Field artillery
This was in contrast to horse artillery, whose emphasis on speed while supporting cavalry units necessitated lighter guns and crews riding on horseback.
Modern artillery has also advanced to rapidly deployable wheeled and tracked vehicles and precision delivered munitions capable of striking targets at ranges between 15 and 30 kilometers.
[citation needed] Early artillery was unsuited to the battlefield, as the extremely massive pieces could not be moved except in areas that were already controlled by the combatant.
[3] Following the beginning of the gunpowder era, the first field artillery came into being as metallurgy allowed thinner cannon barrels to withstand the explosive forces without bursting.
However, there was still a serious risk of the constant changes of the battlefield conspiring to leave behind slow-moving artillery units – either on the advance, or more dangerously, in retreat.
[3] The medieval Ming dynasty Chinese invented mobile battlefield artillery during the early part of the fourteenth century at the time when gunpowder and the primordial cannon were first being adopted in the West.
[5] Before World War I, field artillery batteries generally fired directly at visible targets measured in distances of meters and yards.
Most field artillery situations require indirect fire due to weather, terrain, night-time conditions, distance, or other obstacles.
These gunners can also rely upon a trained artillery observer, also called a forward observer, who sees the target and relays the coordinates of the target to their fire direction center, which in turn translates those coordinates into: a left-right aiming direction; an elevation angle; a calculated number of bags of propellant; and finally a fuze with a determined waiting time before exploding (if necessary) to be set, which is then mated to the artillery projectile now ready to be fired.
The gun line cranks the specified elevation and deflection on the howitzers, punch the artillery shell followed by the bag (powder).
Initially the Party looks to find suitable positions for an artillery unit to perform fire missions from.
The purpose of the advance party security with METT-T and the absence of enemy troops, mines, booby traps, NBC hazards, and so on.
Once a location is determined to be safe the advance party prepares the position for eventual howitzer emplacement.
The FO usually establishes a covered and concealed observation post (OP) on the ground, from which he can see the enemy.
The U.S. Army Field Manual describing the duties and responsibilities is FM 6‑30, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Observed Fire.
In a typical heavy division configuration, there exist two FDC elements capable of operating two four-gun sections, also known as a split battery.
The GPO (Gun Position Officer) and CPO work at the plotter to ensure that the data calculated by the Acks is accurate and safe.
Elevation (vertical direction) and bearing orders are specified in mils, and any special instructions, such as to wait for the observer's command to fire relayed through the FDC.
The crews load the howitzers and traverse and elevate the barrel to the required point, using either hand cranks (usually on towed guns) or hydraulics (on self-propelled models).
If one suspects one's position is being observed by a covert FO then a mission, either artillery or infantry, will be raised to deal with this threat.
Ordinary towed guns can take a while to emplace and re-limber and are not armoured, so they are vulnerable to counter battery fire and take a while to engage when at a new location.
This has a 155 mm main armament that can with assisted firing charges reach 60 km, has a maximum speed of 67 km/h (41 mph) on road surface and 45 km/h (28 mph) off-road, and has a fully computerised fire-control system that enables it to fire-move-fire before the enemy can pin it down for counter-battery fire.
