Artillery's power

[TR23]

Hello all.  I know little about the world of the CF, nevermind the artillery specifically.  I was wondering if someone would care to educate me on the firepower the guns can put out.  I've read that Canada has 105mm and 155mm guns(currently purchasing replacements for retired m109s?).  It would seem the 155 is the more powerful round, as well as the longer ranged.

So how much damage can a 155 do?  If you dropped a single round into my house, would the entire house be destroyed?  The building  shot full of holes?
If you wanted to, could you drop that round into my house, and not either of the neighbours on each side?

Clearly artillery can pin down, or deter any 'soft' forces from advancing, but what about armour?  I realize that armour without accompanying infantry is more vulnerable to some forms of attack.  If modern tanks were advancing through a field, and 155 artillery was called down, would it stop/destroy/damage the tanks?  Could it immobilze them by damaging their treads?  If it hit the turret directly, would it penetrate or destroy the turret?  Could you hit one tank?  Is armour relatively safe from artillery fire-assuming the crews are all buttoned up inside?

I realize these questions are very obvious to all of you in the know, but if someone cared to enlighten me I would appreciate it.  Any videos or articles you have to recommend would also be great, if you so choose.

Thanks for any insight,
TR23

 

[Fry]

So how much damage can a 155 do?   If you dropped a single round into my house, would the entire house be destroyed?  

Yes.

 

[Bomber]

Your house would be destroyed, your neighbours property value would be reduced, kind of a fire sale or half off special I guess.  Everything "depends".  Using different ammo produces different results.  A 155 set on delay hitting the top of a tank, would probably blow it to hell.  hitting it head on with an HE would probably not.  Dropping DPICM from a regiment onto an advancing tank troop would definitely ruin a bunch of peoples day.  A 105 can kill the mobility of any tank, blowing of the road wheels and track of an armoured vehicle will stop it form moving, but not stop it from laying on you and blowing you away, unless you hit it indirect so it can't see you.  I have no idea what an 81 would do to a tank, probably tear off antenae and screw the sights maybe?  Take out anyone not under the armour, but as for the tank itself, not much that a can of tremclad couldn't fix.  Denel has reported that they have developed a 105 round which is twice as lethal to personnel as a 155 round, but if the fragments are only lethal against pers, then probably not to effective against armour.  As for armour being safe when buttoned up, there are rounds that lay mine fields, and if some of those rounds were fired in a coordinated illumination mission at night, that tank crews would have no idea until they actually ran them over.  Last, for your house, a round of VT (Proximity) would give you a nice sky light, about 1000 of them, a round on SQ (Super quick) would force you to re shingle the house, as well as install a new second floor, finally a round on delay would display the contents of your basement for all you neighbours to see.

 

[CdnArtyWife]

wow, this makes me all tingly down my spine....huuuuwaaaah!

Artillery: A great way to reach out and touch someone.

 

[Craig B]

but what about armour?

What about it ?

DPICM in effect .

DPICM is a "clusterbomb" type of round , its deploys a bunch of submunitions that can penetrate armor and/or attack infantry with shrapnel .

Top armor on a tank is thin . Boom .

Craig

 

[TR23]

Wow.  Impressive.  Thanks for the education- I can appreciate the value of having some artillery on our side for the troops, if thats the kind of firepower they can call on.

TR23

 

[Fry]

For those who know little about the CF, I think they highly underestimate the power of our artillery... and how crucial a role it plays in our ground ops.

 

[RCA]

I think that some of those within the CF  highly underestimate the power of our artillery... and how crucial a role it plays in our ground ops.

 

[CdnArtyWife]

I think that some of those within the CF   highly underestimate the power of our artillery... and how crucial a role it plays in our ground ops.

Well said!!

 

[Bomber]

All falls down to unit CO's, if you organize a demo of your trade that can be attended by other trades, understanding will increase, if an infantry unit only ever sees gunners waving out of the back of trucks and hears booms in the distance, they probably think it is pretty lame, by the same token, if guns only ever see a single section of infantry walking slowly past the gun position, or being debriefed after an attack, then we think of them as pretty slack.  Don't ask me about the engineers, cause from what I see it seems that all they do is get in a group and lift a large piece of green metal.  But from research we all know that they enhance our mobility while denying the same to the enemy.  No one understands the armoured guys now cause they don't blow up enough stuff anymore.

Anyway, if all these units would work together a bit more and show off their different talents to one another, a FOO party in an infantry company would not be told to carry a sack of para flares by the CSM and instead would be providing indirect or direct fire support.  Once in Meaford in 01 they marched a battalion of infantry guys onto the range and there was a demo of the cougars doing battle runs, followed by the arty direct firing on the remaining targets.  That was good business.  But I haven't seen it again.  If anyone is able, usually in Gagetwon there is something called Staunch Gladiator, a firepower demo, where they loose every thing that can go farther than a man can throw.

 

[CdnArtyWife]

Even my limited experience of Staunch Gladiator has left me impressed. My windows shake and rattle day and night and I am a good 15-20k from the impact sites....and you KNOW when they drop the 500 pounders. I have gotten so I can tell LAV fire (not that difficult) from Leopard (not anymore) from towed 105s and even the M109...sadly you don't hear much different fire anymore...but it is still impressive from this wifey's point of view. And when hubby comes home all google-eyed and giddy about what he saw...it makes me that much more proud of what he and his co-workers do!

 

[DG-41]

As far as arty power goes:

In '93 I was on Stalwart Ram, where there was some arty live fire going on. We had a mod tent set up in the impact area to protect some stores, but it was tucked away in a little hollow where we thought none of the FOOs would see it and it wouldn't get shot at.

Ha! Crafty FOOs! They saw it alright, and we got them to check fire on our tent (nobody was in it; we were observing from a safe distance) shortly after they went FFE.

Afterwards, I surveyed the damage. There were 4 little craters in a diamond pattern around the tent. The nearest was about 6 paces away; the farthest maybe 15. Each crater was a little bald patch in the turf (whay was pretty dry and hard) maybe an inch or so deep. The tent was still standing, and one of the craters was at the base of a tree about 3" in diamter - it had all its leaves blown off, but was otherwise OK.

So I thinks to myself "feh, this arty stuff isn't as bad as they say - didn't even knock a mod tent over".

And then I went inside the tent, and it was like entering a planetarium. "My god! It's full of stars!" Completely shredded with little holes, everywhere except maybe 8" above the ground down to the ground.

Then I noticed that two of the perlons were completely severed, and had happened to fall in on themselves so they were interlocked and still held the tent up.

Anybody in that tent who was not lying on the ground would have been hamburger. It didn't look like much from the outside, but once you got a good look at it - wow.

Then I discovered another crater about 20 m away that I could park my Iltis in. I jumped into it, and it came up to my neck (I'm 6'1")

My guess is that the 4 that landed near the tent were quick-fused 105s, and the big bastard was a delayed-fuse 155 - but I'm not an arty guy, so I might be wrong.

DG