The Royal Artillery's new equipments

Norman L. Dodd

colonel UK Army, retired

The well tried and popular 25 pdr field guns ofthe Royal Artillery have fired their last rounds inoperational service, though they are still in use fortraining in the Junior Leaders Regiment and inCadet Force units. Even their replacement, theItalian 105 mm pack howitzers, are now on theirway out. These are being followed by the Britishdesigned and built towed 105 mm light gun. Thefirst operational battery demonstrated the firepower of this excellent gun at the Annual ArtilleryDay Fire Power Demonstration held at the Schoolof Artillery, Larkhill, in July last.This gun is of a somewhat revolutionary construc-tion; the carriage is welded and made from aspecial rust-resistant steel, produced by Firth Vic-kers and is particularly resistant to metal fatiguebecause it is able to flex as the gun fires. The bar-rel is of thin walled autofrettaged construction in

high yield steel and the wear should be negligible,the muzzle velocity of 2340 ft per sec (713 m/sec)will therefore remain constant throughout its life.The gun has a wishbone shaped tubular trail andfires from a platform which is stowed on top of thetrail for travelling. The trunnions are set to therear of the equipment to permit it to fire in thehigh angle up to 1250 mils (71 deg.). This necessi-tates the use of balancing springs. The recuperatoris on top of the barrel and is an oil and high pres-sure system; the buffer is located under the barrel.Normal sights are fitted plus a direct fire telescopewhich gives the gun an excellent anti-tank cap-ability.For travel the barrel of the gun can be reversedand clamped to the trail; from this position thecrew of a sergeant and five gunners can bring thegun into action in two minutes. The range is 17

General view of the guns in action at the School of Artillery on a fire power demonstration

422

The new British light gun 105 mm with its trails reversed being towed by the Foden Artillery tractor

Anglo-German and Itallan FH 70 155 mm howitzer under trial at Larkhill

km and the ammunition fired by the SP Abbot 105can be used. The weight is 4,000 Ibs (1,814 kg)and it can be lifted by a Puma helicopter. Theequipment can be split into two halves in five mi-nutes and then, by use of an 'A' frame, it can belifted into a truck or into a Wessex helicopter. Thegun in action is 7 m long and 4.8 m when foldedfor travelling; its track width is 1.42 m and theammunition can be loaded at all elevations. Theshell weighs 35 Ib (15 kg) and it is much moreeffective than that used by the 105 mm pack how-itzer; the difference in its capability was clearlyshown during the fire power demonstration. Thetower for the new gun is the recently developedl ton Land Rover powered by a Rover 3.5 litreV 8 engine.

To the specialist the most interesting gun is theAnglo German 155 mm howitzer (FH 70) onpublic show for the first time. Design studiesfor this howitzer were carried out in both coun-tries and in 1966 operational characteristics wereagreed by the two nations. Full development com-

menced in 1968 and Italy joined as a full partnerin 1970. A trilateral trials unit was formed tocarry out the operational trials; this unit is com-manded by an Italian, Colonel Puri, and is nor-mally located in Germany. Firing trials have beencarried out in Sardinia as well as in Germany; inone of these a 155 fired one hundred and twentyrounds without a break and with one detachment.The 'vital statistics' of the howitzer so far announ-ced are, that it weighs 22,400 Ib (9099 kg), has amaximum range with normal high explosive am-munition of 24,000 m and about 30,000 m usingthe rocket assisted shell now being developed. Theweight of the HE shell is 96 Ib (43.6 kg) and itslethal frontage 50 m, the rate of fire is six roundsper minute and the detachment is one sergeant andeight gunners.The trails fold back for travelling and the howitzerfires from a platform although it can fire from itsown wheels. A small engine is fitted to move thegun very short distances on the gun position. Thegun tractor to be used by the British Army is thenew Foden Medium Mobility vehicle with a body

