Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment

by Tom Clancy

  For a lightly protected target like a headquarters unit, this will prove extremely destructive, and will probably destroy everything except armored vehicles. The most likely sign of success for the ATACMS strike is the enemy headquarters radio circuits going silent, never to flash their electronic signals again. As for the MLRS battery, it will by this time have moved to its reload position, and be re-arming the launcher vehicles. This is accomplished by having the M985 winch a pair of loaded rocket/missile pods to the ground behind each launcher. Once this is done, the launchers’ own built-in loading gear winches each pod up into the M270 launcher, and the battery is ready to go back into action.

  As you can see, the MLRS system has features that make it one of the most flexible and powerful weapons in the Army inventory. By late 1993, some six hundred launchers had been delivered to the U.S. Army, with more in the hands of the MLRS consortium partners. The Army is currently planning to field almost 1.300 launcher vehicles, and maintain a large inventory of MLRSCOMPATIBLE rockets and missiles, though budget cuts may force this number much lower than planned. Nevertheless, it is the truth of the moment that MLRS is the finest artillery system currently in use by the U.S. Army today. And until the M109A6 Paladin 155mm selfpropelled gun comes on-line later in the decade, it will remain the longest-ranged, fastest, and most accurate artillery system in the Army.

  The M109A6 Paladin 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer

  Under General Sullivan’s plan to modernize the Army by 1997, even the fairly mundane-looking and comparatively old-fashioned tube artillery is getting a digital makeover. In fact, all the qualities that make the MLRS system so useful—speed, responsiveness, positive navigational accuracy, and inter-vehicle connectivity—are currently being planned for the next version of the U.S. Army’s self-propelled howitzer (SPH), the M109. The reasons for this upgrade are simply that tube artillery can (still) deliver a greater weight of accurate firepower on a target than any other weapons system. It is efficiency, simple and pure, that drives U.S. Army SPH development, and that efficiency is the reason for the upgrade program known as the M109A6 Paladin. It is an efficiency based upon the historical utility of self-propelled artillery. This particular development in the field of ballistic weapons has an important past, and a vital future. Let’s take a look.

  Big guns are heavy. When mobile artillery was first conceived in the 15th century, artillery pieces had to be hauled by large teams of oxen. While an ox is slower, meaner, and dumber than a horse, it has more strength and endurance for the long haul. But by the 17th century, guns and carriages could be made strong and light enough for a pair of horses to pull them along, though the gun crews still had to slog along on foot. In the late 18th century, some armies began to mount the gunners on their own horses, and they were accompanied by light two-wheeled carts called “caissons” to carry gunpowder and projectiles. This “horse artillery” could move at cavalry speeds, and was drilled to get the guns in and out of action (“limbered” or “unlimbered”) extremely quickly. By World War I, trucks or tractors began to replace the horse, and rubber tires replaced the iron-rimmed wagon wheel. But at the start of the Second World War, most armies still had some horse-drawn artillery. With a motorized carriage, a force could move guns at highway speeds, at least until the highways turned to mud. Then the guns, like all the other things dependent upon wheeled transport, bogged down, a victim of “General Mud.”

  Clearly, a superior form of transport for artillery was needed. The solution was tracked, self-propelled artillery. The World War II German Wehrmacht was the first to systematically introduce self-propelled artillery by pulling the turrets off obsolete tank chassis and rigging improvised mountings for field guns. The gun, the crew, and some ammunition could now move cross-country and keep up with the Germans’ advancing Panzer units. Unfortunately, these early open-topped systems provided no overhead protection for the crew against shell fragments—or for that matter, against the rain! The Allied forces also developed self-propelled artillery pieces during World War II, notably the M3 “Priest,” with a small 105mm pack howitzer in the mount. By the 1950s, the U.S. and British Armies had begun to introduce self-propelled 105mm guns with fully enclosed turrets. These vehicles looked like tanks, though the bulky turrets had a limited traverse (they could not rotate 360 degrees, like a tank turret). To stabilize the chassis against the recoil of the gun, some models required the use of a “spade”—a broad spiked blade on a hinged mounting at the rear of the chassis. This was lowered before firing to dig into the ground and thus stabilize the vehicle against the gun’s recoil.

