Training on Allied Guns
- Thread starter GINge!
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Qualified as in did the courses required. Did an exchange in the UK for 2 months for the AS 90 and a month for the M109A6 in the US at fort Sill. 
GINge!
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FOO TECH G11 said:Qualified as in did the courses required. Did an exchange in the UK for 2 months for the AS 90 and a month for the M109A6 in the US at fort Sill.
Huah! I had no idea you field guys were getting such excellent opportunities. Was this part of a SUE, as in a whole troop went over and then a Brit troop came over here?
Its so good to hear these exchanges haven't died out entirely. Where's the "jealous" smiley?
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So what did you think of the M118/119? Here we use a slightly modified version of the 'UK British Light Gun' (and I mean slightly). Ours uses M1 ammo, and has a shorter ordnance, but we do also have the original Abbot ordnance too.
Not too popular of a gun here to be honest. A maintenance nightmare, and not too robust. I have been working on them since 1997, and posted to an RAA regiment.
BTW FOO, great 'signature'.
Ubique!
Wes
Not too popular of a gun here to be honest. A maintenance nightmare, and not too robust. I have been working on them since 1997, and posted to an RAA regiment.
BTW FOO, great 'signature'.
Ubique!
Wes
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Thought it was an okay gun. When we did our exchange in the UK, we did allot of firing as we repaced 7 RHA who was tasked to the Artillery school at the time. We did all of their taskings for about 6 weeks and saw more firing there than I have done here in Canada for a long time. We fired for the Jr. officer course and that was about 500 Rd's a day for 3 days, fired at different ranges from the Officers who were in bunkers at the Sharp End. The only real problems we had with them was that it has a small amount of bearing that can be applied before we have to take post to lay. Other than that, we had good guns and an excellent British Seargent Major to over see our training.
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500 bombs down range. Thats a fair bit of shooting. I take that was at a Regt level? Either way, its still a lot of bombs.
We did the Abbott back in 01 up in Shoalwater Bay. Did heaps with it, including 'charge super', where only 10 rds can be fired per gun crew in a 24hr period. The trails were smacking the ground, and what a bang!
It was wierd to as we had always fired the M1 ammo, and then after changing 8 ordnances in the field in under two days, it was interesting to see the different amm. the gunnies were perplexed about the carts being electrically fired, instead of the traditional firing pin, as used on the M1.
A while back we had a L119 blow up (4 Fd Regt Townsville), and this caused 'catastrophic failure', due to what they beive was an ammo issue (M1 HE w/fuse M578). Basically on how the ammo was handled, etc.
At the end of the day, the gun was fired and the HE rd exploded in the bore, before it even exited the muzzle brake. Of the 7 men, none were killed, but a few were banged up pretty bad. Bloody luck as some rather large piece landed less and .5 of a metre from some members. A small fire then took hold, and fast thinking by the No1, saved what could have been a far worse situatiuon.
The pics of this incident have indeed circled the globe WRT lessons learned passed on to our allied friends.
As for the Abbott ammo, the men did complain on the hidious ammounts of salvage created by all the different type of packaging the UK use. All the Abbott ammo was imported from the UK, but we make our own M1 ammo.
Cheers,
Wes
We did the Abbott back in 01 up in Shoalwater Bay. Did heaps with it, including 'charge super', where only 10 rds can be fired per gun crew in a 24hr period. The trails were smacking the ground, and what a bang!
It was wierd to as we had always fired the M1 ammo, and then after changing 8 ordnances in the field in under two days, it was interesting to see the different amm. the gunnies were perplexed about the carts being electrically fired, instead of the traditional firing pin, as used on the M1.
A while back we had a L119 blow up (4 Fd Regt Townsville), and this caused 'catastrophic failure', due to what they beive was an ammo issue (M1 HE w/fuse M578). Basically on how the ammo was handled, etc.
At the end of the day, the gun was fired and the HE rd exploded in the bore, before it even exited the muzzle brake. Of the 7 men, none were killed, but a few were banged up pretty bad. Bloody luck as some rather large piece landed less and .5 of a metre from some members. A small fire then took hold, and fast thinking by the No1, saved what could have been a far worse situatiuon.
The pics of this incident have indeed circled the globe WRT lessons learned passed on to our allied friends.
As for the Abbott ammo, the men did complain on the hidious ammounts of salvage created by all the different type of packaging the UK use. All the Abbott ammo was imported from the UK, but we make our own M1 ammo.
Cheers,
Wes
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