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Thursday, October 24, 2019

Shoot and Scoot is Back

The Army is practicing rapid movement of artillery to avoid counter-battery fire:

Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call of sorts, with Russia using advanced artillery and drones as spotters to create devastating long-range effects.

The Army now is racing to increase the range of its artillery -- and have the ability to move it in a hurry so that enemy systems can't hit back.

For the first time, the 25th Infantry Division last week practiced moving two M777 howitzers, which each weigh nearly 10,000 pounds, by air using a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, setting up the big guns as fast as possible and firing at a target during the rapid artillery raid, officials said. The artillery also was flown out by air.

This is good, because the video I embedded in this post about that Ukraine wake-up call by Doctor Karber scared the Hell out of me.

I remember in the Persian Gulf War before the invasion that our artillery conducted artillery raids on Iraqi forces by rolling up within range, shooting, and getting out. Iraq's Soviet-supplied artillery outranged our guns, I believe.

This isn't just for large-scale armored warfare in Europe. Dropping artillery on islands in the Pacific for brief missions to strike enemy warships is also an objective.