Performance through lighter weight applies not only to sports cars but also to expeditionary warfare. Due to the massive use of titanium, this M777 howitzer is now half the weight of its predecessor.


While the 8-ton M198 howitzer, the field gun the M777 is currently replacing, was also light enough to sling under a Chinook or a Super Stallion, the M777 weighs a mere 7,000 pounds. Military equipment is not known for its lightness, but with modern wars increasingly fought in fluid front lines on very rough terrain, the weight of equipment can no longer be ignored. Hence the use of titanium—used forty years ago in high-speed spy planes—in a field gun.


A 155 mm field gun which fires GPS-guided shells, accurate to 25 miles. Tell that to Siegfried Sassoon.

Photo Credit: Larry Zou, Spc. Evan D. Marcy, 55th Signal Company