  The design of a self-propelled gun, like that of any other armored fighting vehicle, involves trade-offs between mobility, protection, weight, speed, ammunition capacity, and mechanical complexity. National style and doctrine also play a role. For example: To save on scarce manpower, the Swedish Army designed their 155mm self-propelled gun with a sophisticated mechanical autoloader; Soviet-designed self-propelled guns are designed to use flat-trajectory, direct fire to simplify fire control and provide a secondary anti-tank capability.

  The origins of the American M 109 program date back to the 1960s, when the Army decided that their next generation of SPH would put the gun, crew, and ammunition under armor to protect against counter-battery and small-arms fire. The initial results of this program were the M108 (with a 105mm howitzer) and the M109 (with a 155mm howitzer). These were guns on a tracked chassis, with an armored box or cab built over the top of the chassis. The armored cab had room for the crew to load and fire the howitzer, as well as stowage for ammunition.

  These relatively simple vehicles were adequate for service in the Vietnam War and the early days of the Cold War, but new operational needs emerged in the 1980s. One was the need to accurately survey and locate the site used as a firing position, without leaving the protection of the vehicle (the more accurately you know where you are, the more accurately you can aim at your target). In addition, the time required to set up a battery and establish secure commu-nications determined the unit’s ability to respond to an immediate request for fire. As late as the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the U.S. Army standard for setting up an M109A2 battery (eight M109s along with their ammunition carriers) was around eleven minutes. Compared to the responsiveness and performance of the MLRS batteries, which measured their response time in seconds, tube artillery in the Gulf War seemed sluggish. But even before the forces of the United States began to deploy to the Gulf in 1990, the Army was already well into the development of a new generation of M109, the M109A6 Paladin.

  The M109 A6 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzer (SPH).

  JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER

  The idea behind the development of the Paladin is similar to the one that led to the M1A2 Abrams. Take an existing vehicle chassis (such as an early-model M109A2 or M109A3), strip it down to the bare bones, rework all of the automotive and suspension components (essentially “zeroing” the vehicle from a “wear and tear” standpoint), replace all of the old vehicle electronics (called “vetronics” in the jargon of the industry) with newer, more reliable digital systems, tie them all together with an onboard data bus, and add the necessary digital communications, navigation systems, and a fire-control computer to provide rapid response to requests for artillery fire. In this way, the Army can take a gun that is essentially obsolete and make it into the world’s best tube-artillery system in one major upgrade.

  As you walk up to a Paladin, there are few external details to tell you it is different from any earlier M109 model. Only the larger turret bustle and additional radio antennas mark it as something new. Inside is another thing.

  Normally, the crew enters the vehicle from the rear by ducking under the bustle overhang and climbing through the main hatch. This normally is done on hands and knees. But once you’re inside, as you stand up, you get the feeling you could play handball in there. There is a lot of room. Unlike inside the tight confines of an Abrams or Bradley, even someone over six feet can sta
nd and move around comfortably.

  The interior layout of the Paladin is much like that of the Abrams, with the driver up forward, the vehicle commander and gunner positions on the right side of the gun turret, and the loader on the left. Lining all of the interior surfaces is a Kevlar spall liner designed to reduce the danger of spall fragments to the crew. To the rear of the turret is the storage area for ammunition and propellant charges. The Paladin has room in the rear bustle to store a total of thirty-seven NATO Standard 155mm rounds, a pair of Copperhead laser-guided projectiles, and the necessary propellant charges to send them on their way. Some of the different ammunition types include:• High Explosive (HE)—A steel-jacketed case filled with PBX-series explosive. Impact-fused, it detonates on contact with the ground, with blast and fragmentation effects.

  • High-Explosive, Variable-Time (HE-VT)-An HE shell fitted with a radar proximity fuse. The fuse can be set to explode at a particular height over the ground, showering the target with fragments when it detonates.

