Soldiers with the Virginia National Guard recently conducted the Army’s first riverine artillery live-fire exercise since the Vietnam era, according to a service news release. The soldiers, assigned to 1st Battalion, 111th Field Artillery Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, out of Norfolk, conducted the exercise as part of Operation Gator April 24-25 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. An M119A3 howitzer and two Humvees were loaded onto mechanized landing craft and traveled up the Intracoastal Waterway to the designated fire point, demonstrating the gun’s ability to maintain persistent tracking of GPS location and direction under those conditions. The soldiers had to account for recoil and turbulence as they fired the howitzer from the boat. The exercise helped the Army prove that the decades-old concept will still work today. Read more at Army.mil.
Army Conducts Historic Artillery Exercise
