Why do we still have Airborne Artillery?

[Music] marry [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back everyone it's me again Matt Smith's hope you havin a wonderful day hope you staying safe during these difficult times so as a artillery gun of myself as a reservist I have a strong passion obviously for the artery I love talking about it a lot of ER discussing its potential what it can do how it works and one thing that I get asked a lot is hey Matt why does the artillery still have the light gun why do we still use the light gun in an airborne capability it doesn't make any sense we have rocket artillery we have long-range artillery now we have self-propelled guns that can move again very quickly and it's an interesting conversation it's something I thought I would talk a bit a little bit about today because you know it get asked the question a lot and especially with you know the airborne world being extremely I guess interesting for certain members that are aspiring to be in the Armed Forces I thought I'd have a little chat so when we think of the airborne of course for the most part we think of the infantry popping out of planes and rightly so that's what they originally started to do during World War two and still continue to do this day you know at the end of the day the airborne is there to get into a position very quickly from the air whether it be by a parachute a helicopter you know and they are very effective at doing that a lot of us think of straight infantry when it comes to the airborne but the infantry is not the only attribute that the airborne can bring onto the battlefield of course the British Army actually has their own designated airborne parachute regiment for the artillery known as 7r or horse artillery and the American Airborne artillery units also have their own artillery that is airborne in the Canadian artillery we don't specifically have Canadian artillery airborne units but we have trained artillery airborne members and I really do have a strong fascination for this particular style of artillery warfare because it is going against a little bit how you think of artillery you think of artillery is something that sits in place behind the rear lines putting a few rounds downrange shoot and scoot and off it goes again but always behind the majority of the main battle group or behind the lines of the fighting force or the tip of the spear such as the infantry the armored Corps etc but with airborne artillery things are a little different in airborne artillery you're actually able to place very very heavy pieces of equipment such as the M triple 7 which we're looking at here being picked up by the beautiful Chinook helicopter and being placed technically in some instances behind enemy lines or extremely close to the enemy lines or ahead of the battle group themselves so that kind of changes the way in which we think a little bit about artillery why why do we need this though why is this a thing do they have any added benefit for being dropped in behind enemy lines or into a different environment that we're used to seeing from you know fixed emplacements behind the main battle group well yes there's many advantages but first we need to discuss what kind of artillery is available to the airborne units you know what is the piece that is going to provide the most amount of you know firepower but at the same instance be very quick and maneuverable as we're seeing right now with the M triple7 from these beautiful howitzers that are being picked up they are actually a heavy artillery piece 155 millimetres of long-range attack especially with the howitzers that can now fire the Excalibur round such as the M triple 7 you're extending your range quite substantially the problem with the M triple 7 is being it is such a heavy artillery piece is extremely difficult to then get back out of the area without having the helicopters pick them up again or having a vehicle tow them back out the same applies for the 105 mm meter gun however with the 105 millimeter it's a lot more applicable to be able to have them towed by a vehicle that can also be dropped by helicopter or by a plane with an M triple 7 normally you're going to need a lot larger of a vehicle to do so so they're a little less applicable for the sort of quick mobility strikes that you think of with the airborne the 105 millimeter guns of NATO that we standard use such as the C 3 house so that we have in the Canadian Army is more applicable for the light quick responsive actions that are needed from the airborne role the reason for this is is that they are very lightweight and therefore don't require huge heavy lift helicopters like this they're also quite easy to maneuver in the battlefield getting an M trouble 7 to be pushed into the wood line if something was to go wrong is extremely difficult and near impossible with a 105 millimeter gun with a small enough crew you could probably try and hide it quite quickly or push it into a more defensive position the airborne though really does need to use these artillery pieces in a very strategic and safe manner using assets like this are very very carefully placed and they cannot just be put in the middle of nowhere for the most part though artillery as basic doctrine goes is gonna get put in a position where it is protected from all sides however there's going to be environments such as the mountains where you don't have that capability you need to put it into a more isolated environment this was used in many times especially in Afghanistan when I was deployed there in 2008 there's actually a light gun emplacement that was placed on top of a mountain known as Kajaki dam where they could actually fire rounds from distance and protect the troops on the ground unfortunately though that emplacement wasn't placed upon in airborne configuration but was still very easily to pull back out if needs be the troops and the gun could be picked up quite quickly and moved to another location with self-propelled artillery such as the as-90 or the M 109 you either have to drive it out there or leave it there it's going to be near impossible to pull such a heavy vehicle out of that environment one of the other key attributes of being able to have an airborne artillery unit is resupply you can only put so many rounds downrange before you need more ammunition with a resupply from a heavy helicopter or a large aircraft such as the c-17 that you've seen right now supplies can continuously resupply out Surrey units very quickly logistically trying to get ammunition via trucks is a dangerous endeavor if you had an implant of a battery put in place then you would have to have vehicles that could supply it with an airborne artillery role the artillery can be dropped into a position and very quickly resupplied from the same airborne mode that actually got there from the infantry applies to the same principle though the infantry need to support the artillery they can be protected very quickly by being dropped around them to protect their flanks the light artillery roll though is difficult because of the fact that the gun itself really was never designed to be dropped out of an aeroplane it was still designed to be towed I can see the future of artillery changing in the airborne role the reason for this is I think we're going to start seeing artillery pieces that are a lot more lightweight such as the 105 millimeter gun but placed on a self-propelled howitzer that is able to be dropped out of a plane currently there are no true capabilities that this works very well for and that's why we're relying upon the like and the M triple sevens to be used in an airborne configuration however I do see in the future that this changes substantially because of the fact that the guns