re: #67 ckkatz

There are also some interesting things in the pictures of that article.

In the first picture of the article, of a M777 firing you can see a couple of what looks like boxes attached to the top of the cannon. These are electronic devices that provide the gun crew very specific and precise information, such as gps location. You can also see the antenna for them on the right hand side of the picture.

In the pictures of Ukrainian M777’s I have not seen those items. Which means that more time consuming methods of positioning the cannon are used.

The artillery term for positioning the cannon is ‘laying’. Make of this what you will.

Another thing I find interesting are all the pictures of the palletized cannon shells. Units used to spend a lot of their time hauling loose rounds from the depot to the ammunition trucks, to the cannon, back to the trucks, etc. And the gun crew had to keep managing the ammunition and the packaging. Plus there was always the danger that a round would be damaged. The palletized system looks to save a lot of time, energy, and focus.

The shot of the Marine watching the 5-ton prime mover is a really good photo. The one that gets me, though is the photo of heat-treatment at Watervliet. That operation, with the automated forge, was a sub-command of our arsenal at Picatinny, and I got to spend some time there. Fascinating place.

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