  • White Phosphorus (WP)-Called “Willie Pete” by the troops, this round has a case filled with chemical white phosphorus and a small bursting charge. When the shell hits the ground and the burst charge detonates, the white phosphorus spontaneously ignites in the presence of oxygen (as in air or water). In addition to incendiary effects, it generates a dense cloud of white smoke that can serve as a target marker for other weapons. The downside of WP is that it is dangerous to manufacture and handle. And the terrible burns it inflicts have led some people to regard it as a particularly atrocious and inhuman weapon. In spite of this, virtually every nation with artillery uses WP rounds.

  • Field Artillery Containerized Anti-Tank Mine (FASCAM)-This is an artillery shell containing a number of anti-tank mines capable of blowing the track off an armored vehicle or destroying a wheeled vehicle like a truck. FASCAM rounds can be lobbed into an area like a crossroads or a pass, where they can block the movement of an enemy force until they are cleared.

  • Smoke-Frequently, smoke rounds (shells with pyrotechnic smoke generators in them) are carried as a means of marking a position or masking movement from an enemy. Smoke rounds come in a variety of colors, such as red, blue, purple, and orange.

  • Jabberwocky—This projectile, named after Lewis Carroll’s poem, is a shell containing a powerful little broadband-radio noise-jammer designed to disrupt enemy communications. When the Jabberwocky is over its target area, it deploys a parachute to retard its fall and soften its landing. After landing, it deploys an antenna and starts jamming. A small thermal battery built into the shell case provides power for a few hours.

  • SADARM-Like the M77 MLRS rocket, there is in development a 155mm artillery shell capable of carrying and dispersing several SADARM “skeets” to destroy enemy tanks and vehicles. This program appears to have become a victim of budget cuts, and a replacement called BAT (with an acoustic sensor) is slated to take its place.

  • Copperhead-This is the crown jewel of American artillery. Designed for use against tanks and point targets, the Copperhead is the artillery equivalent of a laser-guided bomb. When it is fired, small guidance fins pop out from the body of the shell, and a laser seeker in the nose starts searching the ground for a spot of laser light pulsing with a specific code. This is the signal from a laser designator which is marking—or “painting”—the desired target. The laser designator, with a range of several miles/kilometers, can be a hand-held unit operated by a forward observer, or it can be mounted on a combat vehicle or helicopter. When the seeker detects the laser spot, it homes in, adjusting its course with the guidance fins. The high-explosive warhead detonates on contact, and is sufficient to destroy a tank. The only problem with the Copperhead is that the supply is limited. Because of cost, the production line was shut down before completing the planned production run, and Copperheads have to be used sparingly. Nevertheless, this may be the most accurate and deadly point-target artillery weapon in the world today.

  This is not a complete list of everything that can be stuffed in a 155mm shell. It is only a general introduction to the capabilities of U.S. Army artillery. Meanwhile, some of you may be wondering about the exclusion of nuclear and chemical weapons from the list of artillery munitions. The simple truth is that such weapons are a thing of the past. At one time, the Army had a 2-kiloton-yield nuclear artillery shell called the W82, but in 1991 President Bush ordered the removal of all nuclear weapons from deployed U.S. forces. In addition, U.S. forces also deployed a small but powerful array of chemical weapons. Luckily, the program was terminated as a result of a series of international treaties; and the stockpiles are gradually being destroyed at incinerators in Kentucky, Utah, and Johnston Atoll in Micronesia.

  Structurally, the Paladin is mainly built of aluminum (like the Bradley and the M113), though significant portions are still composed of high-quality steel. Weighing in at 63,300 lb/28,181 kg, it is powered by a 440-hp turbocharged Detroit Diesel V-8 engine driving a six-speed (four forward, two reverse) transmission. This provides for a top speed of 35 mph/57.4 kph and a cruising range of 214 miles/351 kilometers. The business end of the Paladin is an M284 155mm, 39caliber cannon mounted on a M182 gun mount. It is capable of firing conventional ammunition out to a range of 14 miles/23.1 kilometers, and rocket-assisted rounds out to 18.3 miles/30 kilometers.

