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Self-propelled artillery (also called mobile artillery or locomotive artillery) vehicles are a way of giving mobility to artillery. Within the term are covered Self-propelled guns (or howitzers) and rocket artillery. They are high mobility vehicles, usually based on caterpillar track carrying either a large howitzer or other field gun or alternatively a mortar or some form of rocket or missile launcher. They are used for long-range indirect bombardment support on the battlefield. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
M109 self-propelled howitzer. ...
Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...
Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...
A self-propelled gun is an armored fighting vehicle which primarily based on and serves to transport the gun with which its equipped. ...
Loading a WW1 British 15 in (381 mm) howitzer A howitzer or hauwitzer is a type of field artillery. ...
Rocket artillery is artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars. ...
U.S. M60 Patton tank. ...
Loading a WW1 British 15 in (381 mm) howitzer A howitzer or hauwitzer is a type of field artillery. ...
US soldier loading a M224 60-mm mortar. ...
A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program The traditional definition of a rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving fluid from within a rocket engine. ...
Indirect fire is the use of artillery to fire at targets out of the crews line of sight, by firing in a high arc out to long distances and/or over blocking terrain. ...
A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings. ...
In the past, self-propelled artillery has included direct fire vehicles such as assault guns and tank destroyers. These have been heavily armoured vehicles, the former providing close fire-support for infantry and the latter acting as specilized anti-tank vehicles. The Brummbar was a German assault gun used in World War II An assault gun is an armoured fighting vehicle similar to a tank, but typically does not have a traversable turret, and may have an open roof. ...
A self-propelled anti-tank gun, or tank destroyer, is a type of armoured fighting vehicle. ...
Modern self-propelled artillery vehicles may superficially resemble tanks, but they are generally lightly armoured, too lightly to survive in direct-fire combat. However, they protect their crews against shrapnel and small arms and are therefore usually included as armoured fighting vehicles. Many are equipped with machine guns for defence against enemy infantry. A sectioned Shrapnel shell displayed at the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa Shrapnel is the term used to describe the spherical shot or musket balls dispersed when a shrapnel shell bursts. ...
An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is a military vehicle, equipped with protection against hostile attacks and often mounted weapons. ...
A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ...
The key advantage of the self-propelled artillery over the towed one it that it can be brought into action much faster. Before the towed artillery can be used, it has to stop, unlimber and setup the guns. To move position, the guns must be limbered up again and brought - usually towed - to the new location. By comparison self-propelled artillery can stop at a chosen location and begin firing almost immediately, then quickly move on to a new position. This ability is very useful in a mobile conflict and particularly on the advance.
Conversely, towed artillery was and remains cheaper to build and maintain. It is also lighter and can be taken to places that self-propelled guns cannot reach, so despite the advantages of the self-propelled artillery towed guns remain in modern armies arsenals. An arsenal is a establishment for the construction, repair, receipt, storage and issue of weapons and ammunition. ...
Development
First World War
 British Gun Carrier Mark I (60 pdr). The first example of a self propelled gun was the First World War Gun Carrier Mark I of 1917. It was based on the first tank, the British Mark I which carried a heavy field gun. The gun could either be fired from the vehicle or removed from it and set up as normal. In effect the carrier replaced the use of a separate horse team or internal combustion engine powered artillery tractor and allowed a new way for the gun to be used. Image File history File links British Gun Carrier Mark I (60 pdr)) of 1917. ...
Image File history File links British Gun Carrier Mark I (60 pdr)) of 1917. ...
Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...
British Gun Carrier Mark I fitted with a 60 pdr gun The Gun Carrier Mark I was the first piece of self-propelled artillery ever to be produced, a British development from the First World War. ...
1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...
A Mark I tank on 26 September 1916 (moving left to right). ...
Komsomolets tractor Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights. ...
Between the wars The next major advance can be seen in the Birch gun developed by the British for their motorised warfare experimental brigade after the end of the War. This mounted a field gun, capable of both the usual artillery trajectories and high angle anti-aircraft fire, on a tank style chassis. It was designed and built as part of a general approach to warfare where all arms, infantry and artillery, included would be able to operate alongside over the same terrains as the tanks. The Birch Gun was the worlds first really practical self-propelled artillery gun, built at the Woolwich Arsenal in 1925. ...
