockets/missiles? " From what I remember, the answer I received is that it is against war law to use large weapons like tank shotgun type rounds against the enemy on foot. They can only be used against buildings, other tanks and such, not at people. I think the same war law probably applies towards a Cannon against a group of people, it's not allowed. But you do say that they have air bursts rounds which are clearly designed to make a mess of whatever is under it or going after a sniper. Maybe someone else knows the answer on this.
Suppose that the enemy is spread out on level ground. How far would you space the shots from each other? Is there a spotter on the ground nearby where the rounds are landing to help you fine tune where to place the next round?
We can do whatever we really want with the rounds. Since the blast radius is 50 meters, we usually walk them close together across an area, say a mountain side to get the enemy moving and sh%$ting their pants. From there the observers can designate the next rounds coming in before the first volley has even hit the ground, since flight time at long range is 10-20 seconds. 2 guns firing from one base can put one shell down every 7 seconds or less. We can call in artillery rounds not just with observers but i believe most were called in from drones. We can have aircraft stay overhead if they run out of ammunition to keep the fight going. We can use all kinds of other assets too to call in rounds. But one of the coolest ones i think is the "time on target" I believe it's called.
yes!!!!! thats what im talking about!!!! we had a name for it i cant remember though? we had a mix called killer jr. also. i used to be in 1- 321 and 3 -321 did you know sgt brickell, sgt beckham, or sfc green?
On the rounds, if you look at the ones standing, there is a small band of white around the base, when ramming, you have to make sure that the round is rammed hard enough to "seat" the round within the breach, not allowing it to fall back out, also makes removing the round a pain in the ass if the mission is called off after a round has been loaded. To keep the powder from falling out, there is a small lip on the inside the breach that keeps the charges from falling out, number 3 man has to make sure that the charges get that far into the breach.
If you were being attacked from close range, say 1/4-1/2-1 mile away, say the enemy was shooting at you from the hill side on the right side of the screen, do you have a shotgun type round that fires small lead balls that you could shoot at the enemy or would you use smaller weapons like the M16, 50 Caliber, Mortars, Shoulder fired rockets/missiles?
I think our limit of close range is about a mile but im not too sure. We do have a close range HE shell for that though. Smaller explosion so we don't get a lot of shrapnel coming back.
It is procedure now to lower the gun, then go back up to ensure the round is fully seated in the cannon tube and to help keep it from slipping back out if they don't. Easier to shove a shell in at lower angle.
Calibration? To ensure our targets are hitting spot on after repairs. You wouldn't go take your car to a professional race after just fixing it would you? You take it for a test drive. That's what this is, a test drive.
@4:57. Is it actually feasible to put the gun at 90 Degrees? or is there a default to prevent that. I could image poorly trained Arab or African soldiers would fire there gun at 90 Deg and hit themselves.
It cannot go a full 90 degrees, just short of that, is what we call max elevation. But it will look almost 90, more like 85 degrees but idk the exact number.
Can someone answer this one please: isn't it dangerous to aim that high? I mean the higher you aim the less distance the projectile travels, right? Excuse me if I sound like a fool but my army is limited to 105mm chatkols lol
+mats hilegems No. Elevation and distance don't correlate like that, not on this gun. Depends also what charge you are using but typically with this charge at that angle the round should be landing 15+ miles away, you won't even hear the impact. Using higher or lower charges, angle, and different projectiles together give us our distance. This is what we call "Indirect fire" since the line of sight to the enemy cannot be determined, we rely on information from our forward observers or from surveillance (aircraft, camera's, blimps, drones, etc.) to give us the coordinates and adjust fire. "Direct fire" is also something we do, meaning we can see the target with in a linear sight, in this case we just look through large scopes and aim directly at what we want and use it like a rifle, but with a much larger impact of course. We had to do a direct engagement once at this FOB, when the Taliban decided to attack us early one morning, no friendly injuries and we had 15 confirmed kills from just a few rounds we fired. Most probably think of the projectile and charge being constant but they aren't. Like I said, through angle and the amount of charge we put behind the round, that is how we determine distance for where we want the round to land, with angle like this the round flies over the atmosphere, so that it can have less resistance and drag, making it typically go further, not closer. We fire our Excalibur at max angle and that is our farthest reaching round with recorded kills up to 25 miles, to give some perspective.
