M777 Howitzer: Titanium Weight Cuts, Excalibur Shots and Ukraine's Barrels

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The M777 began in 1987 as the Ultralight Field Howitzer developed by Vickers in the United Kingdom and was later taken over and largely Americanized by BAE Systems. About 70 percent of its parts are now U.S. built, with barrels made at Watervliet Arsenal in New York and final assembly in Mississippi. Extensive use of titanium brings the 155mm gun to 9,800 pounds, against 16,000 pounds for the M198 it replaced, a 41 percent cut, while a hydraulic recoil system absorbs the blast. Emplacement takes 2 minutes 10 seconds compared with over six and a half minutes for the M198, displacement 2 minutes 23 seconds, a C-130 carries two instead of one, and a helicopter can lift it by sling. Digital fire control using GPS and ring laser gyroscopes lets the gun aim as soon as it lands, and the GPS-guided M982 Excalibur round stretches range to 40 kilometers, with a 5-meter circular error probable in testing from 24 kilometers.

Canada took it into combat first, during Operation Archer in Afghanistan in 2006, where two Canadian guns hit retreating Taliban forces in the Battle of Panjwai. In 2012 Marines of the 11th Marine Regiment in Helmand fired an Excalibur 36 kilometers, the longest operational barrel artillery shot in Marine Corps history. At Firebase Bell near Makhmour, Iraq, Marines fired more than 2,000 rounds in 60 days in 2016 to support the Mosul offensive. In Ukraine, after the U.S. donated over 140 units, crews report firing up to 6,000 rounds through barrels meant to be replaced at about 2,500, and roughly a third of some 350 Western howitzers are reported offline for maintenance at any time. BAE Systems is opening plants in Sheffield and Louisville, Kentucky to build new units, titanium castings and M776 replacement barrels.

• The normal crew is eight, the minimum is five, and in an emergency three people can fire it.
• The Bofors BONUS round releases two winged submunitions that scan for vehicle engine heat and fire shaped charges into tank roofs.
• Fatal accidents occurred in training at Fort Bragg in 2011 and 2014, and a 2017 explosion in Iraq killed two soldiers.
• The Oryx blog recorded more than 100 M777s destroyed, damaged or captured in Ukraine; each gun costs $2 million to $3.7 million.
• India bought 145 for its mountain border with China, with 120 assembled locally by Mahindra Defence Systems under Make in India.