M109A6 Paladin: U.S. Army’s Heavy Hitter Joins the Fight in Ukraine

the Ukrainian War demonstrated onceagain that the days of artillery havenot passedamong the artillery batteries sent fromthe West to assist Ukraine are a varietyof models both new and oldanalysts believe Western democracieshave provided Ukraine with around 50m109s which is likely more than anyother 150 millimeter Nato standardself-propelled gun provided to Ukraineto datebut America's humble M109 Howitzer isn'tgetting the attention it deserves inthis war this old and reliable systemcontinues to show a stable performanceunder difficult conditions its reliableperformance Under Fire made this weaponindispensablethis is military mechanics and in thisepisode we are going to talk about M109A6 Paladinon January the 6th 2023 the UnitedStates Department of Defense announced anew military aid package for Ukraine andfor the first time the U.S will providethe Ukrainian army with 18M109 A6 Paladin 155 millimeter trackedself-propelled howitzers which areadvanced modern versions of the olderunits already fighting in Ukraine theM109 A6 Paladin is a further upgrade ofthe M109 self-propelled Howitzer whichwas introduced in the early 1960s thefirst production of a109 A6 systems wascompleted in April 1992 and entered intoservice with the U.S Army in 1999.them109a6 is designed similarly to theprevious M109 with the driver seated inthe front left side of the hull thepower pack to its right and the turretto the rear the commander Gunnerammunition loader and driver make up thecrew of the artillery vehiclethe whole and turrets are constructedentirely of welded aluminum Harmony butthe m109a6 has a new turret withimproved armor and Kevlar ballisticliningthe M109 A6 Paladin is armed with one155 millimeter 39 caliber m284 Cannonfitted with an m185 gun mount which hasmany improvements including a reinforcedmuzzle brake Advanced bore evacuator aredesigned chamber and an added m49firing mechanism the 155 millimeter gunof the m109a6 Paladin has a maximumfiring range of 14.9 miles with standardartillery ammunition and 18.6 Milesusing assisted rounds the vehiclecarries a total of 39 rounds it can alsofire Excalibur GPS guided artilleryammunition with a maximum firing rangeof24.9 Milessome of the US Army M109 A6 paladinswere fitted with modified Haitian kidsfire m982 Excalibur extended rangePrecision guided projectiles theExcalibur is GPS guided and has amaximum range of 40 kilometersthe Paladin can stop and fire the firstround in under 60 seconds briefredeployment time avoids counter batteryfire and gives shoot and Scootcapability secondary Armament consistsof a roof mounted 12.7 millimeter heavymachine gun some Vehicles were fittedwith 40 millimeter automatic grenadelauncher in place of the machine gunthe M109 A6 Paladin is supported by them992 ammunition Supply vehicleit can carry a maximum of 93 rounds andtransfer them to the self-propelledHowitzer via conveyor thisself-propelled Howitzer is powered by addec8v71t two-cycle diesel engine developing440 horsepower at 2 300 RPM it can runat a maximum road speed of 39.7 milesper hour with a maximum cruising rangeof213.7 milesafter serving in conflicts throughoutthe world and with hundreds available asnear Surplus items the M109 remains astrong candidate to backstop FutureUkrainian offensives and dominate theUkrainian Battlefield after the war