Devilduc1199 that's awesome. I'm applying for NCO artillery at the Belgian military (tests on april 5th) but it seems I still have alot to learn haha. One more question: in movies the observers closest to the enemy (like on the frontline) always say 'fire for effect' when they call in an artillery strike. What does that mean?
There will be a lot of technical terms I am sure you will have to learn on a gun crew or as a lead NCO but Fire for Effect means they have the target or the round landing right where they want it and no adjustments are needed. In other words he is saying "unleash the storm" at which point one or more guns will continue to drop rounds in that area to devastate the enemy. It's almost like saying, "open fire now, bring the pain." Google some artillery call terms, one of my favorites is what we call a "time on target." Where one or more FOB's will fire to a single point at the same time. Landing several rounds at once. It takes coordination, but is really simple to do these days with digital fire control systems we have on our artillery and some mortars, basically two or more bases will fire at the same time to one location, dropping multiple rounds in seconds all at once. So say you have one FOB on one side of the valley, and another on the other side, as long as they have an overlap in range, each base can lock in to that location and fire at the same time as the other base does.
I want one ,the sound of the round going trough the air is just freakin awsome
Sounds like freesom 🦅🦅🦅🦅
I was in CBTRY 3-321 at Bragg when this Howitzer was being tested before it became the M777, awesome Arty gun. loved the 60 round sustain FM and going up against a mod M198 and a Royal Ordnance ULF. HUWAAAHHHH.
What year were you in C bat ?
1993 when it was 3-8 FA, to 1998. I think it was in 95/96 when they redes. to 3-321.
I was in C BTRY 3/8 until 1992. Best combat Battery I served with.
you can hear the round flying through the air
Wolv I know right
No thats just the sound of freedom
And let freedom rain!... Shells on the enemies head lol
@JUAN ROMAN
Corny 😂
It's even more dramatic being a grunt up front and hearing the gun fire faintly in the distance... and then seconds later you hear the round soaring in overhead right before impact
Good question! They have rings in the bottom of the shell and the neck of the shell fits tight into the chamber. It's like squeezing your finger into a trap. The more of it you put in, the tighter it gets. But on a rare occasion if they don't ram it into the tube hard enough it has fallen back out.
Hats off to you boys! The King of Battle saved my 11B ass on several occassions! Much Love to You Cannon Cockers! You made our job easier!
No. Artillery is... Artillery. We fire rounds to cause large scale impact on enemy forces in support of infantry units. Different school, tactics and training. We don't kick down doors if that is what you are asking. When a fire mission comes down the crew aims the gun and shoots indirect fire for support of ground (infantry) units, on a busy base it was roughly 40 rounds a day per gun for combat fire missions.
Gun did fine. Most parts were replaced that were critical. I had them swap one gun at this base with the gun (here in the video) at that base. Couldn't get my parts to the base where it was hit, so we swapped. The gun crew and myself worked all day long on the repair and fired it that night, three days after the gun was hit. Gun had a mortar round hit 4 feet from it. I have pictures of the damage. If you would like to see the before/after pics, message me your contact details. Thanks!
B 3/321 was my first unit. Back then they were a training unit at Ft. Sill at the USAFATC. From there I went to Bragg with the M198 Howitzer and the 18th ABN FA Brigade. I guess its called 18 Fires now.
Yes it is 18th Fires because we also had some HIMARS rocket systems in our brigade, but mostly comprised of field artillery.
Believe me, all of those guys have really good hearing protection, you'd permamently lose most of your hearing if you stood next to a howitzer while firing with those charges. You'd probably pass out as well.
