The artillery of the US Army is inferior in combat capabilities to similar weapons of Russia and China. Calculations for the support of infantry and marines only by aircraft and helicopters, taking into account the development of air defense systems, did not come true.
According to experts of the 19FortyFive portal, after the end of World War II, the American army mainly fought with partisans, and therefore the development of the Air Force, including army aviation, was given priority.
After the end of the Cold War, the number of artillery units in the US Army and National Guard decreased. In 1989 there were 218 battalions, in 1999 - 141.
"During the Iraq War in 2003, well-trained artillery crews were used as infantry," writes expert Michael Peck, and as a result, "the American 'God of War' grew clay feet."
At the same time, in Russia, barrel artillery and multiple launch rocket systems were improved and modernized.
"As of 2017, the Russian army has made significant progress in the development of artillery. The key capabilities of the Russian artillery include long-range multiple launch rocket systems, such as the BM-30 Smerch, which can fire missiles with a wide variety of warheads at a distance of up to 90 kilometers," the specialist notes.
American analogues, as the expert notes, are significantly inferior in the range of hitting targets of Russian artillery.
It should be noted that after the modernization, the firing range of 300-mm Smercha missiles increased to 120 kilometers. The BM-30 installation can also fire rockets to destroy armored vehicles, anti-tank mining of terrain and shells with a thermobaric warhead.
Nikolay Grishchenko
