MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- First Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment is replacing its old M-198 howitzers with new M-777 Lightweight howitzers beginning this year as part of a Marine Corps wide artillery upgrade.
The new howitzer is a large improvement over the previous howitzers for a number of reasons. It’s roughly 5,000 pounds lighter, enabling an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to transport it.
“The whole reason they designed it was to fit in an Osprey,” said Sgt. Alan Simmons, section chief, Charlie Battery, 1/12. “It’s also more efficient; you need half as many Marines to operate it and with all the technology for it you’ll be able to eliminate the [fire direction center.]”
The Marines operating it here are excited to learn how to operate the new weapon and are looking forward to firing it.
“It’s exciting and I can’t wait to use it,” said Pfc. Eric Eisenreich, recorder, Charlie Battery, 1/12. “It’s going to be a lot of hard work learning how to use it and getting used to it, but we’re all eager to learn. We’re used to the [old] weapons but we’re ready for a change. The weapons were so old that we encountered a lot of problems and had to cease training because of firing problems, so instead of six howitzers, we’d only have five and we’d be less effective.”
The new howitzers are scheduled to replace all the old M-198s by 2010.
“We’re looking forward to replacing them. They were becoming outdated and with the new ones we’ll be able to use some of the more advanced ammunition like the Excalibur precision-guided projectile,” Simmons said.
The M-777 also features a new digital fire control system, allowing cannoneers to receive coordinates directly and further aid precision using a global positioning system, Simmons said.
“The gun is also very mobile; it’ll only take a few minutes to set it up and start firing on a requested location, and that’s a big difference,” Simmons said.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii is one of the last bases in the Marine Corps to receive the new weapons, said Maj. Omar Sanchez, executive officer, 1/12.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Sanchez said. “The rest of the Marine Corps has already started receiving them, and we’re ready to start training on them. We have a lot of leadership that has had experience with them and a lot of cannoneers have already started training with them at Fort Sill [Oklahoma].”
1/12 Marines are familiarizing themselves with the M-777 for their first live fire training in February to ultimately be as effective as possible on their next combat deployment with the new howitzers.