During my service I once accidentally was outside the FDC so I didn't hear the standby before firing from smaller 105mm howitzers nearby, and even though they were much smaller AND I was about 50 yards away I wasn't prepared, and the sound of the first round hurt like hell. Powerful stuff.
I have a video where this happened to me up in FOB Blessing, my ear twitched for two weeks!
@MarquisProdz The accumulator is the recoil system that makes sure the breach does not hit the gun and recoils properly (no hard recoil) It's pressurized with nitrogen and a special oil.
Devilduc1199 "cherry juice" lol
Does the oil ever need to be changed, or just check for leaks and recharge the nitrogen if needed?
The m 777 fires a 155 mm artillery shell seen on the pallet in the video it has no attached propellant the propellant is loaded separate and completely combusted upon firing
Very true!
Done it a few times. They have scopes on them and you simply use it like a sniper rifle. We had to direct fire an enemy attacking us from the mountain about a mile away taking pop shots at us with small arms fire and mortars. 15 enemy KIA, no friendly casualties. We just turned the guns around, load in a MAC 4 charge, aim and fire away!
I would HIGHLY recommend going into the weapons mechanic field. I don't remember the exact MOS for the Marine Corps but we actually both go through the same school at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. I think its 1311? idk. Been a long time. But you'll enjoy it and through the Army I got great incentives, pay and bonuses. Absolutely LOVED my job! Message me if you would like to know more. From one soldier to another... Thank you for your service!
I was just wondering if you need any special qualifications to be a gunner like being good at math or anything like that? I've never been in the military but I've always loved these types of guns: the way they fire, the sound they make, etc. From old Napoleonic War cannons to WWI and II artillery to modern guns. They're all amazing. Would be great to know. Thanks! I know If I ever did join this would be my career choice plus it's alot further away from the regular hot stuff I would imagine? Less risk of death or am I wrong?
Well its the same concept as your rifle at home, stick a shell in it and see if it falls out. If it's not too old it should stay right there. There are several contact points that wedge it in there so it stays, the neck at the top of the round (where it begins to bow out) and the copper rings at the bottom. The tolerance when putting a round in your gun or in a guntube on one of these is so tight it just sticks into the chamber.
Thank you! I am a weapons mechanic. The better you understand something, the easier it is to fix it!
Field Artilery....my first love. Super
I wouldn't recommend not wearing them. Its is extremely loud. When I was sleeping inside of a cement building next to the gun pit in Blessing and the guns would fire it still sounded like someone was firing a shotgun down the hallway outside of the room. These are the biggest guns the army has and they are no joke.
It has a lot of surface contact when it is rammed into the chamber at the neck and base of the round, kind of like when you put in a round in any of your weapons, it holds snug in place. The (copper) ring at the base of the round seals it in place mainly, the charges just fit in there as well, it is larger at the back of the chamber than it is at the front, making everything to fit tight into place.
ok thank you. Sorry that was kid of a dumb question. I just didnt know if you guys had the weapons on or around you while firing the howitzer. Great video and thanks for your service, couple more years till i will be doing this.
High angle = pain in the ass.
This is so cool, this is what i plan on doing if i get into the Army.
what a GUN.
man i wish i had the manual for THIS thing, it's so cool
Also, the NLOS Cannon (Developed by the U.S aka the XM1203) was an alternative competitor to the M777. There are many other systems around the world in development that are similar including the mobile artillery. But the NLOS can be moved electronically and carries a variety of powder charges and shells which can be selected from a computer. Due to politics and budget plans the M777, developed by the British, was chosen as the replacement for the M198 used in the U.S Army and Marine Corps.
used to stay awake just to watch arty guys shoot at night in 29 palms
u soldiers are awesome....big SALUTE
@robbyb113 NCO. He is the fire chief for that gun. Gives all commands to the crew and verifies every procedure with the gun. Powder charge, round type, fuze, priming, and checks for proper deflection and quadrant. Typically an E-5 or E-6 will be the crew chief. However, E-4's training to be a crew chief will do it occasionally. But no, never an officer.
