Artillery are ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantryfirearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillerycannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
Originally, the word "artillery" referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannon, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, and mortars (collectively called barrel artillery, cannon artillery or gun artillery) and rocket artillery. In common speech, the word "artillery" is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly called "equipment". However, there is no generally recognized generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: the United States uses "artillery piece", but most English-speaking armies use "gun" and "mortar". The projectiles fired are typically either "shot" (if solid) or "shell" (if not solid). Historically, variants of solid shot including canister, chain shot and grapeshot were also used. "Shell" is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions.
By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines. In some armies, the artillery arm has operated field, coastal, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank artillery; in others these have been separate arms, and with some nations coastal has been a naval or marine responsibility.
In the 20th century, target acquisition devices (such as radar) and techniques (such as sound ranging and flash spotting) emerged, primarily for artillery. These are usually utilized by one or more of the artillery arms. The widespread adoption of indirect fire in the early 20th century introduced the need for specialist data for field artillery, notably survey and meteorological, and in some armies, provision of these are the responsibility of the artillery arm. The majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery.[1] In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was "the god of war".[1]
The word as used in the current context originated in the Middle Ages. One suggestion is that it comes from French atelier, meaning the place where manual work is done.
Another suggestion is that it originates from the 13th century and the Old Frenchartillier, designating craftsmen and manufacturers of all materials and warfare equipments (spears, swords, armor, war machines); and, for the next 250 years, the sense of the word "artillery" covered all forms of military weapons. Hence, the naming of the Honourable Artillery Company, which was essentially an infantry unit until the 19th century.
Another suggestion is that it comes from the Italian arte de tirare (art of shooting), coined by one of the first theorists on the use of artillery, Niccolò Tartaglia.
Target acquisition: detect, identify and deduce the location of targets;
Control: authority to decide which targets to attack and allot fire units to the attack;
Computation of firing data – to deliver fire from a fire unit onto its target;
Fire units: guns, launchers or mortars grouped together;
Specialist services: produce data to support the production of accurate firing data;
Logistic services: to provide combat supplies, particularly ammunition, and equipment support.
: The oldest type of artillery with direct firing trajectory.
Cannon
: A type of a large calibre, muzzle-loading artillery piece, a cannon or mortar used during sieges to shoot round stone projectiles at the walls of enemy fortifications.
Bombard
was a type of light cannon developed in the late 15th century that fired a smaller shot than the similar falcon.
Falconet
is a type of small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Camel mounted swivel guns called as zamburak were used by the Gunpowder Empires as self-propelled artillery.
Swivel gun
is a gun with multiple single-shot barrels that volley fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Although capable of unleashing intense firepower, volley guns differ from modern machine guns in that they lack autoloading and automatic fire mechanisms
Volley gun
Siege artillery
Large-calibre artillery
Field artillery
Infantry support guns
: Large-caliber weapons that are mounted on, transported by and fired from specially-designed railway wagons.
Naval cannon, early 19th century
Railway gun
: Guns mounted on warships to be used either against other naval vessels or to bombard coastal targets in support of ground forces. The crowning achievement of naval artillery was the battleship, but the advent of air power and missiles have rendered this type of artillery largely obsolete. They are typically longer-barreled, low-trajectory, high-velocity weapons designed primarily for a direct-fire role.
Naval artillery
: Fixed-position weapons dedicated to defense of a particular location, usually a coast (for example, the Atlantic Wall in World War II) or harbor. Not needing to be mobile, coastal artillery used to be much larger than equivalent field artillery pieces, giving them longer range and more destructive power. Modern coastal artillery (for example, Russia's "Bereg" system) is often self-propelled, (allowing it to avoid counter-battery fire) and fully integrated, meaning that each battery has all of the support systems that it requires (maintenance, targeting radar, etc.) organic to its unit.
Coastal artillery
: Large-caliber guns mounted on attack aircraft, this is typically found on slow-flying gunships.
: delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the enemy's fire support system.
Counterbattery fire
Counterpreparation fire: intensive prearranged fire delivered when the imminence of the enemy attack is discovered.
Covering fire: used to protect troops when they are within range of enemy small arms.
Defensive fire: delivered by supporting units to assist and protect a unit engaged in a defensive action.
Final Protective Fire: an immediately available prearranged barrier of fire designed to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas.
: a random number of shells are fired at random intervals, without any pattern to it that the enemy can predict. This process is designed to hinder enemy forces' movement, and, by the constantly imposed stress, threat of losses and inability of enemy forces to relax or sleep, lowers their morale.
Harassing fire
Interdiction fire: placed on an area or point to prevent the enemy from using the area or point.
Preparation fire: delivered before an attack to weaken the enemy position.
Browne, J.P.R.; Thurbon, M T (1998). Electronic Warfare. Brassey's air power, v. 4. London: Brassey's. 978-1-85753-133-6. OCLC38292289.
ISBN
Hackett, James, ed. (2010), The Military Balance, The International Institute for Strategic Studies
Schmidtchen, Volker (1977). "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit" [Giant cannon of the 15th century: technical masterpieces of their era]. Technikgeschichte (in German). 44 (2): 153–73 (162–64). 85351643.
OCLC
Interavia. 32. International Aeronautic Federation: 262. January–June 1977. 0020-5168. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
ISSN
Hogg, Oliver Frederick Gillilan (1970). Artillery: Its Origin, Heyday and Decline. London: C. Hurst. 978-0-900966-43-9. OCLC99454.
ISBN
Bailey, J.B.A. (2004). Field Artillery and Firepower. AUSA Institute of Land Warfare book. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 978-1-59114-029-0. OCLC51931033.
