Artillery

Artillery is a class of large military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry’s small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach fortifications, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an army’s total firepower.

A 155 mm artillery shell hurtles out of the barrel of a 11th Marine Regiment M-198 howitzer during a live fire exercise in the United Arab Emirates.

Artillery originated for use against ground targets—against infantry, cavalry and other artillery. An early specialist development was coast artillery for use against enemy ships. The early 20th Century saw the development of a new class of artillery for use against aircraft. Artillery is arguably the most lethal form of land-based armament currently employed, and has been since at least the early Industrial Revolution. The majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery, and in 1944, Joseph Stalin gave a speech lauding artillery as “the God of war.”

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