Given the charge and steep angle, approximately how far away are the rounds landing... how high to the apex... I figured you'd be able to hear the explosions, unless they were dummy rounds?
When you join any armed forces you are assigned a job or an "MOS" (Military Occupational Specialty) and their "job" is an artillerymen or a 13B just like an infantrymen would be an 11B. I was a 91F or a "weapons/artillery mechanic" so these men man the guns at all times and fire in support of ground troops on missions, whether it be Air Force, Navy, Army, or Marine Corps troops on the ground. We provide fire support.
If you watch videos of the old M198 155mm Howitzer firing, you'll see that the crew has to HAND LOAD a round into the tube by carrying the round to the breech. With the M777A2 Howitzer shown in my videos, they now have a hydraulic loading tray to sit the round on and then the crew just has to ram the round in. A little easier. Just type in "M198 Howitzer Firing" on youtube and you'll see what I mean.
if that is a personal question yes. You can hear it flying, usually only with high charge though because of the extreme velocity
No. I had it transported from another FOB to repair it because at the time the one it was at was too dangerous for helo's to be flying in and out of, so we sling loaded it to this one, and the helicopter crew let the sling drop and hit the primer handle... another part to add to my list of parts needed to fix it. They also regularly broke our sights.
I was in Alpha Battery 3-321 FA. I was FDC. When was this video taken? I was at Camp Clark 07-09, long tour.
13 Bravo is the BEST job in the U.S Army🇺🇸
Good effort ramming at that angle.
Wait, you had no arming handle ?? Kuddos to you guys for using that M-35 to arm the gun ! Ubique !
WOW, B BTRY 3/321 was my Basic Training
unit at Ft. Sill LOL.
They were fucking warriors in Afghanistan bro.
Thanks for 1080p, I could formerly imagine being there. Were these something like "training ammo", or real one? And do you know much much one round cost?
No training ammo, live HE rounds. We fire for practice and calibration to ensure both the weapon system and computer systems are working to hit the target area. The zone we fire to is a sort of "practice" grid that is safe away from any populated areas.
No. Not if the accumulator (the device that returns the tube back into battery) is working properly. Plus there is a stop to keep it from hitting if it does fail. Never seen it happen though.
Yes, there are guard towers and machine guns in case of an attack, plus our own personal weapons.
High elevation straight up
straight down...crazy scary
Target real close ?
Say , great video - but how far is the target ? ( the barrel is facing / aiming straight up ) ?
Wow that gun is no joke 😳😱😰
I hate to be on the receiving end of that!
not to mention (like you said) BAE deconflicting air and setting up hot roz's while getting ground clearance both green and blue. meanwhile jag is sticking their fingers in the cde and the battle cpt and battle NCO are asking a million questions because battalion wont send up the fire mission through afatds...yeah, a good bit of "math" goes into it.
Good job men and thank you for your service
Do you have small arms weapons around in case of an ambush? Other than that artillery looks awesome to work with
Not a soldier but I am just curious. When you ram the shell in at such a high angle, wouldn't the heavy round slide back out the breech?
Or is there a lock in there? Been really amazed at these artillery pieces especially the moment the weapon fires.
Great job guys. Really amazing work.
Imagine those heads on their way back to the ground. Dangerous.
I'm actually curious as well. I'm guessing the sound of the gun firing is deafening. Are earplugs optional/permitted? I'm going in as 13-Bravo in a few months.
It's kind of stupid really, the new regulation says that they have to lower the gun after each round when firing high elevation shots, because the round would "fall out" of the chamber... If you ram it hard enough it won't. But yes you saw correctly. I can't remember off the top of my head what mil they have to lower it to.
yes true but i was thinking maybe extending the thing so you dont have to lower it to load it and adding a lever to shove the whole thing in and bring it out instead of a long stick... i dunno id probly have to draw it
even with all of today's great technology, the best way to get that shell in there is with a good old fashioned ramrod.
they have to lower it after each round? why is that, im curious. or did I just see that wrong?
