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October 4th, 2003
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Topic: Artillery: The King of battle.... :) Had two good weeks at Hjerkinn Artillery range here in Norway. It's over 1000m up in the mountains, so we had some snow, but other than that the weather was ok... Just wanted to show you some pics of what I have been doing... The reason why we were there now was to do some ballistic tests with some new ammunition types (long-range HE (high explosive) and bomblet/cargo shells).  We used a modified M109A3GN, upgraded with a inertial navigation system. So it's almost like the M109 Paladin (- the semi-automatic loader). On these pictures we shoot about 20km, and the muzzle velocity is about 810m/s..... (5 modular charges) You can see the shell behind the trees in picture nr 3.  The cargo shell contains 49/63 of these bomblets, capable of penetrating about 12-15cm of armor. It does also have a fragmentation effect, lethal in a 15m radius...  This is a very good picture. We use charge 5 (white bag), with a muzzle velocity of about 360m/s. The shell is still in the smoke cloud in front of the muzzle!...  Here we use charge 7 (white bag). You can see the shell in front if the gun. The muzzle velocity is about 560m/s here...  This is also a very lucky picture. Here we use 5 modular charges, it's not possible to use any more than this on the M109. The noise level inside the howitzer is about 170db(!), so we had to use a remote firing device when using 5 modules. The muzzle velocity is about 810m/s here, so I was lucky to capture it on my camera! Anyone who wants to be a Redleg???   The Fire is everything, the rest is nothing....
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October 5th, 2003
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Haha, you'd be a good recruiting agent, Im excited just looking at those great photoes. So does your howitzers use automatic loaders?
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October 6th, 2003
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No, we don't have automatic loaders on the M109A3...
The one we used here is a upgraded version, with an inertial/gyro navigation/positioning system. It's a rather old howitzer, and we're in a process these days changing out the M109 with new and modern howitzers. We are leaning more and more towards the German Panzerhaubitze 2000. Great thing! Read more about it here:http://www.army-technology.com/proje...000/index.html and btw: going to have some more fun with the howitzer this week. Going away to Hjerkinn today(monday) again, I'll probably be away for 2-3 days.. |
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October 6th, 2003
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Man, I knew I should have done the army..
Those pictures is artwork..  God, I could have given alot just to be there.. |
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October 9th, 2003
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Hi GhostWolf and welcome to the forum.
Of course these pictures are artwork.. I took them, and they are of "The King of Battle" !! Why don't you join the Army then? I can recomend the Artillery. 
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October 16th, 2003
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I found some multimedia you Redleg's may like:
http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/images/ops/3rha.wmv British Self-Proppeled guns in Operation Telic, which would be Iraqi Freedom for all us Americans. |
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October 17th, 2003
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November 14th, 2003
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I just got these photos from a friend.
They're also from the same exercise..   4 and 5 modules, HE basebleed shell. ca 810m/s...
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November 14th, 2003
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Redleg, does the Norwegian FA use "shake and bake?" (Firing a barrage of WP rounds to blind enemy troops followed by HE proximity rounds in case you use a different name.)
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November 15th, 2003
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"shake and Bake" was a new expression...
 We use something similiar to what you describe. But when we use WP+HE 2 of the guns fires WP and 4 HE at once (Gun battery), 3 rounds each is standard. So the rounds lands at the same time on the target. WP is a very nasty, but also a very pretty thing....
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