Editing Artillery (section)

==Ammunition==

One of the most important roles of logistics is the supply of [[munition]]s as a primary type of artillery consumable, their storage ([[ammunition dump]], [[arsenal]], [[Magazine (artillery)|magazine]]
) and the provision of fuzes, detonators and warheads at the point where artillery troops will assemble the charge, projectile, bomb or shell.

A round of artillery ammunition comprises four components:
# [[Fuze]]
# [[Projectile]]
# [[Propellant]]
# [[Primer (firearms)|Primer]]

===Fuzes===
{{Main|Artillery fuze}}
[[Fuze (munitions)|Fuzes]] are the devices that initiate an artillery projectile, either to detonate its [[Explosive#High|High Explosive (HE)]] filling or eject its cargo (illuminating flare or smoke canisters being examples). The official military spelling is "fuze".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Doctrine/Other_Pubs/aap6.pdf |page=2-F-8 |title=AAP-06 - NATO GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS (ENGLISH AND FRENCH) |year=2013}}</ref> Broadly there are four main types:
* [[Impact (mechanics)|impact]] (including graze and [[Delay composition|delay]])
* [[Mechanism (engineering)|mechanical]] [[time]] including [[Air burst|airburst]]
* [[proximity sensor]] including [[Air burst|airburst]]<!--proximity has also been used against ground troops & barges...-->
* [[Programmer (hardware)|programmable]] [[Electronics|electronic]] [[detonation]] including [[Air burst|airburst]]

Most artillery fuzes are nose fuzes. However, base fuzes have been used with armor-piercing shells and for squash head ([[High-explosive squash head|High-Explosive Squash Head (HESH)]] or [[High-explosive squash head|High Explosive, Plastic (HEP)]] anti-tank shells). At least one nuclear shell and its non-nuclear spotting version also used a multi-deck mechanical time fuze fitted into its base.

Impact fuzes were, and in some armies remain, the standard fuze for HE projectiles. Their default action is normally 'superquick', some have had a 'graze' action which allows them to penetrate light cover and others have 'delay'. Delay fuzes allow the shell to penetrate the ground before exploding. Armor or Concrete-Piercing (AP or CP) fuzes are specially hardened. During World War I and later, ricochet fire with delay or graze fuzed HE shells, fired with a flat angle of descent, was used to achieve airburst.

HE shells can be fitted with other fuzes. Airburst fuzes usually have a combined airburst and impact function. However, until the introduction of [[proximity fuze]]s, the airburst function was mostly used with cargo munitions—for example, shrapnel, illumination, and smoke. The larger calibers of [[anti-aircraft]] artillery are almost always used airburst. Airburst fuzes have to have the fuze length (running time) set on them. This is done just before firing using either a wrench or a fuze setter pre-set to the required fuze length.

Early airburst fuzes used igniferous timers which lasted into the second half of the 20th century. Mechanical time fuzes appeared in the early part of the century. These required a means of powering them. The Thiel mechanism used a spring and escapement (i.e. 'clockwork'), Junghans used [[centrifugal force]] and gears, and Dixi used centrifugal force and balls. From about 1980, electronic time fuzes started replacing mechanical ones for use with cargo munitions.

Proximity fuzes have been of two types: photo-electric or radar. The former was not very successful and seems only to have been used with British [[anti-aircraft artillery]] 'unrotated projectiles' (rockets) in World War II. Radar proximity fuzes were a big improvement over the mechanical (time) fuzes which they replaced. Mechanical time fuzes required an accurate calculation of their running time, which was affected by non-standard conditions. With HE (requiring a burst 20 to {{convert|30|ft|m}} above the ground), if this was very slightly wrong the rounds would either hit the ground or burst too high. Accurate running time was less important with cargo munitions that burst much higher.

The first [[Proximity fuze|radar proximity fuzes]] (perhaps originally codenamed 'VT' and later called Variable Time (VT)) were invented by the British and developed by the US and initially used against aircraft in World War II. Their ground use was delayed for fear of the enemy recovering 'blinds' (artillery shells which failed to detonate) and copying the fuze. The first proximity fuzes were designed to detonate about {{convert|30|ft|m}} above the ground. These air-bursts are much more lethal against personnel than ground bursts because they deliver a greater proportion of useful fragments and deliver them into terrain where a prone soldier would be protected from ground bursts.