That has a very long reload time and requires a lot of people to operate it, but it looks and sounds awesome! I'm guessing a lot of math is involved to get the shell on target. Does the shell temporarily go into space?
Did the ｃommander (Who is the man stands ｌeft lower in this video) say first ｔhe coordinates of the target?
nope. Live rounds. Even stateside they rarely ever use training rounds. Not sure on cost. Think it is about $500 for an HE round. But different rounds vary.
How badly was the gun damaged by the shell? Seems like it was functionally sound after repairs!
Holy fucking christ.. they are shooting a 5 hotel high ass angle mission.. thats got to be 1240+ fucking crazy ass mission..
😊 WHOOO MIGHTY FINE JOB YES MIGHTY FINE 🤔 WHOOO ... AND DID HE SAY EIGHT MILES ?
R these rocket assisted projectiles???
so much recoil!!! is it possible for the breech to hit the ground at high elevations?
What was the Range? looks close
Doesn't even come close to reaching space lol, however you do have to deconflict with jets to fire. As for the math ya it takes a good bit. However in the world of Artillery this is only one part of the equation. Targeting data comes from the Forward Observers, the FDC puts all the information in a nice little package for the cannon cockers to deliver rounds.
This is true! We have to clear the air space in and out of the firing and impact zone to ensure we don't accidentally hit a plane or helicopter in the area.
@@DevilducV4 it sounds like there's something with a prop flying around ... was it a drone or am I just hearing noises?
Im not good with artillery n stuff but, where's the massive shell that's supposed to pop out after the round was fired?
There is no shell, what you are referring to would be a casing. The M109 (105mm) howitzer uses a shell, or cased round like a large rifle cartridge. This is the M777 howitzer (155mm). These are a lot like the cannons from the civil war (figuratively speaking). Those cannons in the civil war were loaded with powder, a ball (or other projectiles of sorts) and a blasting cap. If you watch the video again, you'll see them ram the round in, then the guy standing on the gun to the left loads in the white MAC charges (our gunpowder) and then when he pulls the lever down a magazine on the back of the breach inserts a cap or primer into the breach and he says "set" letting the gun chief know that the gun is loaded and ready to fire... followed by the command "stand by" and "fire." The round is sent downrange, the plastic and powder from the MAC charge disintegrates out of the end of the barrel and the only thing left is the primer case (small brass piece about the size of a rifle cartridge) which is kicked out and replaced with a new one upon reloading the next round. Does that answer your question?
I have a question: The guy reading off the coordinates & saying "fire", is he an officer or is he an NCO?
At that angle of elevation, what height does the shell max out at and how long is it in the air?
Its hard to say but probably around 3 or 4 miles up, It also depends on how much propellant they put in behind it.
That is just so fricking cool. Nothing says "Stop fucking with us" or "Fuck You" than shooting a few rounds of these at your enemy.
+Hi There I wouldn't want to be standing next to it when it goes off, I've seen what happens to people hit by these. One minute they're there, the next they're gone. If they stand within it's critical blast radius (50 meters in diameter) most of the time they are vaporized to tiny pieces. It's nasty stuff.
This squad could use Wolfie!
the video is slow as hell. what are you shooting at? about 3 miles away?
sooo, im assuming calibration is what you guys call registration?
I believe so.
Gotta love that hard afghani dirt, no spades dug in what so ever, and prayed to god they never did!
I am more interested in why shell / powder bags are not sliding back out before breech closed while at an extreme angle.
Is there a catch inside breech area to hold in place?
It narrows in the chamber, the round itself has a catch, the powder just sort of sits behind it but is slightly bigger than the breach chamber to allow it to "stick" inside.
If you bolted this gun to a concrete pad that didn't move and fired numerous rounds using the same angle, how close would the rounds land to each other?
the mission computer paired with the gyro system actually autocorrects for recoil. no need to put it on a concrete pad. the reverberations could crack the frame or other components. but the M777A2 is accurate within about 5 meters from target area at about 15+ miles with a "normal round" and the excalibur round we can not only extend range but we can keep or increase accuracy at roughly 25 miles with the guided round.
elitesoldier357 A couple of more questions when you get the time.
