M109 "Paladin" | The Gold Standard

Apparently many of you got the wrong impression from the title. The M109 is the “gold standard” in that it is the main baseline by which contemporary SPH’s are judged, and by FAR the most widely produced and well known example… not that it’s the best. The PzH 2000 or K9 Thunder for example are superior systems… BECAUSE the M109 is what they’re being compared to. Also keep in mind that what we do on this channel is to look at a piece of hardware within the context of its own timeframe in history, which for the M109 is predominantly the Cold War (in which there were no PzH 2000s roaming around). *edit: the M1299 ERCA has now been fully cancelled (unfortunately!) likely due to the US opting towards a wheeled system

The M110 might be a simple and arguably outdated design but man, something about it is just right. Can't fault the M109 for being practical though; and it doesn't look half bad itself.

I gained a lot of respect for our artillery in the states over these past few years. Glad to see someone covering the M109 I don’t think it gets enough love.

Regarding the PzH 2000, if anyone wants to know more about it and speaks German, there is a really interesting interview by the German content creator "Säbelzahnmöwe" with the principal designer of the PzH 2000. He talks about the failing of the previous programs and the reasoning for certain design decisions and some of the major innovations made in the vehicle.

Thank you for covering this staple of modern American firepower! My father was an artilleryman in the Colorado National Guard in the late 80s and was initially trained on the 109, however really found his home with its bigger brother the M110A1. A couple fun facts he's shared with me about the piece: "You always wanted to be the driver, because all the lower enlisted, the couple specialists and privates on the gun crew for loading, sat on the left side, right were the exhaust would smack you." "The 113 and 577(shortened from M113 and M577, he does this with all of his vehicles xD) were a lot of fun to drive, like a little jeep that could go anywhere and do anything." "The worst part of drill was that second weekend. See they took me and all the other (pardon his language) retards from the artillery school and put us on the "special" weapons team. So we had to come in a weekend prior to do our standalone certifications for nuclear artillery, and they didn't pay us any more than the going rate for the trouble of the extra training." "We only had a couple pieces in the NG armory, most of the gear we would use was already overseas. If the Russians went over, we would scramble to Germany and grab our gear from prepositioned stock on the Rhine, and if they got too close to us, we'd have to use the nuclear shells. Big mean sunnovabitches."

The Type 74 and 75 SPGs were similar in the idea of a lighter howitzer and a medium howitzer. I had the opportunity to them up close recently at the JGSDF information centre in Wakōshi, Tokyo. Just thought I'd share another example of vehicles with similar logic to the M109 and 108.

The M109 laid the groundwork for modern artillery development. The french AMX AuF1 was the first SPH with an autoloading system. Than the PZH2000, the swiss Upgrade, K9 and all the other variants. And now we have wheeled platforms like the KNDS RCH 155 on the Boxer Chassis. 9 shot per minute, bringing shot and scoot to a new level.

I worked for United Defense during the development of the Crusader SPH. I remember lots of briefings (with Pentagon officials) where they were gushing over how revolutionary Crusader was going to be, and how outdated the Paladin was. Famous last words, as the program got axed.

Hey everyone, ive worked on the M109 for a long time especially on the mechanical side. its my absolute favorite platform. If anyone has questions about maintenance or how things operate on the platform id love to talk about it wih you all, within reason of course. Love the channel, keep up the good work.

THANK YOU for being the only person that knows the difference between battalion and divisional artillery. Their employment in the field is so different from each other and I’m so glad there’s a youtuber mentioning it. The US enjoys overwhelming fire superiority not because of the number or specs on our artillery but because we give far smaller units far more access to artillery and air power.

I was an artilleryman in the army and our unit used the Paladin and it is actually insane how accurate and durable it is.

I worked on the A2 back in 1985. it was awesome. glad to see this is still being upgraded. Much love from Texas!

I read that British m109's were supplied to Austria and that they consequently used the turrets from them as static defence posts around the mountains; would love to see one of these.

I'm a former M109 crewman (13B10) and field artillery officer (13A5P) and artillery remains so wildly misunderstood in the military vehicle community to the point of being kind of hilarious.

Two notes: (1) M992A3 Carrier Ammunition Tracked isn't an upgrade of the M992A2 FAASV; it's actually a completely new vehicle built on the new PIM chassis, and (2) The XM1299 isn't a BAE product or BAE-integrated product; all of the XM1299 prototypes were built internal to the USG government using the organic depots, arsenals, assembled by the Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal using a decontented M109A7 chassis, a modified M109A6 cab, and the 58-cal gun built out of Watervliet Arsenal.

Two small corrections: A swiss artillery battery (not platoon, that's dirty infanty language, not god of war talk) has six M-109s KAWESTs, not three.

Wake up babe new Armor Cast video just dropped. Too bad I'm American and have to sleep rn :c

based on the intro the thing that goes boom the most is nuclear artillery and it most certainly did, even when it shouldn't have

Italian guy here. A few months ago I saw an M109 being towed out of my hometown. I suspected it was sent to Ukraine, thanks for confirming.

M109 is old but is still being kept up to date. But they also have the new M1299 with an extended L58 155mm calibur gun which almost doubles its range. In a demonstration it had hit a target 65 km away with an Excalibur round and 72 km away with a new XM1113 round. The same gun also fired BAE's XM1155 sub-caliber projectile out to 110 km. A battalion of 18 XM1299 SPH prototypes are to be tested by the US Army this year.