American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging military aircraft in combat from the ground. ...
Second World War  Disabled German Wespe 105 mm self-propelled artillery vehicle. At the outbreak of World War II virtually all artillery was still being moved around by artillery tractors or horses. While the German Blitzkrieg doctrine called for rapid support of armoured units, during the invasion of Poland and France this was provided by the Luftwaffe using Stuka dive-bombers effectively acting as artillery and conventional towed howitzers. One of the defining characteristics of what is commonly known as Blitzkrieg is close co-operation between infantry and tanks. ...
Junkers Ju 87 Dive-Bombers The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was the most famous Sturzkampfflugzeug (German dive bomber) in World War II, instantly recognisable by its inverted gull-wings and fixed undercarriage. ...
Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy and limit the exposure to and effectiveness of anti-aircraft fire. ...
As the War progressed, all nations developed self-propelled artillery. Some early attempts were often no more than a field gun or anti-tank gun mounted on a truck - a technique known as carrying portee. These were mobile but lacked protection for the crew. The next step was to mount the guns on a tracked chassis and provide an armoured superstructure to protect the gun and its crew. A lot of the initial designs were improvised and the lessons learned led to better designs later in the war. As an example the first British design "Bishop" carried the very effective 25 pdr gun-howitzer but in a mounting that severely limited the guns performance and it was replaced the following year by a design that lasted until the end of the war. The Bishop was a British self-propelled artillery vehicle based on the Valentine II chassis. ...
The Germans were particular prolific with designs. They created many examples of lightly armored self-propelled anti-tank guns using captured French equipment (example Marder I) and light tank chassis (Marder II, Marder III). These led to better protected tank destroyers, built on medium or heavy tank chassis such as the Soviet SU-85 and SU-100, which were effectively turretless tanks. These had the advantage of being relatively cheap to build compared to proper tanks but at the expense of flexibility. Marder I on Tracteur Blinde 37L chassis The Marder I was a German World War II tank destroyer, armed with a 75 mm anti tank gun. ...
The Marder II was a tank destroyer based on the panzer II chassis. ...
Marder III Ausf. ...
The SU-85 was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II. History The SU-85 was based on the earlier SU-122, which itself was based on the T-34. ...
The SU-100 was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II. // History The SU-100 was developed as an improvement to the SU-85, with a more powerful gun. ...
Heavily armoured assault guns, were designed to provide direct-fire support to infantry in the face of enemy defences. Although often similar to tank destroyers, they carried larger caliber guns with weaker anti-armor performance but capable of firing powerful HE projectiles. The German StuH 42 and the Soviet SU-122 are good examples of this type of self-propelled artillery. The Brummbar was a German assault gun used in World War II An assault gun is an armoured fighting vehicle similar to a tank, but typically does not have a traversable turret, and may have an open roof. ...
A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, is not solid but contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large projectiles without a filling which are properly termed shot. ...
The SU-122 was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II. History The SU-122 was an assault gun which used the hull of the T-34 tank and was the result of an April 1942 specification for assault guns aimed with guns of 122 mm calibre...
All major nations developed self-propelled artillery which would be able to provide indirect support while keeping pace with advancing armoured formations. These were usually lightly armoured vehicles with open-topped hull, US M7 Priest, British Sexton (25 pdr) and German Wespe being typical examples. A different route was chosen by the Soviets, which didn't develop a specialized indirect fire vehicle, but following a tradition of dual-purpose towed artillery built a series of versatile assault guns with indirect fire capabilities (example ISU-152). They also had the Katyusha self-propelled multiple rocket launchers which were unarmored trucks with a simple rocket rack on the back, a cheap and crushingly effective weapon. The Howitzer Motor Carriage M7 was an American self-propelled artillery vehicle produced during World War II. It was given the official nickname Priest in British service, due to the pulpit like machine gun ring and following on from the Bishop self propelled gun. ...
General characteristics Length 20 ft 1 in/ 6. ...
The Wespe (German for wasp) was a German self-propelled artillery vehicle during World War II based on the Panzer II tank. ...
The ISU-152 was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II. // History The ISU-152 (in Russian ИСУ-152) used the same concept as the earlier SU-152: a large gun placed on the hull of a heavy tank. ...
Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery built and fielded by the Soviet Union beginning in the Second World War. ...