423

adapted for the role. This has six wheels and goodcross country capability; the power unit is a RollsRoyce 305 HP turbocharges Eagle Mk III dieselengine with a nine speed gearbox. The tractor hasa moveable crew compartment which is most use-ful on the gun position and carries four UniversalLoad Containers of NATO Standard specifications,each of which holds seventeen rounds of ammuni-tion. The gun limber is a similar vehicle which hasno crew compartment but carries four containers.All the tractors and limber vehicles are fitted witha hydraulic crane for handling the containers, am-munition and the crew compartment.

accordance with the Anglo-US Agreement. Crewtraining and trials are now taking place; the onlyminor problem is, that laying is by theodolite dueto the great accuracy required: British layers aremore used to using normal dial sights. This missilehas also been purchased by Germany, Italy, Bel-gium and the Netherlands.

On the air defence stands the Rapier now in ope-rational service had pride of place. This has beenfound to be an excellent weapon, easy to controland robust in the field. It is towed by a Landroverand has a detachment of five men. When in action

The DS Lance guided missile, nowwith the Royal Artillery under trial,will replace the Honest John as Bri-tain's tactical nuclear weapon

Contrary to normal practice the guns and tractorsare undergoing trials at the same time, apparentlysuccessfully, except that some minor hydraulicproblems on the howitzer have yet to be ironedout.The 155 is a good example of a successful NATOenterprise; it will replace the World War II 5.5medium gun in the Royal Artillery hopefully inlate 1976 or early 1977.

The US Lance missile was also on show for thefirst time. This is replacing the Honest John whichis being phased out during the next year. The Brit-ish have purchased the whole system completewith the tracked SPL M 752 on which the missileis mounted. This vehicle has a range of 280 milesat 25 mph and can swim in inland waters at threeknots. The Lance has a liquid propellant and arange of up to ninety miles. The British have notpurchased any HE warheads and the nuclear war-heads remain under the custody of US units in

the radar in the fire unit searches a selected areand when a target is found it is automatically'challenged'. If the correct response is not receivedthe operator is warned by an alarm signal and thetracker slews onto the target. The operator laysthe visual sight onto the target and starts to track.He then fires the missile, a television system in thehead of the tracker automatically tracks the mis-sile making use of bright flares in the tail of themissile. Any error between the missile and thetarget is automatically transmitted to the computerwhich calculates the change required to bring themissile back onto the target and passes a com-mand guidance signal to the missile to effect this.The weight of the missile is 98 Ib (44.5 kg), thelauncher carries four and a further nine are towedbehind the limber Landrover.

The Rapier is built by the British Aircraft Cor-poration and is in service with the RAF, RoyalArtillery and the Imperial Iranian Army.

424

Members of 24 Trials Unit at theRoyal School of Artillery, Larkhill,operating the Blowpipe supersonicanti-aircraft system

The shoulder fired Blowpipe supersonic air de-fence guided missile, manufactured by Short Brosand Harland of Belfast, is also in unit service.Blowpipe weighs only 47 Ibs (21.3 kg) and is aslender tube 55 in (140 cm) long; the warhead isin the centre section, the proximity fuse in thenose tip and the forepart contains the guidanceequipment. The rocket motor is in the rear. Thenose forms a type of aircraft and the rear fins actas flight feathers. The missile is accelerated outof the launcher by the first stage booster, the se-cond stage then accelerates the missile to fullspeed after which it glides as a fully controlleddart. The operator guides it by means of an aiming

unit which contains a radio command unit. Theaimer simply keeps the target centred in his sightreticle and the missile follows the beam. The rangeis around 2 km.

Experience in the Middle-East and in Vietnam hasshown that the air defence machinegun still has aplace on the battlefield, both against helicoptersand low flying modern aircraft. To provide realist-ie practice for the gunners electronically control-led model aircraft are now being used by theArmy. These are made of glass fibre and resin andare easy to repair and cheap to produce; in facta great deal less expensive and far more realistic

Cymbeline counter mortar radar on atracked mounting

425

than the Standard drogues drawn by target aircraft.The aircraft are so scaled that at 300 m they pre-sent the same target as a f uil sized aircraft at 1000m; speed at this range is also proportionate as isthe rate of climb and of 'evasive action'. Afterengagements the targets can be landed alongsidethe practicing gunner which makes training moreinteresting and effective.