However, proximity fuzes can suffer premature detonation because of the moisture in heavy rain clouds. This led to 'Controlled Variable Time' (CVT) after World War II. These fuzes have a mechanical timer that switched on the radar about 5 seconds before expected impact, they also detonated on impact.

The proximity fuze emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944. They have become known as the U.S. Artillery's "Christmas present", and were much appreciated when they arrived during the [[Battle of the Bulge]]. They were also used to great effect in anti-aircraft projectiles in the Pacific against ''[[kamikaze]]'' as well as in Britain against [[V-1 flying bomb]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/science-service-historical-images-collection|title=Science Service Historical Images Collection|date=April 19, 2018|website=National Museum of American History}}</ref>

Electronic multi-function fuzes started to appear around 1980. Using solid-state electronics they were relatively cheap and reliable, and became the standard fitted fuze in operational ammunition stocks in some western armies. The early versions were often limited to proximity airburst, albeit with height of burst options, and impact. Some offered a go/no-go functional test through the fuze setter.

Later versions introduced induction fuze setting and testing instead of physically placing a fuze setter on the fuze. The latest, such as Junghan's DM84U provide options giving, superquick, delay, a choice of proximity heights of burst, time and a choice of foliage penetration depths.

===Projectiles===
{{Main|Shell (projectile)}}
[[File:Nuclear artillery test Grable Event - Part of Operation Upshot-Knothole.jpg|thumb|Artillery can be used to fire [[nuclear artillery|nuclear warheads]], as seen in [[Upshot-Knothole Grable|this 1953 nuclear test]].]]
The projectile is the munition or "bullet" fired downrange. This may be an explosive device. Projectiles have traditionally been classified as "shot" or "shell", the former being solid and the latter having some form of "payload".

Shells can be divided into three configurations: bursting, base ejection or nose ejection. The latter is sometimes called the shrapnel configuration. The most modern is base ejection, which was introduced in World War I. Base and nose ejection are almost always used with airburst fuzes. Bursting shells use various types of fuze depending on the nature of the payload and the tactical need at the time.

Payloads have included:
* '''Bursting''': high-explosive, [[white phosphorus]], coloured marker, chemical, nuclear devices; [[high-explosive anti-tank]] and canister may be considered special types of bursting shell.
* '''Nose ejection''': shrapnel, star, incendiary and flechette (a more modern version of shrapnel).
* '''Base ejection''': [[Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition]] bomblets, which arm themselves and function after a set number of rotations after having been ejected from the projectile (this produces unexploded sub-munitions, or "duds", which remain dangerous), scatterable mines, illuminating, coloured flare, smoke, incendiary, propaganda, chaff<ref>p. 266, Browne & Thurbon</ref> (foil to jam radars)<ref>p. 262, International
Aeronautic Federation</ref> and modern exotics such as electronic payloads and sensor-fuzed munitions.

===Stabilization===
* '''Rifled''': Artillery projectiles have traditionally been spin-stabilised, meaning that they spin in flight so that [[gyroscopic]] forces prevent them from tumbling. Spin is induced by gun barrels having [[rifling]], which engages a soft metal band around the projectile, called a "[[driving band]]" (UK) or "rotating band" (U.S.). The driving band is usually made of copper, but synthetic materials have been used.
* '''Smoothbore/fin-stabilized''': In modern artillery, [[smoothbore]] barrels have been used mostly by [[mortar (weapon)|mortars]]. These projectiles use fins in the airflow at their rear to maintain correct orientation. The primary benefits over rifled barrels is reduced barrel wear, longer ranges that can be achieved (due to the reduced loss of energy to friction and gas escaping around the projectile via the rifling) and larger explosive cores for a given caliber artillery due to less metal needing to be used to form the case of the projectile because of less force applied to the shell from the non-rifled sides of the barrel of smooth bore guns.
* '''Rifled/fin-stabilized''': A combination of the above can be used, where the barrel is rifled, but the projectile also has deployable fins for stabilization,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6779754-fulltext.html |title=Fin-stabilized artillery shell |publisher=patentstorm.us |date=August 24, 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209222127/http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6779754-fulltext.html |archive-date=February 9, 2008 }}</ref> guidance{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} or gliding.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6748871-fulltext.html |title=Guided artillery missile with extremely long range |publisher=patentstorm.us |date=August 24, 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209222122/http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6748871-fulltext.html |archive-date=February 9, 2008 }}</ref>

===Propellant===
[[File:152 mm howitzer D-20 belong to Military of Iran.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.05|[[152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20)|152 mm howitzer D-20]] during the [[Iran–Iraq War]]]]
Most forms of artillery require a [[propellant]] to propel the projectile to the target. Propellant is always a low explosive, which means it [[Deflagration|deflagrates]], rather than [[detonation|detonating]] like high explosives. The shell is accelerated to a high velocity in a very short time by the rapid generation of gas from the burning propellant. This high pressure is achieved by burning the propellant in a contained area, either the chamber of a gun barrel or the combustion chamber of a [[rocket motor]].

