Long Shot Artillery Battery Sets Lethal Record
Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., dropped the 155mm M982 Excalibur round on insurgents 36 kilometers away — more than 22 miles — in Helmand province.
This is precisely why CAS is outdated. PGMs from artillery batteries using M777 and Excalibur or GMLRS have the same precision effects and better response times than CAS.
By: AlanR - 8th July 2012 at 07:07
Looks very clever in theory
By: SpudmanWP - 8th July 2012 at 06:25
The HiMARS can fire the standard M31 Unitary MRLS rocket which has a 200lb warhead. The bigger ATACMS can have a 500lb warhead.
btw, Excalibur can hit the backside of a mountain (vertical attack). Check the sequence from the 1:30 –> 2:00 mark in this clip.
By: Jonesy - 6th July 2012 at 12:04
A 6″ shell has nowhere even close to the target effects a 250lb bomb has. HiMars with unitary ATACMS can do the same job but its a 1-shot deal isnt it?.
Also a bit of a shame if the arty battery is trajectory masked to target. You’d have to hope those calling for fire can hang on long enough for the arty to relocate to get a clear arc. No such concern from airstrikes.
Arty is fine in its place against a limited target set. Tacair is always more flexible, more capable and more valuable though.
By: ppp - 6th July 2012 at 06:38
They are both valuable tools IMO
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July 6, 2012 at 6:25 am