“Field artillery has experienced tremendous change since the end of World War Two, and the pace of that change has accelerated in recent years as technology in ISR integration and C2 has enabled more effective, efficient, and precision ‘fires’,” John Grenier, a historian at the US Fires Centre for Excellence, a US military training centre, told The National. The US military also uses a lighter 105mm version.ĭuring their long history, the design of howitzers has constantly evolved, keeping them an integral part of military operations. Some of these systems, such as the Switchblade kamikaze drone and the Next Generation Light Anti Tank Weapon, or NLAW, had never been used in combat before.īy contrast, the US first used a 155mm howitzer - the M114 - in 1942, while France fielded a variant of the big gun even earlier. Western countries have been sending cutting-edge weaponry to the Ukrainians - from laser-guided anti-aircraft missiles to anti-tank missiles that can anticipate the final location of a moving target - following the Russian invasion on February 24.
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More than half of the US howitzers have already been delivered, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday, and 50 members of the Ukrainian army have completed training on the system. Unlike howitzers supplied by European nations, which are built into armoured vehicles known as self-propelled guns, the M777 is towed into battle or carried by helicopter. Washington is sending the M777 variant, while Canada is supplying a much smaller number but has also included advanced, guided artillery shells.
The shipment is part of two $800 million aid packages announced by the US. The US is sending 90 howitzer 155-millimetre artillery pieces to Ukraine to help counter the Russian military offensive in the eastern Donbas region.Ī howitzer is a long-range artillery piece that fires an explosive shell on a high trajectory, in contrast to a cannon which fires directly.
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