1. Are you saying that this gun, shot from hard pack dirt/gravel, can expect each round to land about 15 feet from each other after traveling 15 miles, if that is what is wanted? Does the gun have to know where the last round landed, (ie a forward spotter on the ground relaying information on where the first round landed) to make the second round land about 15 feet away?
2. When the round lands on the ground, what size crater would it leave?
3. Are the rounds designed to take out people, buildings or what? If they are designed to take out the enemy, what kills/injures the enemy? Is it the concussion or air blast wave from the round? Is it the metal shrapnel from the round? A combination of the two?
SanFranciscoBay 1. Yes. In most cases it is shot from dirt. The gun needs to flex when it recoils. And accuracy depends on what we want to hit, and what we intend it to. The round itself is usually accurate to 5 meters of what we call the target area, but we can also intend for it to be a larger area. What I mean by this is that we can call it in on one person or a small group for a precise kill. But lets say we have a sniper isolated in an area. We can drop rounds in a 100 meter grid to eliminate him or at least to suppress him. The gyro and the mission computer do the work after the round is fired, to compensate for the movement and recoil for the next, it knows using gps and complex electronic systems to relay that information to the chiefs display, gunners display, and assistant gunners display to show them which corrections they need to make, this is now automatic whereas before FDC or someone else would have to recalculate for the movement or not at all. The gun doesn't know where the round landed, it only knows where it moves. If that makes sense.
2. If you can imagine living in a neighborhood where houses are fairly close together, say a suburban area, if it was to land out in the street, your house and the 4 or 5 around you would be gone. And the blast would be felt for over 3 miles. With shrapnel going everywhere.
3. We have an arsenal of rounds. I can't remember off of the top of my head what the numbers are for all of them but the most basic ones are HE, close range HE, White Phosphorus, Smoke, Infrared, Illumination, Rocket Propelled variants of these for added range, and Excalibur (guided artillery round). Each one serves a purpose, and each one can also be fitted with a specific fuse to take out what we want. Say for instance we take a normal High Explosive (HE) shell and we want to hit a truck, we would set a fuse for direct impact. Say we want to take out insurgents above ground in open space, we can set a fuse for pre-detonation, where it will detonate above ground and causing a larger blast and spray shrapnel down on the enemy (works just like we did with the A-bomb, we figured out that above ground detonation was more devastating than in-ground detonation.) We can also delay the fuse as well to make it detonate .05 seconds after impact, think of a round coming through the top of a house. When it hits the roof instead of detonating on top, it enters through the roof and just a fraction of a second later it detonates INSIDE, causing a massive explosion outward. Its like detonating a fire cracker on top of your hand (might get a burn) as opposed to wrapping your hand around it and lighting it (might need a new hand). What mainly kills the enemy is the "blast overpressure" which is the detonation of the explosives causing such violent waves of percussion through the air that it will crush organs and vaporize entire bodies in most cases. Outside of that is the danger area, possibility of being hit by shrapnel or other flying objects. Hence the term "Danger Close" meaning the troops are in that danger zone, so keep your head down and get behind something. I am not really sure whether it would be concussion or air blast as you refer to it, kind of a bit of both i suppose. It exerts such an atmospheric pressure that our bodies can't withstand it, its more of g-forces I suppose. Not easy to describe. But the being inside of that "50 meter blast radius" means you are almost certainly dead from the violence of the explosion. THAT is what does most of the work.
