Artillery

:For the thrash metal band, see Artillery (band)

Types

The types of tube artillery are generally distinguished by their ballistic trajectory. Cannons or guns (such as infantry support guns or those on a naval ship) are typically longer-barreled, low-trajectory weapons designed for a direct-fire role. Typically the length of a cannon barrel is greater than 25 times its caliber (inner diameter).

Related Topics:
Ballistic trajectory - Infantry support gun

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Howitzers are typically shorter- and thinner-barreled. Capable of both high- and low-angle fire, they are most often employed in a close indirect-fire role, operating in defilade. Typically the length of a howitzer barrel is between 15 and 25 times its caliber.

Related Topics:
Howitzer - Indirect-fire - Defilade

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Mortars are smaller, very short-barrel, high-angle weapons capable of only high-trajectory fire at a relatively short range compared to the other types. Typically the length of a mortar barrel is less than 15 times its caliber.

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Modern field artillery can also be split into two other categories: towed and self-propelled. As the name implies, towed artillery has a prime mover, usually a jeep or truck, to move the piece, crew, and ammunition around. Self-propelled howitzers are permanently mounted on a carriage or vehicle with room for the crew and ammunition and capable of moving independently in order to move quickly from one firing position to another - to both support the fluid nature of modern combat and to avoid counter-battery fire. There are also mortar carrier vehicles, many of which allow the mortar to be removed from the vehicle and be used dismounted, potentially in terrain the vehicle can't get to or in order to avoid immediate detection.

Related Topics:
Jeep - Truck - Counter-battery fire

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Sub-types

Types of artillery:

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• field artillery - mobile weapons used to support armies in the field. Subcategories include:
• infantry support guns - directly support infantry units (mostly obsolete).
• mountain guns - lightweight weapons that can be moved through difficult terrain.
• howitzers - capable of high angle fire.
• gun howitzers - capable of high or low angle fire with a long barrel.
• mortars - lightweight weapons that fire projectiles at an angle of over 45 degrees to the horizontal.
• self-propelled artillery - typically guns, mortars or gun howitzers mounted on a vehicle.
• naval artillery - cannons mounted on warships and used either against other ships or in support of ground forces. The crowning achievement of naval artillery was the battleship, but the advent of air-power and missiles have rendered this type of artillery largely obsolete.
• coastal artillery - Fixed-position weapons dedicated to defense of a particular location, usually a coast (e.g. the Atlantic Wall in WW II) or harbor. Not needing to be mobile, coastal artillery can be much larger than equivalent field artillery pieces, giving them longer range and more destructive power. Since World War II, however, modern weapons and tactics have made them largely obsolete.
• anti-aircraft artillery - weapons, usually mobile, dedicated to attacking aircraft from the ground.

Projectiles

All forms of artillery require a propellant to fire the projectile at the target. A number of different configurations have been developed, each with varying characteristics. They include:

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• Tube fired - utilise the pressure of burnt propellant inside a barrel to force a projectile out of the mouth of the barrel.
• Spin stabilised - Use helical grooves or ridges on the inside of the barrel to impart a rotation to the projectile as it is travelling in the barrel.
• Fin stabilised - Use fins at the rear of the projectile in the airflow to maintain correct orientation.
• Inverted tube - Some weapons have been built with the tube built into the projectile and fitted onto a rod fitted to the carriage.
• Recoilless - A tube fired weapon with a breech designed to perforate a bursting disk at firing, and permit a mass of burnt propellant gases with momentum equal to the projectile to exit from the rear of the barrel, to prevent recoil from affecting the weapon.
• Rocket propelled - Tube or rail launched - A reaction propulsion system mounted to the projectile provides continuous thrust for an initial period of the flight.
• Rocket assist - A combination of tube fired and rocket propelled - uses a rocket motor in the base of the projectile to extend the range by about 30%.
• Base bleed - Similar to a rocket assist projectile, uses a small pyrotechnic charge at the base of the projectile. The charge introduces sufficient combustion products into the low-pressure region behind the base of the projectile responsible for a large proportion of the drag to substantially (> 30%) increase range. Like a rocket assist projectile, trajectory is changed to non-ballistic, which may complicate counter-battery location.

Ammunition

High-explosive; shrapnel, dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM)- bomblet; canister or anti-personnel; illuminating or star-shell; armour-piercing; incendiary (white phosphorus, "Willie Pete"); gas or aerosol, chemical or biological; smoke; nuclear and non-lethal (developing area - includes High Power Microwave HPM, and NL payload carrier shells).

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Fuses

Quick or super-quick; delay; hardened-delay or concrete-piercing; timer; proximity.

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