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The U.S. Marine Corps has begun shipping the new, lightweight M777 howitzer to Iraq, marking the first U.S. combat deployment of this weapon.
Designed to be transported beneath a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft or a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, and to be carried aboard U.S. Navy ships, the M777 is intended for a mobile expeditionary force that needs to deploy quickly and move around the battlefield. The new M-777 155 mm lightweight howitzer, with its lighter titanium design and advanced on-board computer technologies, is set to replace the M-198 155 mm howitzer currently used by both the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army in the coming years. The gun brings improved firepower at roughly one-half the weight of the 15,000-pound, 36-foot-long M198 howitzer. In addition, the M777 has a digital firing system, inertial navigation and SINCGARS radios.

Despite the fact the M777 is 7000 pounds lighter than the M198 that it's replacing, it fires the same 155 mm projectile cannon. So its range is the same and it is shoots standard NATO 155 munitions. The M777 can be operated by a crew of 10, but in war situations that number can be reduced to five. The howitzer can fire its 39-caliber rounds nearly 19 miles at a maximum rate of five rounds per minute with a new primer-loading system.

Another advantage of the M-777 is the digitization of hundreds of pages of paper manuals that are used for modifications, troubleshooting and operations. All of which can be downloaded to a rugged laptop and deployed with artillerymen in the field.

First delivered in 2005 to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, in Twentynine Palms, Calif., the M777 is serving both Army and Marine Corps units. Testing for systems, tolerances and design had been conducted over the past few years at Twentynine Palms , at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Ariz., at the Aberdeen Test Center, in Maryland — and at Fort Greeley, Alaska, for cold-weather testing. The M777 is manufactured by BAE Systems.