We also have other rounds I have read about but haven't seen used. Scatter artillery rounds (drop clusters of grenades or mines) and NUCLEAR rounds to name a few. Yes, the M777A2 will fire nuclear artillery rounds if we were to load them. But as far as I know that hasn't been used in action of course. Just tested.
elitesoldier357 Thankyou so much for taking the time to respond. Fascinating piece of equipment. I asked in a tank video a similar question to this but using a tank round:
"If you were being attacked from close range, say 1/4-1/2 mile away, say the enemy was shooting at you from the hill side on the right side of the screen, do you have a shotgun type round that fires small lead balls that you could shoot at the enemy or would you use smaller weapons like the M16, 50 Caliber, Mortars, Shoulder fired rockets/missiles? "
From what I remember, the answer I received is that it is against war law to use large weapons like tank shotgun type rounds against the enemy on foot. They can only be used against buildings, other tanks and such, not at people. I think the same war law probably applies towards a Cannon against a group of people, it's not allowed. But you do say that they have air bursts rounds which are clearly designed to make a mess of whatever is under it or going after a sniper. Maybe someone else knows the answer on this.
As far as I know you can use artillery against personnel. That's how we suppress the enemy for the convoys. Tanks may have a different ROE than we do
Suppose that the enemy is spread out on level ground. How far would you space the shots from each other? Is there a spotter on the ground nearby where the rounds are landing to help you fine tune where to place the next round?
We can do whatever we really want with the rounds. Since the blast radius is 50 meters, we usually walk them close together across an area, say a mountain side to get the enemy moving and sh%$ting their pants. From there the observers can designate the next rounds coming in before the first volley has even hit the ground, since flight time at long range is 10-20 seconds. 2 guns firing from one base can put one shell down every 7 seconds or less. We can call in artillery rounds not just with observers but i believe most were called in from drones. We can have aircraft stay overhead if they run out of ammunition to keep the fight going. We can use all kinds of other assets too to call in rounds. But one of the coolest ones i think is the "time on target" I believe it's called.
+Devilduc1199 ever heard of shake and bake? if i remember it was air burst HE followed by WP
No lol But we have airburst HE rounds on top of them before and hit them with WP
yes!!!!! thats what im talking about!!!! we had a name for it i cant remember though? we had a mix called killer jr. also. i used to be in 1- 321 and 3 -321 did you know sgt brickell, sgt beckham, or sfc green?
they sound familiar. its been so long
is artillery an infantry unit do they go to soi or abother school
Amazing, but what was the point?
Is it a special group who fires these or are these guys regular soldiers who aren't on patrol?
Lol you guys broke the primer handle?
Yes lol
Technically the flight crew of the Chinook did dropping the sling cables onto it. We made due with what we had!
Mindblowing
I'm surprised at how long it takes between rounds. Is that typical?
No, this is just practice/calibration. During combat fire missions it is 10 seconds average between each round per gun.
If it reached space and came back down, the sheer speed would create some uhh... results.
Almost! It is flying up in to the Troposphere and back down. It goes up about 4 to 12 miles and back down, probably closer to 4 though.
What keeps the round from falling out once loaded? Or the charge?
On the rounds, if you look at the ones standing, there is a small band of white around the base, when ramming, you have to make sure that the round is rammed hard enough to "seat" the round within the breach, not allowing it to fall back out, also makes removing the round a pain in the ass if the mission is called off after a round has been loaded. To keep the powder from falling out, there is a small lip on the inside the breach that keeps the charges from falling out, number 3 man has to make sure that the charges get that far into the breach.
John Jones How would you remove the round if it was seated and no longer needed?
Alpha 3/321 FA Rockhard... Fire mission!!!
If you were being attacked from close range, say 1/4-1/2-1 mile away, say the enemy was shooting at you from the hill side on the right side of the screen, do you have a shotgun type round that fires small lead balls that you could shoot at the enemy or would you use smaller weapons like the M16, 50 Caliber, Mortars, Shoulder fired rockets/missiles?
I think our limit of close range is about a mile but im not too sure. We do have a close range HE shell for that though. Smaller explosion so we don't get a lot of shrapnel coming back.
SanFranciscoBay theyre called flechette
Lawson Hofer beehive....not flechette
Bill Christensen whats the difference
Beehive is like a giant shot gun shell..flechette are a bunch of dart shaped projectiles with fins
Lol scared to death when the Howitzer fired during that long pause 0:39 - 0:43
+NAME: UNKNOWN Fuck yeah terrifying
My favorite was the illumination rounds
What range does that have? What a weapon!
