U.S. Army Soldiers conduct a direct fire exercise with M109A6 Paladin howitzers at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany. The units are assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
The Paladin artillery system is operated by a crew of four, a commander, driver, gunner and loader. Paladin is able to operate independently with no external technical assistance. The crew are able to receive mission data via a secure voice and digital communications system, compute the firing data, automatically unlock the cannon from the travel lock, point the cannon and fire, and move to a new location without external technical assistance. Paladin M109A6 fires the first round from the move in under 60 seconds. The ‘shoot and scoot’ capability protects the crew from counterbattery fire.