Radar FA No. 15 Mk 2, the Cymbeline MortarLocating Radars now in use by the Artillery, aredeployed one to each close support regiment inGermany. This very compact outfit is a great im-provement on the previous Green Archer. Cymbe-line has a range of location of up to 20 km with aspeed of location of 15 seconds. The accuracy is50 m at 8 kilometres on the bomb used by an 81mm mortar. The radar is mounted on a StandardAF 432 tracked chassis and carries its own smallgenerator although it can run from the vehicle'sbatteries in emergency. The position of the enemymortar is read directly in map co-ordinates. Thewhole equipment only weighs 1000 kg and thereis a towed model on its trailer which can be towedby a l ton vehicle. The mortar can also be usedfor adjusting the fire of friendly mortars, the ob-servation of ground bursts and for light aircraftcontrol.

A knowledge of what goes on 'behind the hill' isa continuing requirement in war. The Canadian-German-British developed Midge tactical, unman-ned aeriel surveillance drone system helps to solvethis problem. The profile of the drone's flight isgoverned by the information stored in its program-mer and there is no requirement for a ground con-trol system. The flight speed is 400 knots and therange 110 km; the drone can be programmed tochange its direction and altitude in flight and soallow it to operate at optimum heights for the vari-

AN/USD/501 Reconnaissance DroneMidge, a drone which the BritishArmy uses to carry a camera overenemy territory to photograph enemyactivity; it flies a pattern which hasbeen programmed before launch, andreturns to a pre-determined spotwhere its engine cuts and its para-chutes open to bring it gently to theground. Midge is operated by theRoyal Artillery

ous sensors, besides making it an elusive target.Recovery is achieved by means of a trailer mount-ed recovery beacon transmitter. The Midge is pro-grammed to return to the area of the launcher andat a pre-determined time the internal receiver,tuned to the recovery transmitter, is switched on.The beacon sends out two guidance beams and arecovery activation beam along the flight path.The drone homes on the beacon and at a suitabletime the turbojet engine is cut, a small parachutedrogue opens, immediately followed by a normalparachute which brings it to earth. Two inflatablebags open to soften the landing and the droneturns on its back to present the exposed film.The sensors carried include a Zeiss camera with aday and night capability which takes both verticaland oblique photos. There is also an Infra RedLine Scan (IRLS) system, which operates fromheat radiation from objects on the ground. In thisjoint enterprise the Germans developed the Zeisscameras, Hawker Siddely Dynamics in Britain theIRLS and De Havilland Canada the Midge droneaircraft and the launch and recovery equipment.The United States was associated with the earlydevelopment but dropped out of the project later.

During the afternoon display at Larkhill the RAFdemonstrated a new and spectacular method ofdelivering stores. A Hercules C 130 flew in, onlya few feet from the ground, and with its rear dooropened. When over the drop zone, a pilot para-chute was released which pulled out a cluster ofthree large parachutes which immediately openedalmost on the floor. These drew out three pallets,each carrying 10,000 Ibs of ammunition on typesof 'sledges'. These skimmed along the ground fora short distance before being brought to a halt bythe parachutes. The pallets, when in the C 130,are on rollers to permit easy movement by theparachutes. This method of delivery shows great

426

promise because it is accurate and requires fewerparachutes; moreover it is easy for the groundtroops to collect the stores dropped.The flexibility of modern artillery was demon-strated by the arrival of the guns by Puma helicop-ters, by air drop and by air landing as well as bynormal ground deployments of towed and trackedequipments. To veteran gunners the modern artil-lery man is very electronically and computer

minded, even the field artillery now all use theField Artillery Computers and it was interesting toread recently that members of the Royal Artillery,sent to help the Sultan of Oman's Artillery, hadto re-learn the old artillery board plotting methodsof fire control before flying out to Oman. How-ever,. the accuracy and speed of the modern Gun-ners during the fire power demonstration showedthat the Royal Regiment had not lost its touch!

427