Alpha "Gators", 1-319th AFAR (@82ndABNDiv artillery) testing the "Hawkeye", 105mm mounted in a Humvee pic.twitter.com/PTukjaknxO— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) August 5, 2018
— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) August 5, 2018
The above tweets show the 82nd Airborne testing the new Hawkeye Howitzer system. It is a 105mm mounted onto a Humvee with is pretty cool. The weapon system is new and experimental and might not be adopted.
Doing so would obviously increase the mobility of artillery units and allow more mobile units to bring artillery support with them. The system looks like it is a bit easier to set up as well and should be pretty quick to use.
The system does come with an obvious cost. The rate of fire is cut in half from more conventional Howitzers as it can only shoot 3 rounds a minute compared to the 6 rounds for a regular howitzer. I am not sure why but it seems likely that the fire rate is slowed down by the fact that the soldiers have to climb onto the Humvee to actually load the weapon.
I don't see this system replacing traditional Howitzers. Instead I see it as a complement to them and could serve in specialized roles in more mobile units. I think that the disadvantage in fire rate is something that isn't worth full replacement for. Having that extra firepower is a huge deal for units under fire so I think this will be more of a supplemental system.
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