We’re now into the fourth month of the war in Ukraine. The Russians believed they could end it in a few days, then, as the tables began to turn, everybody was hoping for a diplomatic solution quite rapidly.
As it stands, the war is far from over. With most of the Russian forces now concentrated in the eastern part of Ukraine, the region is seeing intense combat, with all the hardware two modern armies have at their disposal thrown into the fight.
In the early days of the war, as the Western world was still trying to get its bearings, most of that hardware used (with a few notable exceptions) was Russian- or Soviet-made, as both nations fielded pretty much the same weapons.
That changed over the past month or so, after the West decided to risk things a bit by sending offensive weapons to the Ukrainians, weapons made anywhere but in Russia. On that list of weapons, the M777 howitzer.
That would be a towed artillery piece, manufactured by BAE Systems since 2005, that is capable of firing 155 mm shells at distances of about 13 miles (21 km). Recently arrived on Ukrainian front lines, these big guns are already in use.
But how did they get there? Well, we all know the answer to that (mostly by air), but until last week we lacked the image of how these howitzers fit inside an airplane. That’s when the U.S. Air Force (USAF) released a pic showing the guns being loaded inside a C-17 Globemaster III.
Now, USAF normally releases images of its personnel and hardware in action, but this is the first time it has released something directly related to the war in Ukraine.
Sure, the military branch does not directly say that, stating instead that the weapons systems are “part of the security assistance the U.S. is providing for wartime operations in Eastern Europe.”
These howitzers were loaded onto the plane belonging to the 452nd Air Mobility Wing at March Air Reserve Base in California at the end of April. They were not flown directly to Ukraine, of course, but had to be shipped there, through some other means, from neighboring countries.
And to answer the question that brought us here, well, that’s a bit unclear. USAF doesn’t say how many howitzers fit inside the plane, but does show another photo of at least eight guns lined up on the flightline, before being loaded onto a single Globemaster III.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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