cannot be moved again really once they're in position it's hard enough to move these things when you're just trying to traverse or lay them into the gun position and move them around it would be even more difficult to try and pull them back out again without some sort of vehicle being able to maintain that dynamic movement that you need if you want to change positions because the artillery needs to shoot and scoop for the most part you don't want to stay in the same position for too long airborne artillery gives you a little bit more of an added value because it would be a surprise artillery attack most of the attacks that would be given from an artillery standpoint with the airborne would be pushed into positions where the enemy won't really expecting you to be because you came in on the helicopter or from a aircraft this gives a benefit of surprise you know okay all of a sudden I now have an artillery position that's been formed up on my flank that I was not expecting that got dropped in and pulled back out again very quickly the great thing with the airborne artillery too is you don't have to take so much time dismantling and resetting up as you can see right now the troops are taking a little bit of time to put this gun in place and I'm telling you now that these Gunners are going to be extremely tired they did this you know several times a day with just a vehicle but with a helicopter it's a little bit easier you know the vehicle doesn't have to be unloaded isn't have to be bombed back up the helicopter hooks up and off she goes the great thing also with the helicopter is it gives the ability for the troops to see the ground before they actually get there in the artillery we tend to use what's called recce which is our wrecking units that see what the gun position on the battery position is going to look like with an airborne roll we're actually gonna be able to see the ground we're gonna land on via mission maps or whatever else aerial photos before getting into position which allows us to see a lot more of an understanding of what we're about to go into unfortunately from a land-based artillery roll sometimes that's not the case especially with self-empowered howitzers they tend to drive into a position rather quickly get the coordinates that are given to put guns on position and then fire move again that can be quite volatile and if there's armor around the area or there's infantry that have anti-tank weapons it's quite easy for you to be a potential threat but the same applies for the airborne though I mean you can see in terms of troops actually coming in on parachutes it's extremely risky from a ground threat to being gauged from because anti-aircraft weapons are very very sophisticated nowadays and unfortunately absolutely terrifying if you're a parachutist in the real world combat environment but that's why I think helicopters really is the way to go picking up artillery pieces quickly dropping them off putting a few fire missions down and having the helicopters pick you back up again unfortunately though I really do feel like that's not the way it's going to go I think in the future as I said before it will be the vehicles that our artillery pieces will be dropped off via the air but will then be self-sufficient from that position onwards so basically you have your vehicle it's a self-propelled gun you lock into position you do your fire mission and then you move again so almost like an airborne self-propelled howitzer I think that would be a really interesting dynamic because it kind of combines two very effective pieces of artillery warfare mobile shoot and scoot and airborne pinpoint strategic drop ins which allow you to get a bit of an advantage on the enemy so for those of you who continually say map the light gun is useless there's no requirement for the light gun anymore we've got these big old long-range artillery pieces they can find missiles from miles and miles away it's useless I would beg to differ I personally have a huge respect and fascination for the airborne and the airborne artillery in general when I was in the British Army always and really really wanted to give you know P company a try unfortunately being an a mech or almond mechanic in the British Army I was never given priority of course is for doing my P Company which I would have loved to have tried to do the beam X tend to get it or the wheeled mechanics that makes sense you know tends to not be super productive or beneficial to the army having a tank mechanics trained to be airborne but there was a few people who I knew got it but for me I would love to try airborne artillery just to see how things change the way in which you operate changes you know I'm used to having the c3 towed by the truck the MSBs still a quick fast-paced environment but with the airborne artillery I can see that just being a whole new different level of extreme you know the way in which you kind of isolated you don't have anyone else really come and support you unless that helicopters coming back or unless you're technically getting vehicles to come pick you up you're in that position that's what you have and that's what you got to do protect the guns create your fire missions defend your position support by indirect fire the troops on the ground and hopefully get pulled back out again and that to me is a fascinating dynamic on which the artillery works a little bit differently to what I'm used to thinking off with big heavy duty vehicles and such so you know a lot of people have been asking me this question now you can understand as to why I have a respect for airborne artillery and why I think it's here to stay I do feel like it's gonna change a little bit in the future in the way in which the actual weapon systems are used the light guns may be something that we may not see you know in the long-term future I hope we do because I love the light guns i currently operate on the c3 how it's a 105 millimeter and I have loved the gun to pieces so you know some of you may also operate and like guns another fond respect for them and for those of you work on the triple sevens as the heavy guns I mean you're using them as an artillery role for the airborne as well so good for you so thank you all for joining me today folks I hope you enjoyed the video please leave me your comments and if you did enjoy the video leave me a like I would strongly encourage you to click the little bell by the subscribe button so you can be notified of any upcoming content in the future staying within my Lane if there's anything that you don't agree with here the remember this is just my own opinion not that of you know the Canadian Forces or anything like that it's just a little bit of a tidbit of my own appreciation and respect for airborne artillery and how I feel like it's still very viable in in the modern battlefield and for those of you are serving in the airborne artillery thank you for what you do and those fellow Gunners out there thank you for what you do too we're one big family and I have a huge huge respect for the artillery in general if you did enjoyed today's video and you want to support my channel you can go check out my patreon page in the description box below and thank you to everyone who has been contributing towards that page I really cannot thank you enough for your donations towards my page and my channel it means a lot to me hopefully I'll see you on the next video folks take care all the best bye bye [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 37,137

Rating: 4.9560437 out of 5

Keywords: artillery, airborne, howitzer, gunner, army, parachute, airborne forces, special forces, paratroopers, military, helicopter, M777, 105mm

Id: irne_DctpxQ

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020