M119 Howitzer as part of a training exercise conducted near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, September 17, 2004
The howitzer was designed and produced by the British Royal Ordnance Factories as the L118 light gun. In the L118 configuration, the 105 mm ammunition is cased separate loading ammunition. The L118 entered service with the British Army in 1976 and is used by parachute and commandofield artillery regiments. It saw combat during the Falklands War, where the 30 guns in action fired up to 400 rounds per gun per day, mostly at "charge super"—i.e., the most powerful propellant charge available.
In 1987 an agreement was reached to produce the L119 under license by the US as the M119, to replace the M102 howitzer. It entered service with the 7th Infantry Division, Fort Ord, California, in December 1989. Some improvements were made to produce the M119A1, expanding upon its extreme low temperate envelope from −22 to −49 °F (−30 to −45 °C), therefore improving both maintainability and reliability. The Army renewed contracts for the M119 to be produced by the Rock Island Arsenal-Joint Manufacturing & Technology Center (RIA-JMTC) at Rock Island, Illinois, into the year 2013. The M20A1 cannon assembly for the M119 was manufactured by US Army Watervliet Arsenal.[4]
In April 2009, the M119A2 howitzer was being fielded by the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division to provide better support in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was the only brigade in the division equipped with it, as the other three brigades were Armored Brigade Combat Teams, and therefore equipped with the M109A6 Paladin.
105mm howitzer being fired by A Battery, 2-218th Field Artillery of Oregon
Alpha Battery of the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division received their first upgraded M119A3 howitzers in July 2013, and became the first unit to operate it in theater when they were deployed to northeast Afghanistan in early February 2014. The digitally upgraded M119A3 includes software and hardware component upgrades, GPS for navigation, a digital gunner's display, and digital communication between each gun and the fire direction center to speed up the process of receiving firing data and firing shells. Firing platoons were also equipped with larger, also digital M777A2 howitzers, and the M119A3 was more admired for being faster, lighter, and easier to change azimuth of fire. The A3-model retains manual capabilities of the A2-model, so occasions where digital capabilities were lost allowed crews to easily transition back to the analogue mode of operation and continue their missions.[5]
Project Manager for Towed Artillery Systems (PM TAS) has developed several upgrades for the M119A3 including digital fire control, increased low temperature capability from −25 to −51 °F (−32 to −46 °C), and the M20 breech. The recoil system is also being upgraded, as the legacy system had reliability issues with the recuperator, buffer, and variable recoil linkage (which sets recoil length based on elevation); it had a lot of moving parts needing constant maintenance and adjustment during operations with high replacement rates of spares that are complex to manufacture and require specialized tooling to assemble, increasing costs and causing availability problems. The redesigned system operates the same, but modifies and simplifies some components, including a new buffer and recuperator with a majority of the components removed, and adds the Suspension Lockout System (SLOS) that fixes recoil length at 25 in (64 cm), which removes variable-recoil hardware, reduces stress on the carriage, and lowers buffer rod forces; the new system reduces cost, the system consists of 124 parts and the redesign will reduce that number by 40 percent to 75 parts and reusing 47 parts will consist of 65 percent for the current system, therefore only needing to manufacturing 28 new parts with overall weight savings of 45 lb (20 kg).[6]
Ammunition
M119 ammo in the Iraq War (M1 projectiles with point detonating and variable time fuzes)Soldiers with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light) position an M119A1 howitzer near Forward Operating Base Cobra, Afghanistan, 23 October 2004.
The M119 fires standard NATO semi-fixed ammunition:[7]
M1130A1 (HE PFF BB) – High Explosive Pre-Formed Fragments Base Bleed projectile, range 17.0 km (10.6 mi)[8]
The M119 also fires the M395 blank cartridge, which is used for burials, retreat ceremonies, and VIP Salutes as well as to simulate battlefield noise used for training exercises.
Variants
M119 – original copy of the L119
M119A1 – minor improvements, including fire control and maintenance
M119A2 – improved sight package consisting of telescope (M90A3) or panoramic telescope (M137A2)
M119A3 – modernized version with digital fire control system and an inertial navigation system for self location; entered service in April 2013 with A Battery 3/319th Field Artillery at Fort Bragg, NC[9][10][11]
