by The video below is of a live-fire demonstration by the Indian Army of the Bofors FH-77B 155mm howitzer. While the howitzer is incredibly sophisticated and powerful, the whole demonstration looks like it could have been choreographed by the Monty Python troupe.
I thought that after all the politics of the past week my readers needed a laugh. Plus it involves a big gun!
Good one, and they DO get the job done! And I'm betting that was all for show… Comes down to it, they are just running…
Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut!
I am sporting a tremendous woody.
The video says that the time to lay the gun is about 2 minutes. Think about that. They could roar up in the truck, lay the gun, fire 3 rounds, and start breaking it down in 2-1/2 minutes.
I'd love to see a full speed run, set up, fire three rounds, break down, and tow away.
I love speed gunnery
http://youtu.be/32s4qCCFnmk
All silliness aside that is an impressive weapon system. Why don't we have something like that?
That's a serious question and deserves a serious answer. Let's compare the Bofors to the two different 155mm howitzers the USA uses.
The current towed 155mm howitzer is the M777, built by the Brits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M777_howitzer
It weighs 7,500 Lbs, is air transportable by CH47 or Osprey, has a max range of 24KM
The Bofors Haubits77A is the one in the video.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haubits_FH77
It weighs 25,000 lbs and has a range of 21KM
The current US 155mm self propelled howitzer is the M109A6 Paladin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M109_howitzer
It's a different animal altogether.
What we can see is that the US has radically different ideas about the two different roles of Artillery in Armored vs light forces. We went for maximum mobility, including air mobility. The Swedes wanted to split the difference.
One thing that's pretty interesting is that the Wiki page for the M777 shows the time to emplace and displace. They can emplace the gun in 2 minutes 10 seconds, fire the gun, and then have it hooked up to the truck and drive away 2 minutes and 23 seconds later. That's pretty amazing. Shoot and scoot is important in fast moving advances.
all that silly walking is "british drill" carried to the extreme. note also that the announcer is speaking "inglish" as opposed to english. same thing you get in phone calls from indian based phone "help" call centers, and they get very indignant when you cannot understand them.
Silly walks – The Bofors guys got nothing on the India/Pakistan boarder guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0ue-XGl9c