The United States Army has countless deadly weapons at its disposal. Some, like the all-encompassing artillery, have been around in some form or another for as long as wars between nations have existed. This standalone artillery weapon, the Howitzer shown in the video below, requires a team of soldiers to fire, and the process is a lot more complicated than you might think.
Check out the whole process of firing off an artillery round in the video clip below:
Staff Sergeant Stone does a great job explaining everything that goes on when firing off a round:
“What’s happening right now is the cannoneer brings over the round, and gets the round and the fuse verified,” Stone explains. “Verify load!” he relays back to his team.
“The charge comes off the back of the truck, and gets verified by the chief.”
“Right now, the cannoneer is verifying that it’s clear and then they drop the round.” In the blink of an eye, the three-foot-long rocket gets shoved down into the massive artillery machine.
“Once that round is dropped, the tray comes back up, and the number two cannoneer loads in the powder.”
“Set! Ready!” one of the soldiers shouts.
“Once the cannoneers have set the Howitzer into its firing position, I load and press ready.”
“Standby – fire!”
The coordinated effort to get the round off is quite the process, and it requires a large team of soldiers to be constantly communicating and working with one another to quickly get the weapon reloaded.
Howitzers, as they are recognized today, can actually trace their roots back to the 1400s. By the 20th century, the weapon had evolved to be the large-scale, missile-firing machine we see today. Howitzers come in all shapes and sizes, from smaller two-person weapons that can be moved around more easily, to large-scale canons attached to tanks and other vehicles.
While these artillery weapons are most thought of as being used during the wars of yesteryear, they still remain an integral part of the military’s arsenal and continue to be deployed for active combat around the world.