Until the late 19th century, the only available propellant was [[black powder]]. It had many disadvantages as a propellant; it has relatively low power, requiring large amounts of powder to fire projectiles, and created thick clouds of white smoke that would obscure the targets, betray the positions of guns, and make aiming impossible. In 1846, [[nitrocellulose]] (also known as guncotton) was discovered, and the high explosive [[nitroglycerin]] was discovered at  nearly the same time. Nitrocellulose was significantly more powerful than black powder, and was smokeless. Early guncotton was unstable, however, and burned very fast and hot, leading to greatly increased barrel wear. Widespread introduction of smokeless powder would wait until the advent of the double-base powders, which combine nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin to produce powerful, smokeless, stable propellant.

Many other formulations were developed in the following decades, generally trying to find the optimum characteristics of a good artillery propellant – low temperature, high energy, non-corrosive, highly stable, cheap, and easy to manufacture in large quantities. Modern gun propellants are broadly divided into three classes: single-base propellants that are mainly or entirely nitrocellulose based, double-base propellants consisting of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, and triple base composed of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin and [[nitroguanidine]].

Artillery shells fired from a barrel can be assisted to greater range in three ways:
* [[Rocket-assisted projectile]]s enhance and sustain the projectile's velocity by providing additional 'push' from a small rocket motor that is part of the projectile's base.
* [[Base bleed]] uses a small pyrotechnic charge at the base of the projectile to introduce sufficient combustion products into the low-pressure region behind the base of the projectile responsible for a large proportion of the [[Form drag|drag]].
* Ramjet-assisted, similar to rocket-assisted, but using a ramjet instead of a rocket motor; it is anticipated that a ramjet-assisted 120-mm mortar shell could reach a range of {{convert|22|mi|km|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=McNab|first=Chris|author2=Hunter Keeter|title=Tools of Violence: Guns, Tanks and Dirty Bombs|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2008|page=[https://archive.org/details/toolsofviolenceg0000mcna/page/145 145]|isbn=978-1-84603-225-7|url=https://archive.org/details/toolsofviolenceg0000mcna/page/145}}</ref>

Propelling charges for barrel artillery can be provided either as cartridge bags or in metal cartridge cases. Generally, anti-aircraft artillery and smaller-caliber (up to 3" or 76.2&nbsp;mm) guns use metal cartridge cases that include the round and propellant, similar to a modern rifle cartridge. This simplifies loading and is necessary for very high rates of fire. Bagged propellant allows the amount of powder to be raised or lowered, depending on the range to the target. It also makes handling of larger shells easier. Cases and bags require totally different types of breech. A metal case holds an integral primer to initiate the propellant and provides the gas seal to prevent the gases leaking out of the breech; this is called obturation. With bagged charges, the breech itself provides obturation and holds the primer. In either case, the primer is usually percussion, but electrical is also used, and [[laser ignition]] is emerging. Modern 155&nbsp;mm guns have a primer magazine fitted to their breech.

[[File:16-in Battleship Ammunition.JPG|thumb|Battleship ammunition: 16" artillery shells aboard a United States {{sclass|Iowa|battleship}}]]
Artillery ammunition has four classifications according to use:
* '''Service''': ammunition used in [[live fire exercise|live fire training]] or for wartime use in a combat zone. Also known as "warshot" ammunition.
* '''Practice''': Ammunition with a non- or minimally-explosive projectile that mimics the characteristics (range, accuracy) of live rounds for use under training conditions. Practice artillery ammunition often utilizes a colored-smoke-generating bursting charge for marking purposes in place of the normal high-explosive charge.
* '''Dummy''': Ammunition with an inert warhead, inert primer, and no propellant; used for training or display.
* '''Blank''': Ammunition with live primer, greatly reduced propellant charge (typically black powder), and no projectile; used for training, demonstration or ceremonial use.