Up to 30 miles and we can still land it on someone's head using an Excalibur round (GPS guided)
@joeyaldridgemusic Yep thats him
Thank you!
Great vid.
Why do they lower the gun after each firing? To make it easier to load the shell?
It is procedure now to lower the gun, then go back up to ensure the round is fully seated in the cannon tube and to help keep it from slipping back out if they don't. Easier to shove a shell in at lower angle.
also point's for your extensive artillery knowledge!
No. Further than that. Guess again. That's charge 4 high.
Calibration? To ensure our targets are hitting spot on after repairs. You wouldn't go take your car to a professional race after just fixing it would you? You take it for a test drive. That's what this is, a test drive.
@4:57. Is it actually feasible to put the gun at 90 Degrees? or is there a default to prevent that. I could image poorly trained Arab or African soldiers would fire there gun at 90 Deg and hit themselves.
It cannot go a full 90 degrees, just short of that, is what we call max elevation. But it will look almost 90, more like 85 degrees but idk the exact number.
SirXavior it's 87 degrees you were pretty close
Max elevation for the piece is 1275 mils. 1600 mils = 90 degrees.
👑👑 US ARMY HD
Damn those hooahs are so damn slow! We can send 5 rounds down range by the time they load one.
Any artillery mechanics out there
Can someone answer this one please: isn't it dangerous to aim that high? I mean the higher you aim the less distance the projectile travels, right? Excuse me if I sound like a fool but my army is limited to 105mm chatkols lol
It is dangerous. Usually called a "Danger close" mission. However high angle missions are not uncommon.
+BLACK DEATH That isn't what we call danger close btw
+mats hilegems No. Elevation and distance don't correlate like that, not on this gun. Depends also what charge you are using but typically with this charge at that angle the round should be landing 15+ miles away, you won't even hear the impact. Using higher or lower charges, angle, and different projectiles together give us our distance. This is what we call "Indirect fire" since the line of sight to the enemy cannot be determined, we rely on information from our forward observers or from surveillance (aircraft, camera's, blimps, drones, etc.) to give us the coordinates and adjust fire. "Direct fire" is also something we do, meaning we can see the target with in a linear sight, in this case we just look through large scopes and aim directly at what we want and use it like a rifle, but with a much larger impact of course. We had to do a direct engagement once at this FOB, when the Taliban decided to attack us early one morning, no friendly injuries and we had 15 confirmed kills from just a few rounds we fired.
Most probably think of the projectile and charge being constant but they aren't. Like I said, through angle and the amount of charge we put behind the round, that is how we determine distance for where we want the round to land, with angle like this the round flies over the atmosphere, so that it can have less resistance and drag, making it typically go further, not closer. We fire our Excalibur at max angle and that is our farthest reaching round with recorded kills up to 25 miles, to give some perspective.
Devilduc1199 that's awesome. I'm applying for NCO artillery at the Belgian military (tests on april 5th) but it seems I still have alot to learn haha. One more question: in movies the observers closest to the enemy (like on the frontline) always say 'fire for effect' when they call in an artillery strike. What does that mean?
There will be a lot of technical terms I am sure you will have to learn on a gun crew or as a lead NCO but Fire for Effect means they have the target or the round landing right where they want it and no adjustments are needed. In other words he is saying "unleash the storm" at which point one or more guns will continue to drop rounds in that area to devastate the enemy. It's almost like saying, "open fire now, bring the pain."
Google some artillery call terms, one of my favorites is what we call a "time on target." Where one or more FOB's will fire to a single point at the same time. Landing several rounds at once. It takes coordination, but is really simple to do these days with digital fire control systems we have on our artillery and some mortars, basically two or more bases will fire at the same time to one location, dropping multiple rounds in seconds all at once. So say you have one FOB on one side of the valley, and another on the other side, as long as they have an overlap in range, each base can lock in to that location and fire at the same time as the other base does.
Alright, thanks!
Sunset 5 west 45 degree bravo.