Marines ship new howitzer to Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Marines ship new howitzer to Iraq
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 5, 2007 5:44:15 EDT

The Marine Corps has begun shipping the new, lightweight M777 howitzer to Iraq, marking the first U.S. combat deployment for the higher-tech, more mobile and lethal artillery gun, Marine Corps officials said.

In addition, the Marines and the Army are acquiring more guns, adding to the 550 M777s they have already purchased.

“Right now, for the Marine Corps we’re looking at adding about 250 more, for the Army close to 275 more,” said retired Marine Master Sgt. Jeff Altman, M777 equipment specialist with the Army-Marine Corps joint program office.

Designed to be carried beneath a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft or a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, and to be carried aboard Navy ships, the M777 is intended for a mobile expeditionary force that needs to deploy quickly and move around the battlefield, Altman said.

“This system is 7,000 pounds lighter than the M198 that it’s replacing, but still shoots a 39-cal, 155mm cannon, so you still get your same ranges, and are still able to shoot your standard NATO 155 munitions,” he said.

“Your rate of fires and displacement times are quicker,” Altman added. “The M198 has been in service for 20-plus years. It’s a heavy system mobility-wise, but it’s a great system.”


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_howitzer_071004/



uhc comment: If you read the article, you'll see the M777 is made by BAE Land Systems in the good ole US of A.

taking a look at their web site, it appears perpetual war is good for bidness.

http://www.na.baesystems.com/landArmaments.cfm


BAe was talking about "intelligent ammunition." A quick google search on that term ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Intelligent+ammunition&btnG=Google+Search ) turns up some interesting articles.


http://www.rheinmetall-detec.de/index.php?lang=3&fid=3479



SMArt 155 intelligent ammunition
3/27/2006

GIWS, a subsidiary of Diehl BGT Defence (DBD) and Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH (RWM), the leading German Army suppliers, is producing and marketing the world's most effective artillery shell SMArt 155.

SMArt 155 provides the artillery forces with the capability to effectively engage pin-point targets at very long ranges. Shoot-and-scoot tactics increase the combat value of the artillery assets.

Unique sensor performance and tremendous warhead effect with unmatched functional reliability provide maximum performance in the battlefield and optimum cost effectiveness to the customer.

SMArt 155 causes minimum collateral damage, leaves no dud on the battlefield, has long life time in stock without any testing or maintenance.

The product portfolio of GIWS comprises

* SMArt 155 intelligent ammunition for tube artillery standard and extended range (40 km)
* Respective system development and analysis, fielding support and training
* SMArt 155 intelligent submunitions for use with Rockets, Aircraft dispensers, UAV's and Area defence weapons
* Other defense systems and their components for various applications.

SMArt 155 was developed by GIWS and its shareholder companies and other subcontractors, by order of the German Procurement Agency, BWB.



According to wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinmetall )

Rheinmetall AG (FWB: RHMG) is a German automotive and defense company with factories in Düsseldorf, Kassel and Unterlüß. It has a long tradition of making guns and artillery pieces. The company is also involved in a variety of advanced metal-working and milling technologies. This has allowed it to provide special high-quality components for small arms in addition to its heavy weapon production.

In 1993 Rheinmetall acquired the Mauser AG and in 1996 and 1999 the majority share-holdings of STN Atlas and Oerlikon Contraves, all of which are major European defense companies. STN Atlas was later split into Atlas Elektronik and Rheinmetall Defence Electronics, the latter is now a full subsidiary of Rheinmetall.

Rheinmetall made bomb fuses during World War 2, notably a double-capacitor design which was particularly dangerous to defuse should the bomb not explode on impact. Many bomb disposal personnel were killed. The patent for the fuse was filed in the UK two years before Hitler came to power and the UK Armed Forces spotted this and the patent then helped enormously with disarming these particular bombs. The US Patent Office put a 32-year secrecy order on a similar patent by the University of Illinois in 1948.



The $12,000,000,000 a month we are spending in Iraq funds the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about in 1961.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/45380/
On January 17, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower said goodbye to public office with an address that concluded with the words below . uhc note: I've changed the brackets to parens

As we peer into society’s future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

During the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

(Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.)

(Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.} Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war - as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years - I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

So - in this my last good night to you as your President - I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith, that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace, with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

[Maq]

1. Business end of the M777

M777-firing