From here: The U.S. will provide Ukraine ‘18 155 mm Howitzer cannons.’
What kind? They made like 10,000 M114 howitzers between 1941 and 1953. Some of them are still being used somewhere. Probably not them though, as 18 of them isn’t a lot. M198? They were being used by the U.S. at least through the Gulf War. Since they’ve been replaced, do we have some lying about to give away? The newest, and what the U.S. currently uses, is the M777. Are we giving any of those?
I don’t think that particular info has made it into press reports. I would speculate that it would be something from US stockpiles, as you have.
Although the Ukrainians were apparently shopping for some fairly spiffy new Slovak 155mm self-propelled howitzers.
(Sorry if you have to do a dumb CAPTCHA. It is apparently a Ukrainian news site so probably has to take some defensive measures against Russian interference.)
M777 most likely. It’s the default towed 155mm lightweight howitzer for the Army and Marine Corps.
This from AP News
(…)
The howitzers the U.S. is sending to Ukraine will be the latest American model, known as the M777, used by the Army and the Marine Corps. Smaller and more maneuverable than the older model, the M777 can be deployed on the battlefield by heavy-lift helicopters and moved relatively quickly between positions by seven-ton trucks that also are being provided by the Pentagon.
(…)
The story says these 72 howitzers are in addition to the 18 previously reported.
The U.S. is also apparently gifting some HIMARS rocket artillery to Ukraine too, which are even more devastating than the M777, but are not howitzers.
HIMARS is much more shoot-and-scoot friendly than emplaced towed guns. As Ukrainian battery fire begins to take a toll, it’s going to attract Russian counterbattery action. It’s better to unass the area before Ivan can return fire.
I can’t recall who said it or how exactly they phrased it, but it was something to the effect that artillery pieces are just the delivery system, what’s usually more important is the supply of shells available, and the two shipments with 90 US M777 has included 184,000 rounds, more than 2,000 per gun.
Canada has reportedly sent 4 of their own M777s, the Czech Republic an unknown quantity of DANA 152mm SP guns, France CAESAR 155mm SP guns, the UK 20 AS-90 155mm SP guns with 45,000 shells, Poland 20 2S1 122mm SP guns, the Netherlands some PzH 2000 155mm SP guns, and Italy is looking to send M109L and PzH 2000 155mm SP guns. The PzH 2000s are particularly useful since they have an L52 gun that gives a range of 40km with base bleed ammunition and 67km with Rocket Assisted Projectiles.
Germany -or rather Olaf Scholz - is refusing to supply any of their own PzH 2000s. I couldn’t understand the Ukrainian snub in telling Olaf Scholz that he wasn’t welcome to visit Kiev at the time, but it makes a lot more sense now. Fuck that guy.