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Hello all you military-savvy folks out there! In my ignorance, I have a simple question for your expertise: What distinguishes a tank from a self-propelled howitzer? Thanks for your insights--please redirect follow-ups as necessary. Dave! (22 years ago, 20-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) From what I know (as a guy that used to ride in those howitzers :), tanks are much more heavily armored, faster, and can shoot while in motion. In contrast, howitzers have very light armor, and have to be "deployed" in order to fire - they (...) (22 years ago, 20-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) Yes indeed! I've been looking at pictures of armor, and I couldn't figure out the specific differences, though I'd noticed the greater range of howitzers. Some of them are just downright scary, shooting over the horizon and whatnot. Thanks for (...) (22 years ago, 20-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) I am no expert, other than what I have seen on the History Channel, but I think it should be clarified that not all tanks can fire while in motion. That was one of the advantages of the M1 Abrams during the first Gulf War. With it's high-tech (...) (22 years ago, 20-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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So, what's the difference between a "Howitzer" and a conventional artillery piece? Andrew. (22 years ago, 21-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) Ultimately, isn't the difference between a tank and a self propelled gun that a tank has a turret? (22 years ago, 22-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) Not quite. A self-propelled gun is a gun, an artillery piece. Self-propelled artillery has very little armor. Usually just enough to protect the operaters from small arms fire. The gun is meant to be fired at great distances, generally over (...) (22 years ago, 22-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) Artillery can be divided in to three groups (see note on calibers below): Cannons/Guns Have a barrel length of at least 20 calibers, but usually more than 30 calibers. Cannons have a maximum elevation of 45º. The longer barrels make the (...) (22 years ago, 22-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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(...) um, no, I believe you are mistaken. The m109 (which is the howitzer I'm familiar with) had a turret. And that's because, usually, in the same position, you will be tasked with quite a few fire missions - on different targets. So you have to (...) (22 years ago, 22-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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Hi- Dan references an excellent website with information about military hardware: The Federation of American Scientists: www.fas.org The link to the page about Land Weapons Systems has a good discussion of Direct and Indirect weapons: (URL) it up, (...) (21 years ago, 26-Mar-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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| | Re: A really simple technical question
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Not sure. But perhaps the nature of it's primary purpose beign indirect fire (self-propelled howitzer) rather than direct fire (tank)? I believe that both type often have some ability in either role... but it is not the designed purpose. This is (...) (21 years ago, 12-Apr-03, to lugnet.build.military)
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