  What makes the Paladin so different are all of the systems that have been improved or replaced. The major upgrades include:• Suspension System—With the weight of the Paladin growing to almost 64,000 lb/29,091 kg, the suspension of the original M109 would have a difficult time maintaining stability during cross-country dashes from firing position to firing position. To make up for this, the M109A6 has been designed with longer torsion bars and hydropneumatic bump stops to smooth out the ride and provide greater support for the increased load of the new vehicle.

  • Automatic Fire-Control System (AFCS)—The AFCS provides an integrated solution to the problem of determining vehicle position, receiving fire missions, and automatically pointing the gun at a target. It has an inertial navigation system called Modular Azimuth Positioning System (MAPS). In addition, the system can receive targeting data over the onboard radios directly into the fire-control system. This means that all the crew needs to do to put rounds on target is to fit the proper fuse onto the nose of the shell, load the shell and propellant bag into the weapon, and pull the firing lanyard. And while MAPS currently lacks a NAVSTAR GPS ● receiver, it is likely that this will be installed in the very near future.

  • Voice/Digital Communications Systems—Where previous versions of the M109 were limited to receiving their fire missions via a landline from the battery operations center, the Paladin has a pair of AN/VRC-89 SINCGARS radios to provide both secure voice and digital communications, as well as a data link to the TACFIRE/BCS system.

  • Automatic Remote Travel Lock—Because of the length of the M109 gun barrel, it is necessary to lock it down during movement to relieve stress that might warp or distort the tube, affecting gun accuracy and safety. Previous versions of the M109 required a crew member to exit the vehicle and manually lock the barrel into its travel lock. On the Paladin this is done automatically in less that fifteen seconds.

  • Driver’s Night Vision Device—Previously, the M109 had difficulty making night marches and participating in night artillery raids, due to the lack of any onboard night-vision system. This shortcoming has been rectified in the Paladin through the addition of a an AN/VVS-2(V4) night-vision system. This is a “clip on” viewer which can be installed rapidly (within fifteen seconds) without tools on the driver’s periscope. It is a relatively new system that uses light/image intensification to provide a clear outside view, even on moonless nights.

  • Microclimate Cooling System (MCS)—Under the best of conditions, the firing of a 155mm howitzer is hot, dirty, and dusty work. When the crew is wearing MOPP-IV chemical-protection suits, it can be downright debilitating. To overcome the heat and fumes, the Microclimate Cooling
System (MCS) provides filtered and cooled air to make the wearers more comfortable. Each crew member is attached to the MCS by a hose-fed face mask. Even when the crew is not wearing MOPP-IV suits, they wear the masks to avoid inhaling propellant fumes from the gun.Field Artillery Ammunition Supply Vehicle showing the fold-out power-operated conveyor system that can be used to transfer ammunition to an M109.

  BMY COMBAT SYSTEMS

  • Electrical Power System—All of these electronic “goodies” require a lot of power. To accommodate the increased power requirements of the M109A6, a 650-amp alternator has been installed to support the increased electrical load.

  What all of this means is that the M109A6 is able to do with a cannon almost everything that the MLRS system does with rockets and missiles. And it can do it with similar mobility and speed. It is designed to be part of the 21st century digital battlefield. And unlike earlier versions, which had to stay behind the front to survive, the Paladin can move with the most forward elements of an armored force. At a moment’s notice, it can stop in place and have the first round “on the way” in less than sixty seconds. The ability to “shoot and scoot” increases the system’s survivability against counter-battery fire.

  There is a special vehicle designed to keep the Paladin full of ammunition and ready to shoot. Called the M992A1 Field Artillery Ammunition Supply Vehicle (FAASV), it carries ammunition, propellant, and fuses to Paladin units at the front lines. FAASV is based on an M109 chassis, with an armored box that holds up to 90 shells, 3 Copperhead laser-guided rounds, 99 propellant charges, and 104 projectile fuses. The M992A1 can move with the Paladin, operate in the same area, and even resupply it while under fire.