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Shooting things you can see is hard enough. Shooting things you can't see based on directions someone being shot at is giving you over a staticky radio is even harder. But a digital addition to the Army's most nimble of artillery pieces is making the job of delivering explosive packages accurately and on time a lot easier.
Over the past two years, the US Army has been applying technology that was once the province of submarines and strategic bombers to a piece of weaponry with a somewhat more humble history: light field artillery. The M119 howitzer, the modern descendant of the towed cannons that have been used to lob shells at enemies since the Middle Ages, has been upgraded with a digital inertial navigation system that makes it possible for a gun crew to set it up within minutes and start firing in support of soldiers in the field.
The M119, technically speaking, is a "gun-howitzer"—a cannon that can be used both for direct fire (aimed at the target with an optical sight or radar) and indirect fire aimed based on positions provided by a spotter. Howitzers were originally guns with shorter barrels relative to their shell caliber that were used to lob shells in a high arc, at greater distances than the even shorter-barreled mortar.
Based on a design originally licensed from the UK's Royal Ordnance, the M119 fires a standard NATO 105 millimeter shell, firing up to eight rounds per minute in bursts at ranges of up to 8.5 miles. It can be delivered by helicopter or parachute—giving airborne and light infantry brigade combat teams a way to get artillery in place quickly nearly anywhere.
But until recently, that lighter weight and better mobility came without the sort of digital fire control system used by bigger guns (such as the nearly twice as heavy M777 "light towed howitzer" or the self-propelled M109A6 Paladin). The new digital system includes both GPS location and inertial navigation for use in environments where GPS may be jammed, as well as a digital display and communications system for the gunner and gun crew. The old analog systems are still in place, so gun crews can go manual in the event of a failure.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/video/2015...-gets-a-demo-of-digitally-enhanced-artillery/