After the end of the Second World War, the assault gun fell from use with a general trend towards a single heavy gun equipped vehicle, the main battle tank. Self-propelled artillery remained important and continued to develop alongside the general purpose field gun. The US M1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. ...
Modern self-propelled artillery Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (972x1150, 202 KB) Summary Description: Makmat 160 mm self-propelled mortar on M4 Sherman chassis in Batey ha-Osef museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (972x1150, 202 KB) Summary Description: Makmat 160 mm self-propelled mortar on M4 Sherman chassis in Batey ha-Osef museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. ...
see M4 Sherman tank main article for background to 1945 Postwar Sherman tanks saw extensive use around the world after WWII. This article catalogues foreign postwar use and conversions of Sherman tanks and variants based on the Sherman chassis. ...
Mortars Many vehicles have used ancillary smoke mortars for local defense. Considering vehicles with a mortar as a primary weapon, some vehicles are mortar "carriers" (transporters) and the mortar cannot be fired within the vehicle. Vehicles with a mortar as a primary weapon that is mounted to be fired within the vehicle include the US M21 half-track. Tanks such as the Israeli Makmat on the M4 Sherman tank chassis have also mounted mortars. The Russian army uses a 2S4 Tyul'pan (Tulipin) self-propelled 240 mm heavy mortar. see M4 Sherman tank main article for background to 1945 Postwar Sherman tanks saw extensive use around the world after WWII. This article catalogues foreign postwar use and conversions of Sherman tanks and variants based on the Sherman chassis. ...
WWII foreign variants and use: Lend-Lease Sherman tanks Post-WWII foreign variants and use: Postwar Sherman tanks The Medium Tank M4 was the main tank designed and built by the United States for allied forces in World War II, totaling roughly 50,000 tanks plus thousands more derivative vehicles...
In russian, word army means armed forces in general. ...
Howitzers and guns -
Self-propelled artillery remains important in the equipment of many modern armies. It saw a significant role throughout the Cold War era conflicts and in the recent Gulf Wars. A self-propelled gun is an armored fighting vehicle which primarily based on and serves to transport the gun with which its equipped. ...
For other uses, please see Cold War (disambiguation). ...
The term Gulf Wars is a collective term for three conflicts which involved Iraq between the years 1980 and 2003: Iran-Iraq War (1980 - 1988) Iraq-Kuwait War (1990 - 1991) ...
Modern SP artillery is highly digitized with the ability to self survey firing positions using systems such as GPS and inertial navigation systems. This, in conjunction with digital fire control/ballistic computers and digital communications, allows individual guns to disperse over a wide area and still deliver rounds on target at the same time and same target as other guns in their battery. Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...
An inertial navigation system measures the position and altitude of a vehicle by measuring the accelerations and rotations applied to the systems inertial frame. ...
These capabilities also increase survivability manyfold as modern SP artillery can displace and avoid counterbattery fire much more quickly and effectively and if desired more frequently than previously possible. In conjunction with modern logistic systems (where the SP gun's systems can track and report on ammuniton consumption and levels) with similar navigation systems and palletised load dropping/lifting capabilities mean that the rapid displacement can occur without significant disruption to actually firing missions as it is possible for the ammunition to keep up with the guns.
A modern battery of six guns, each firing 43 kg projectiles with a burst firing speed of four rounds per minute, can deliver over a metric tonne of ordnance per minute for up to four minutes. This is an immense weight of fire which can be delivered with very high accuracy. A tonne (symbol t), sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of weight. ...
One example of the increased firepower provided by modern mobile howitzers is the latest version, the G6-52, of the 155 mm G6 howitzer. It can fire up to 6 rounds in quick succession which will land near simultaneously. This is achieved by firing the shells at different trajectories so that the first round has the longest flight time and the last round the shortest; made possible by an automated ammunition feed system. [1] The G6 self propelled howitzer was developed around the ordnance of the G5 howitzer. ...
Rockets and missiles -
Rockets have greater ranges and carry much more complex "shells" than guns since there is less of a restriction on size (calibre). The US designed MLRS can be used to saturate a large area with sub-munitions. Rocket artillery is artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars. ...
A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, is not solid but contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large projectiles without a filling which are properly termed shot. ...
M270 MLRS The M270 MLRS conducts a rocket launch. ...
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